Modern Languages Applicants 2017

Has anybody received any offers yet for modern languages, especially from Oxford Warwick Exeter Southampton or Bristol??

Hey guys. I'm currently in my first year studying post A level German and beginners Dutch and Russian (BA Modern Languages) at the University of Sheffield.

If you have any questions about any 3 of those languages, and/or both the University of Sheffield and the city of Sheffield, feel free to AMA! Both my course and the uni/city are amazing and I wouldn't change a thing at the moment.

I'm suspecting quite a few people might have questions about ab initio Russian...?

Has anybody received any offers yet for modern languages, especially from Oxford Warwick Exeter Southampton or Bristol??

Hey guys. I'm currently in my first year studying post A level German and beginners Dutch and Russian (BA Modern Languages) at the University of Sheffield.

If you have any questions about any 3 of those languages, and/or both the University of Sheffield and the city of Sheffield, feel free to AMA! Both my course and the uni/city are amazing and I wouldn't change a thing at the moment.

I'm suspecting quite a few people might have questions about ab initio Russian...?

You can do two ab initio languages? I might actually go through Clearing if I don't get accepted to Cambridge then

You can do two ab initio languages? I might actually go through Clearing if I don't get accepted to Cambridge then

I'm hoping to do the Modern Languages course at Sheffield too (we've spoken before!) Do you have to start both ab initio languages in the first year, as I thought you started one in the 1st year and the other in the 2nd?

As for Russian, how much will some basic knowledge of Russian beforehand help you out when you go there.

No you don't have to - many people choose to do it in the first year though because if they don't like one of their languages then they drop it (and sometimes pick up another one in second year).

Knowing some Russian will help you quite a bit. If you want to prepare then try do something worthwhile; Duolingo didn't really help me at all for the way that the course is structured. It is a complete beginners course though and you spend the first two weeks learning the alphabet (amongst other things) so it doesn't matter if you don't know a single tning. You're expected to go faster than the lessons and read ahead though, so don't be too shocked if you think two weeks to learn the alphabet sounds way too long. Bearing in mind you can teach yourself the printed alphabet in a few hours, it will take you (and everyone else in the class) a while to get used to the cursive alphabet. We're not allowed to 'print' write any work.

What language(s) do you want to study: German and ab initio Russian
Universities you're applying to: Cambridge, UCL, Bristol, Birmingham, Bath
A level subjects: German, Media Studies, Maths (predicted A* A* A)
GCSE grades: 4A*, 6A
Other information: I'd love to pick up Polish, Catalan and/or Japanese at some point! Either by signing up for an extra course or on the year abroad

Blimey, so if you do the 2 ab initio in the first year I imagine your timetable is insanely packed? I don't think I'd take up the second one until the second year though I see people's motivation behind doing it.

And yes spending 2 weeks on the alphabet sounds insanely long lmaoo.

How many lectures or w.e. do you have a week for your German & Russian omg I'm so glad you can tell me all this, HOW BIG ARE YOUR CLASSES

I'm hoping to do the one year Polish course they offer at Cambridge (assuming I get in) it looks so cool (and they also offer it in Catalan). Though it's annoying that there's only a translation and a literature component (that you would write about in English??) because all language qualifications really need an oral component.

Yep, I have almost the same amount of contact hours as science and engineering students, ~18 a week. Definitely feel like I'm getting my 9ks worth to some extent though so it's all good.

Yeah there's no major pros/cons to waiting until second year to pick up the third language other than if you don't like it you're a bit screwed. In first year you can play around with every single language pretty much and just see what you enjoy the most - that's a lot of hassle though and most people know what they want to do when they get here though so even though you're allowed to do that and the department will help you sort it out I wouldn't actually recommend it.

I do 6 hours of German a week, 6 hours of Russian and 5 hours of Dutch.

German is split into 2 language classes, 2 history/culture lectures (one is 80% in German and the other is all in English), then 1 conversation class and 1 history/culture seminar.

Russian is split into 1 grammar lecture (usually goes into detail about grammatical aspects of Russian compared to English, rather than actually learning anything difficult since that's best saved for the language classes), 4 language classes and 1 conversation class.

Dutch is split into 3 language classes, 1 conversation class and 1 Dutch/Flemish history class.

The German lectures have the most people in, about 60+ I'd say, which is still pretty small. The Russian lecture has about 30 people. Then all the language classes vary, from about 10-20. The conversation classes are small, about 6-12. History/culture seminars are ~15 people.

So each of your classes is only 1 hour? That's pretty awesome tbh.

What are the differences between the conversation and language classes as they seem pretty exclusively mutual to me.

Ahh this all sounds awesome I'm so pumped to go next year.. IF I GET AN OFFER. I don't think I'll do my 2nd ab initio till 2nd year as I'm still not 100% sure about what I want to do for it. So if you do it in your first year does that mean you finish your 2nd ab initio in your 2nd year? Cause if you did it in years 1,2 and 4 that'd mean you'd get a year longer than those doing it just years 2 & 4.

Hope you understood that confusing mess

In the conversation classes you literally just turn up and talk, and mostly work on pronounciaition, spontanious speaking and you do a couple of speaking exercises from the textbooks.

The language classes are 'normal' classes where you turn up and learn the language pretty much. You'll have a textbook you do a few exercises from and you'll have group discussions in English about the grammar and everything. For post A level languages, language and conversation classes are 100% in the target language.

I understand what you mean, but I don't know the answer to the question. That might be something worth asking on an open day. You're expected to do a LOT of work in your own time - for my languages I get homework every single day (although not all of it needs to be handed in - at the moment I'm only doing the stuff that needs to be handed in, or stuff that I find difficult that I want to hand in to get marked to see if I'm doing it right). So depending on the language you pick up and how much work you do for it, you could reach a decent level of proficiency pretty quickly.

Is anyone in the UK applying for Russian? Can't seem to find any applicants anywhere...