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MML reading list

I got a letter from cam back in February which suggested I look at www.mml.cam.ac.uk/depts/ for preparatory reading. I looked on the website then and remember seeing the reading suggested prior to arrival at cam. However, now I can't find it.. I can see the books required for each module but not any "advised prepapartory reading". Can anyone direct me to this please? (I am hopefully going to study French (post A2) and Italian ab initio). Thanks!!

Reply 1

kellywood_5

17

Would you be doing the literature module for French? If so, http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/french/reading/fr2read.html has a list of the prescribed texts and it says you should buy and read them all before going. I can't find much for Italian, but if you're doing ab-initio, I don't suppose there will be much preparatory reading, if any. I have an offer for French and Spanish and that website scared me- better get going with some work soon! It'll be so annoying if I then miss the offer and end up not going though :p:

Reply 2

leannemarie

11

http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/italian/courses/ugrad/Part_IA(a).html#bef

This is suggested for ab-initio Italian.

http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/french/courses/ugrad/advice.html

This is suggested for post A Level French.

Reply 3

Mr. Jim

oh. my. GOD. an actual thread on the cambridge forum not about natsci / law / medicine?!?! :p:

i'm not sure on reading coz they havent sent me anything about it, don't think i'll start til after 17th aug incase it's a big old waste of eyepower :smile:

Go Muh-Muh-Lers!!

Reply 4

leannemarie

11

Mr. Jim

i'm not sure on reading coz they havent sent me anything about it, don't think i'll start til after 17th aug incase it's a big old waste of eyepower :smile:

Go Muh-Muh-Lers!!

My thoughts exactly! Though some of the books would be useful for Durham as well, but to be fair, I am travelling around Europe until 8pm the night before results, so for some reason, I am against lugging heavy academic books around. Might take my French linguistics book though because it's not too heavy and you have to read it a lot of times to understand it so it might be more useful than taking fiction.

Reply 5

kellywood_5

17

I'll probably buy the recommended dictionary, monolingual dictionary and grammar book because those would be useful for Exeter as well, plus the course book, grammar books and dictionaries for Spanish, but I'll put off buying the set texts until I know I'll actually need them :p:

Reply 6

Mr. Jim

well i've just picked some books from the french n spanish reading lists n will buy them after results (since i wont be doing linguistics at durham if i end up there).

about the dictionaries - caius gives people a £40 grant for buying books but since 1 proper dictionary would be £30 i'd probs end up spending like over £100 on books. i thought i'd keep my £20 french one, get a £20 spanish one, and just use the big ones in the library/ies if i need it...

i'm gonna be spending so much money before i even get there! was talking to mam today about ordering my scarf n hoodie on results day... quel saddo eh? :p:

Reply 7

lucho22

13

Mr. Jim

well i've just picked some books from the french n spanish reading lists n will buy them after results (since i wont be doing linguistics at durham if i end up there).

about the dictionaries - caius gives people a £40 grant for buying books but since 1 proper dictionary would be £30 i'd probs end up spending like over £100 on books. i thought i'd keep my £20 french one, get a £20 spanish one, and just use the big ones in the library/ies if i need it...

i'm gonna be spending so much money before i even get there! was talking to mam today about ordering my scarf n hoodie on results day... quel saddo eh? :p:

Ebay is a very good place to buy these dictionaries - I got the Le Petit Robert - new (but 2002 print) for 30 quid instead of the 60 it retails at... They've got all the monolingual dictionaries floating about as well..

Reply 8

Mr. Jim

hahaha imagine how much a massive dictionary would cost to ship...

Reply 9

lucho22

13

Mr. Jim

hahaha imagine how much a massive dictionary would cost to ship...

only 8 euros...and it was 30 quid including p&p...really happy with my purchase...it's a massive tome :p:

Reply 10

priya

14

leannemarie

http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/italian/courses/ugrad/Part_IA(a).html#bef

This is suggested for ab-initio Italian.

http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/french/courses/ugrad/advice.html

This is suggested for post A Level French.

tip: DO the 5 chapters from Da Capo. you will set yourself up beautifully for the year if you do, it goes really quickly once you're here.

Reply 11

leannemarie

11

Benny885

Literature or linguistics?? I can't decide. But since you don't actually have to read any particular books for linguistics before you go, I might choose that one, hehe. Anyone else having trouble deciding?

Kind of, I was set on doing linguistics but I have really enjoyed doing Spanish literature for cwk and just reading in my own time and also the literature in my English course. But ultimately, I think doing literature for both languages would get a bit dull for me and that I will find linguistics more interesting (I did my French cwk on linguistics). I don't care if people think that literature is more respected, the degree is still the same regardless and I'd rather do what I enjoy than what other people think is best!! I haven't been asked to choose yet so once I've done some more linguistics reading I can make a more reasoned judgement!

Reply 12

leannemarie

11

I got my big dictionaries cheaply from Amazon at the start of the 6th form, might get some monolingual ones at some point.

Reply 13

kellywood_5

17

Definitely literature for me :biggrin:

Although it's quite worrying that even if I do manage to get an A in English lit A-level, it'll be a scraped one, so how exactly I'll cope with it in 2 foreign languages, I don't know :p:

Linguistics sounds like it would bore me to death though.

Reply 14

Samf

OP

leannemarie

http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/italian/courses/ugrad/Part_IA(a).html#bef

This is suggested for ab-initio Italian.

http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/french/courses/ugrad/advice.html

This is suggested for post A Level French.

Thank you!! I am going to choose French liguistics and then lierature for Italian. For the french linguistics it says it would be useful to read some of these books but to skip over the tricky bits which will probably be quite good and not too much to do! The books recommended for Italian however, do we have to buy them? They recommend we read them but do we actually have to buy them now or just when we arrive at cam?

Yea.. I agree that it could be a waste of money if results don't go to plan!

Reply 15

Richy Rich$$

2

Basically I did no work preparatory work before I came up, and was fine. Of course it's going to help to do it, but equally you're not going to be majorly disadvantaged if you don't do it. There were lots of people who hadn't read the books for French lit before starting, however if you are a slow reader in French I would advise reading at least the first book, so at least you understand the lectures and don't feel too overwhelmed with work to start with. French linguistics doesn't really require any major background reading, but if you can get a copy of problems and perspectives in the modern french language by Dr. Bennnett you're sorted. It's quite hard going at times and so the earlier you start reading that the better (Unlike me who only opened it the day before the exam.) Also make a start either now or in the first 2 weeks of term to learn IPA(international phonetic alpabet) for French, it will help you massively, because after the first few weeks they just expect you to know it.
As far as dictionaries as concerned, having your own massive one is not that essential. I can't work in my room, and always use libraries which always have them, and found I hardly ever used my own. So there isnt much point shelling out loads on a monolingual one, just use the library's one.

Hope that may be of some use and is vaguely coherent

Reply 16

Samf

OP

cool -thanks for the advice. So for french lingistics there's actually v little prepapratory work apart from possibly reading that book you mention Richie Rich. And for Italian ab initio (literature) maybe read the first few books? Will the set books for 2005-06 be the same for the comin academic year?

Do you suggest buying these books or just getting them from the library and then buying them when at cam? Does the dept send out a more comprehensive' book list' after results of things we need to buy? Because as far as I can see the lists on website are largely 'advisory' rather than compulsory for the course..

Any help appreciated :smile:

Reply 17

Mr. Jim

i can't wait to do linguistics next year. doing it this year in englang was great and it's gonna be fun doing it for french and spanish too! might get a few of the books before results day (the ones which are general and would be useful wherever i end up). i don't see why they should demand us to know everything that's talked about in the book lists, it's not like i'm rich enough to buy more than four for each language...

Reply 18

leannemarie

11

A. Battye & M. A. Hintze: The French Language Today (Routledge) is a good book imo for those French linguistic-ers.

Reply 19

Mr. Jim

it's on my list :wink:

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