Language Applicants for 2014!

Just to say, the St Andrews course is 4 years including the year abroad. The reason it's longer than English courses is that Scottish students come based on their highers, rather than AHs, whereas the english entry requirements are based on AHs / A-levels. That's why in some places if you get exceptional AH or A-level results you can jump straight to 2nd year for some Scottish courses / unis - 1st year is basically a re-hash of AH.

It's weird though, the Glasgow modern languages course is 5 years

I'm looking at doing German at university, although I'm not sure whether I want to do another language, or something like European Studies. I study AS German and Spanish at the minute, and I genuinely enjoy Spanish, but I'm not sure whether I want to take it past A2.

I think the predicament for me is that I would like to study French, but I never had a chance through secondary school. I've been working for a GCSE in it through sixth form, but without an A-Level, there's not a huge amount of places to study it as part of a university course.

I think the decision about what to study alongside German is going to be really difficult for me. There are too many combinations that you can do, and I find it absolutely impossible to make a decision easily. :P

Yeah, German's pretty hated by pupils in general, it seems... I guess the language needs an acquired taste! I can't lie, it took me ages to like it... but I love it now! Whereabouts are you staying in Germany? I had the opportunity to do an exchange last year, but my flat is too small so I couldn't have anyone stay... I would have loved to have taken part though :P

You need to be careful with St Andrews... they offer all the courses without a year abroad (4 years) as well as with one (5 years). I've just checked... I got confused at first, as I just assumed (as I'm used to English courses) that a course is 5 years long.

We have another Spanish & German student... there seems to be a surprising amount, I always thought it was a rare combination but on TSR they're everywhere! :P

Ahhh I'm really sorry I can't believe I didn't notice this before! I was wondering why the 'year abroad' at St Andrews wasn't compulsory and was run through ERASMUS, with language students not getting priority over anyone else. That is the 4 year course though and, I've just checked, with the 5 year one you have a guaranteed year abroad. Thanks!

Yeah I've noticed that here as well and I'd thought it was pretty uncommon too Do you do these 2 languages as well then?

Hahahahaha... I wouldn't worry, it seems weird how they've set everything out.

I study both, yeah... but I don't know whether I want to do German at uni with my Spanish. I might try to look at something quite flexible, so I can drop German if I want to focus on English, Spanish or literature instead.

Ah okay fair enough, I take it your doing AS / A-levels?

Yeah, I'm doing English Lit, German, Spanish, Maths to A2 next year, plus Critical Thinking and Further Maths (to AS)

What about you? I assume you're doing Highers/Advanced Highers?? I don't quite get how they work... it seems you do loads more than us English students do at AS.

Isn't that a lot of subjects? My friend is only doing 4 AS levels and continuing 3 to A2 in year 13.

Yupp I'm in Scotland - I just finished my Higher year where I did English, Maths, Spanish, German and something called Modern Studies (honestly not as skivy or badly respected as it sounds!) and next year I'm doing AH German and Modern Studies and crash Higher History.

I think the reason we do more subjects is that Highers aren't of quite the same difficulty as A2s. Also, it's pretty much expected that you'll do Higher English - compulsory in many schools - and most do Higher Maths too, which I know isn't the case at all down south. Have to say I'm pretty jealous, I hated English with a passion

Hahaha, I <3 English so it wouldn't have bothered me, although I appreciate it's not everybody's cup of tea. And yeah... well, my A2s are sort of me being optimistic. If i get snowed under with work, I'll have to drop something... I've got enough there (luckily) so if I do have to cut down, it shouldn't be too damaging for universities :P Although I find Spanish and German isn't too much work... we'll have to see once my A2 course starts on Monday

Haha it doesn't really make sense that I love languages but hate English / literature
I started 6th year today and it's already better than last year! Good luck with your A2s then, I'm sure it'll be fine

Isn't that a lot of subjects? My friend is only doing 4 AS levels and continuing 3 to A2 in year 13.

Yupp I'm in Scotland - I just finished my Higher year where I did English, Maths, Spanish, German and something called Modern Studies (honestly not as skivy or badly respected as it sounds!) and next year I'm doing AH German and Modern Studies and crash Higher History.

I think the reason we do more subjects is that Highers aren't of quite the same difficulty as A2s. Also, it's pretty much expected that you'll do Higher English - compulsory in many schools - and most do Higher Maths too, which I know isn't the case at all down south. Have to say I'm pretty jealous, I hated English with a passion

¡Claro que si! Spanish is by far the most interesting thing I've studied ever... but I don't think I could study it by itself, I'd miss the other subjects I like. It's just trying to find a broad enough course, which still allows me to do loads of Spanish! :P I get what you mean about UMS, I doubt I'll be nudging 90-odd% across the board... and I wouldn't worry about your maths, it'll be fine. I see you're studying Arabic, have you learnt it in the past?

Haha, I'd definitely agree with you. I love Spanish - by far my favourite subject. I know what you mean. I really like all of my AS subjects (except maybe Maths, but that might just be because I'm really bad at it ) and it's going to be pretty sad to drop them for uni... although I am looking forward to just focusing on two languages for four years. And the great thing about studying languages is that you're not just limited to language, but also history, literature, art, philosophy etc etc.
Thanks, but I really don't think it went very well. Hopefully I'll make up for the awful stats paper with C1 and C2 - trying not to get my hopes up.
No, haven't had the opportunity! Although I think sometimes they prefer you to start it from scratch - I'm not sure. I've been trying to teach myself the alphabet but I'm doing terribly. I think I'll stick to reading works in translation for now.

My mate, who does French, managed to get himself a placement in Morocco last summer teaching children English through French, but did an Arabic course while he was there. He loved every second of it. My mum's best friend worked as a translator and is like an expert on Arabic dyslexia, which is just amazing.... he lives in Egypt now and it just seems amazing the doors Arabic opens. I'm too faint-hearted to try it though... after attempting Chinese, I want to stick to an alphabet system I know :P

As for Spanish, I'd recommend reading Seven Ways to Kill a Cat by Matías Nespolo... it's a really interesting book set in the drug slums in Argentina.

I'd love to do something like that in the future. An expert on Arabic dyslexia - that's impressive. Oh wow, yeah, Chinese is extremely difficult (I'm about to sit the A2 and I'm really regretting this decision ), but it's pretty great that you tried and maybe you can pick it up again later? In any case, German sounds like a fascinating language. (I went to help teach English in Germany so I tried to learn some awful phrasebook German... Basically ended up saying das schmeckt gut during every meal because that was all I really knew how to say... It was really bad! ^^")
Thanks for the recommendation. I've been looking for something new to read, as the selection of books at my sixth form is pretty limited. Would you say it's possible to read it in the original language or should I stick to the English translation? What areas of Spanish/ Latin American literature are you most interested in?

I must say I haven't read masses of Spanish literature in Spanish, and I read it in English (only coz my library didn't have it in Spanish at the time) but I might give it a go in Spanish when I come back from study leave next week. I've read Bodas de Sangre in both Spanish and English and I found it quite good, but mainly I've been looking at poetry. Pablo Neruda's simply brilliant (I love Explico Algunas Cosas) and I've been looking at Pedro Salinas, whose poetry is kind of like a game (try Underwood Girls and 35 Bujías and see what you reckon he's talking about). Also try The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon... some of the language and imagery is simply stunning (read in English, it's huge )

Same here. Haven't had much time - I read very slowly in Spanish, what with the constant flicking through my dictionary and all that. Although I have been reading quite a bit of Lorca - I thought Yerma was very good and quite eye-opening - I haven't actually read Bodas de Sangre so will be taking that out the library after my exams finish if I can find it. He's also great because I find that his plays are a lot easier to read in Spanish than, say, one of García Marquez's novels. I've never read anything by Pedro Salinas so will definitely check him out - sounds... intriguing. Oh my god, I absolutely loved The Shadow of the Wind. And yep, I don't think I could've managed it in Spanish. Hopefully, one day... Have you read The Angel's Game?