oriental studies (arabic and french)

hey,

anyone out there doing/done oriental studies at cambridge (or oxford) in combination with a european language? I'm supposed to be doing french and italian starting in october at cambridge, but have the option of changing. I want to combine french with arabic, but have been told by my DoS that such a combination is pretty much impossible to keep up over 4 years (unless u want to do nothing but study constantly).

Anyone got any experience as to how demanding combing OS with MML is?? Maybe i should play it safe and stick to french and italian

Reply 1

Lottie

Hi.

I'm thinking about applying for French & Arabic and I'd be keen to hear what else your DoS has said about it! I'd appreciate any information (or caveats!) that you could possibly share.

How easy is it to change between French & Italian and French & Arabic (both before you start and during your course)?

Good luck in deciding what to do.

I often think I should "play it safe" by combining French with a less intimidating language or a subject like History.

Take care.

Reply 2

Trog

I hope its not impossible. I've got a conditional from Oxford to do Arabic with Spanish, i took up a night class in Arabic just so i'd get a bit of a feel for it. I know hardly anything, just touristy stuff like ordering a drink, so i know its going to be a slog because you're sposed to be A level standard by the end of the first year!

But then I always figured that if you really want to do it then you'll be passionate enough to get through.

Plus, if you take an Oriental language with a European one, you've got both the security of something you know really well, with the excitement and challenge of something new.

Thats what made my mind up for me, and having done a couple of hrs of Arabic, i'm desperate to do more. It is beautiful; written & spoken. I would encourage anyone to take it up.

Good luck!

Reply 3

Cunning Linguist

Can I just say I LOVE the sound of studying French and Arabic.. so cool! :cool:

You know, I might just change from Linguistics to Arabic lol.. if Manchester somehow allow it

Trog, I started teaching myself Arabic too.. at the start of Summer.. it's so cool isn't it?? I'm so addicted lol.

Reply 4

Tonheuru

The reason why he says that is because of all the extra work that learning an oriental language entails. I can't really talk about Arabic per se but I know that you'd have to learn a new very complicated script, probably with one or two classical versions, and then literature and probably history. Add to this all the work that you've got to do for French and I'm pretty sure the workload would be pretty high. Arabic's really no walk in the park. Having said all of that, you get out what you put in, if you don't want to put in loads of work then that's fine, so long as you can accept that your grade might not be brilliant. Work hard, play hard :P

Reply 5

Lottie

Hi Trog. Congratulations on your offer for Oxford! May I ask where else you applied? I know not many universities offer Arabic but I'm still keen to find out which ones have the most promising departments.

I've had a look around and there's not any Arabic evening classes in my area so I'm planning on starting a Persian conversation class in September. I don't suppose it is directly relevant but I hope it'll show my interest in the Middle East and some degree of initiative. I'm quite looking forward to it. I just hope that enough people register for the class to go ahead!

Also, if you don't mind me asking, what sort of things did you say about Arabic in your personal statement? I'm struggling a little bit as writing about something I have no formal experience of is a little difficult. As someone who's been through the process very recently, I hope you've got a few words of advice that you don't mind sharing with me!

How are you going about teaching yourself, linguist786? It's all a bit daunting!

Reply 6

Cunning Linguist

Lottie

How are you going about teaching yourself, linguist786? It's all a bit daunting!

lol. well as I said on another thread (it was "Pick Paddy a language!" actually).. I've been quite lucky since I've got background in Arabic what with me knowing the Qur'aan and stuff. If I'm honest, Arabic for me is just like learning, say German (in terms of the difficulty) but the concepts (of grammar, say) are quite different (but not necessarily harder)- and if i'm honest, I don't know how someone who doesn't have background in it would cope! (I'm not saying it's impossible, but there is a lot to be explained and you'd have to be very very dedicated!)

Just learning the script would, in my opinion, take about 3-4 months (I mean, to learn it, and then actually be able to read it out fast and stuff) Plus there's the whole thing about vowel sounds - modern Arabic does not have fathaa/dammaah/kasraah (in English: vowel markings) to show exactly how the word is pronounced.. you have to learn that.

It's hard to explain what I mean, but let me try anyway:
This word: محمد reads "M_h_m_d" (As in, you know what the consonants are, but not the vowels, since you have to learn that. The vowels could be anything really) but since not all Muslims know Arabic, the Qur'aan is written in a style where the "vowel markings" are there. So the word محمد if written in the Qur'aan would be written مُحَمَّد - the things on top of (and below too sometimes) show exactly how the word would be pronounced, since we now have the "vowel markings".. The word actually reads "Muhammad"

If any of you guys would like any help or anything, you can add me on MSN.. just PM me to ask.. I'd be more than willing to help :smile:

oriental studies (arabic and french)

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