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1) I don't study there, so no
2) A language is a respected degree, and if its from Oxford, ofcourse it will be respected
3) I think they will also ask grammar questions, there are others here who know in more detail about that
4) The website should have that
Reply 2
Poshtotty

Does the interview mainly involve holding a conversation in french?

From what I've seen helping at interviews, often the interview will (at least partially) involve a text that you're given about 30 minutes beforehand. I remember last year the Italian candidates had to come and collect a poem from us.
The interview isn't mainly in French.

I'm not there yet, but I've been through the application process, so I can help you.

You'll have at least 2 interviews. Are you thinking of French sole or French and linguistics?

The tutors will begin by asking you a couple of settling-down questions. Then, they'll ask you to discuss a poem or a short prose extract (I had a poem) you'll have been given twenty minutes before the interview. They might ask you about a whole host of things, including things as vague as what it's about and what (if any) message the author/poet was getting across. Then, they tend to delve deeper into it. What they're trying to assess is the way you think, so there won't be a right or wrong answer, but they *will* disagree with you a lot; don't worry, they want you to defend your standpoint, but sometimes you have to know when to concede a point.

They'll ask you to read out whatever you've been given, to see how well you pronounce words, what your accent's like and how well you cope with reading unfamiliar stuff.

Then they'll give you an opportunity to speak in the target language. For me, they asked me about what reading I'd done in French, and we proceeded to discuss the finer points of Les Mains Sales and L'Etranger in French. They might ask you what topics in the course of your French learning you've enjoyed studying. Alternatively, they might ask you about the witten work you've submitted.

They might ask you about your personal statement and your interests in francophone culture.

Languages are highly respected degrees, and recognised as one of the most difficult and the broadest. Especially at oxford, the course is very very literature-based (I'm grappling with my first year reading list before I get there, and there are 19 titles between french and german!)
You learn about the literature, politics, philosophy, geography, culture and history, as well as development of language and practical work. You can look at linguistic issues and other related fields. If you do sole French, you can take papers in French Thought and French Cinema.

The success rate for MFL is approximately one in three.

Edit: with regards to what it's like to study there, I don't yet know, but Oxford has Britain's largest French department and the use of a very central building - the Taylor Institute. This is the largest institute in Britain dedicated solely to languages and the same goes for the accompanying Taylorian library.
As for "what it's like", if you ask some more specific questions I can try to answer them but I suggest you also do a forum search on french at oxford as I've posted in a few threads like this already and you might find some of those posts useful too :smile:
At least from my interview experience, i think the language spoken depends on the college/tutors. For example, at Worcester college my interview was almost entirely in French, at least 75% of it. Then at Merton my interview was almost entirely in English with a seemingly token French conversation stuck on the end.
DHthe2nd
At least from my interview experience, i think the language spoken depends on the college/tutors. For example, at Worcester college my interview was almost entirely in French, at least 75% of it. Then at Merton my interview was almost entirely in English with a seemingly token French conversation stuck on the end.


Weird - in my Worc interview the two tutors (Kate and Emma) spoke in English and the French native (who would have been Thibaut for you) spoke to me in French...
Reply 7
What job opportunities are there? People tell me that a french degree from oxford is well respected but no one has ever told me exactly what jobs I could do other than be an interpreter or a teacher.

I'm still considering french but I guess the bit that puts me off is the year abroad. It sounds a bit daunting....
Reply 8
Poshtotty
What job opportunities are there? People tell me that a french degree from oxford is well respected but no one has ever told me exactly what jobs I could do other than be an interpreter or a teacher.

I'm still considering french but I guess the bit that puts me off is the year abroad. It sounds a bit daunting....


Languages are [surprisingly] employable - not only for civil service, diplomacy etc. but also for any company that also does business abroad - most of them these days - or just generally opening up doors to work abroad. Plus, an Oxford degree in any field should lead to you being taken seriously by potential employers. Might as well do one in a field you enjoy then!

I really really hope I don't end up as a French teacher while all my friends who had the insight to study business drive around in solid gold Bentleys sipping lattes. That's all I ask.
Reply 9
godot21
Plus, an Oxford degree in any field should lead to you being taken seriously by potential employers.


I guess that's true but I don't want to be one of those people who spends 3 or 4 years at university studying for a degree only to graduate and get a job totally unrelated to my subject of study.
Reply 10
Cannot comment on the rest, but the libraries (both Taylor Institute and MLFL are excellent, and both within the same building, which is always a bonus!). The Chinese Studies Library and Oriental Studies Library are also fabulously helpful places and very convenient to order books to if you don't want to go to the Bod.

I also couldn't fault the lecturers at all: there is an excellent department there and Ros Temple, JC Smith, Martin Maiden et al all deliver really good lectures.
Reply 11
this may have been asked before, and if so then sorry, but I wanted to know which colleges have good french tutors , and specifically, whether wadham's are any good? thanks a lot XXXXXX:woo: :eek: :o: :wink: :confused:
tartufo
this may have been asked before, and if so then sorry, but I wanted to know which colleges have good french tutors , and specifically, whether wadham's are any good? thanks a lot XXXXXX:woo: :eek: :o: :wink: :confused:


Tough one. While there are some tutors whom most people love and others whom most people hate, it's hard to pinpoint what makes a tutor "good" (beyond turning up, marking essays etc). Best thing to do is try to find one with similar interests to you, although you will be taught outside college a lot in your second and fourth years, as it's common to "farm out" students to experts in a particular field at another college. Tutors really vary in style and approach (e.g. one I know of only set about 1 essay on one of the two literature papers, whereas I had to do 6, one on each text, which was obviously good preparation for the exam!)

Never had a tute with her but here's Wadham's French Fellow: http://www.mod-langs.ox.ac.uk/staff/indivstaff.php?personid=122&subfac=fr

If "good" means "good at getting results", look at Prelims and finals results (but you'll have to get someone at Oxford already to send you them) - and while I'm here, can I plug Worcester please? :biggrin: Tutor has a rep for being rather fierce but she really does get the best out of you and 6 out of the 8 of us doing Prelims this year got distinctions in at least one language, 4 of those being French... that's a big proportion of the total distinctions in the year!
Reply 13
thanks, thats really helpful

sorry, i dont know much about the system, but in the first year, if i go to wadham and there's only one fellow of french, do i go to other colleges for one-to-ones or how does it work?

also does workload for french differ from college to college?

also as you're a french student, i was just wondering about number of french essays per week and whether they're all literature and all in french itself? thanks so much!!! XXXXX
tartufo
thanks, thats really helpful

sorry, i dont know much about the system, but in the first year, if i go to wadham and there's only one fellow of french, do i go to other colleges for one-to-ones or how does it work?

also does workload for french differ from college to college?

also as you're a french student, i was just wondering about number of french essays per week and whether they're all literature and all in french itself? thanks so much!!! XXXXX


In your first year you will probably have all of your literature stuff in college, except lectures. Sometimes your tutor might arrange for you to go to another college to have a tute with a tutor there but it's not massively common in first year. Workload does differ as it's up to tutors what to set and you'll also probably have language classes in college with a native, and some colleges have more classes than others and some people set more work than others. At Worc we also had translation/synthesis classes as one of the four prelims papers is on this (one is fairly straightforward grammar, one this and two literature). Essay frequency depends, for me it was one a fortnight on the French side (commentaries for the short texts as it's a commentary paper, and essays for the novels) and you're unlikely to get more than this but you may well get less depending on how laidback/lazy your tutor is. Plus you'll have translations/grammar exercises etc... All the lit work is done in English (except quotations of course) which people find surprising but the standard required is so high, and some of the ideas so complex, that it would be near-impossible to do it in French in your first year. I find myself wondering whether I'm doing an English Lit (but obviously not in English!) degree or a languages one sometimes!
I have applied this year for French at Christ Church and I am now just trying to read a broad range of literature and keep up to date with the news in France, are there any other tips on preparing for the interview?
Do you get many chances to speak in French or is it all focused on reading and writing?
There generally tends to be a bit of French spoken, some tutors like to conduct a lot of it in French though. I think normally though, you don't speak that much in French. I would advise you learn a lot of literary analysis tips and jargon if you don't already: remember the degree here is basically a literature degree in a foreign language so if you're not geared for it, don't apply.
Yeah i'm a bit of a literature geek thanks to my English Lit teacher at A level, so I know quite a bit of the jargon, I was just worrying whether I would have to relearn all those words but in French!
I am actually in my 1st year of French at Oxford Brookes and it is the lack of literature that made me apply to Oxford. (which I stupidly didn't do last year!) Everything is in French here which is great for history and politics, but I was worrying about talking about literary techniques in French! I love the fact that I am submersed in the language though so I think if i was to get in, i am going to spend quite a lot of time in France next year.
I have read some Camus, Baudelaire and Maupassant (Bel ami) and am keeping up to date with Le Figaro and Le Monde. I plan to look at Moliere, Hugo, Flaubert, Rousseau and Voltaire in my spare time, because I find it quite interesting to read about French writers. (they all have such amazing biographies!) I'm also going to "La Maison Francaise" in Oxford quite frequently for evening seminars and film stuff which is also really interesting for me.
Is there any advice you could give me for preparing for the interview? Did you get interview practice anywhere?
Thanks for the reply x
Most of the literature jargon etc. will only be needed in English. I have one french oral tute a week and one french grammar tute a week where she will flick between the two languages. Then I have one two hour seminar in odd weeks for literature and in even weeks I will have one 1 hour tutorial. The literature work is mostly done in English and I also have two French lit lectures per week, again in English. If you're going for French sole then I'm sure you'll have some extra cinema classes etc.