Languages at Uni

So, along with many people, my A-Level courses were cut short and obviously I won't be taking any exams, which already makes me feel as though I'm at a disadvantage. I will be studying Modern Languages (French with beginners Spanish) with Translation at Nottingham, and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to prepare for a languages degree? I'm reading French everyday, as well as watching films and listening to music, and I'm using Memrise to get a headstart on Spanish, but I'm not sure if there's something else I could be doing?

Reply 1

Sean2202

15

Try using Quora in your target languages. So much nicer to read than boring news apps.

Reply 2

University of Portsmouth Student Rep

Official Rep

16

Original post by Soeli02

So, along with many people, my A-Level courses were cut short and obviously I won't be taking any exams, which already makes me feel as though I'm at a disadvantage. I will be studying Modern Languages (French with beginners Spanish) with Translation at Nottingham, and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to prepare for a languages degree? I'm reading French everyday, as well as watching films and listening to music, and I'm using Memrise to get a headstart on Spanish, but I'm not sure if there's something else I could be doing?

Hi @Soeli02!

Congratulations on your place at Nottingham to study MFL!

By the sounds of it, you are doing a lot of the right things to help already! Any exposure to language will help keep them fresh for you. With films and tv it can be things that are actually French, or you can change up the audio/add subtitles on Netflix, Disney+, Prime etc. and learn with things that you are familiar with in English. The other thing I would advise for you to do is keep on top of current events, at least in France if you already know the language and can read French news websites. I think it's always good to know or have an appreciation of what's going on in the country (besides COVID-19).

I would also take a look at the course webpage and check out the non-language modules you are likely to be doing. You might be able to find the reading lists (link to Nottingham Reading Lists) for the current academic year which means if you wanted, you could take a look at some of the reading over the next few months. It would also be good to see if the modules are history/politics related or arts/literature related - if they're the former, then keeping up to date with the news as I advised will generally help with this; if it's the latter, then you might be able to see on reading lists if you have to watch any films or read any books/plays, and could get to grips with them ahead of time!

You could also try and reach out to the Faculty/Teaching Staff or the University Library and see if they could point you in the direction of any resources that they would recommend.

I hope this helps! - also I've only ever used Duolingo before, but Memrise looks cool, what's it like? Ironically, my French is a little rusty and I could do with the practice lol!!!

Danielle - Official Student Rep :smile:

Languages at Uni

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