A Level Languages vs GCSE English

Hi, glad to hear you love MFL! I do French for a-level and though the study of a book and film does have similarities to gcse English lit e.g. studying characters, themes etc. it's quite different. The books and films on the spec are a gateway to understanding more about the culture and that's a main focus of the lessons so if you're interested in the culture you'll probably find it interesting. The essays are shorter than English lit ones and half the marks come from use of language so you don't necessarily need great ideas to do well, though it does become interesting to debate things in class and develop your ideas in the essays. The film/book paper is only worth 20% so if you still don't like it, there's still many aspects to the A-level you'll probably enjoy. Hope that helps - my best advice is to go in with an open mind because you may find yourself loving it!

I'm not particularly good at GCSE English Literature, but love MFL, taking both French and Spanish for GCSE. I've chosen Spanish A-level (with Biology, Chemistry and Maths), but the studying of a play/film/book (not entirely sure what's on the syllabus) seems like it's going to bring back unpleasant memories of GCSE English. How similar are the two?

omg we're so similar! I did French and Spanish GCSE too and for A-levels this September I've chosen Biology, Chemistry and French. I've always loved reading and writing, but analysing literature at GCSE was... ehh, so I was a bit unsure about taking a language for A level. I was also super undecided between French and Spanish for A-level but eventually settled on French for two reasons- firstly because I prefer the book and film my school studies in French to the Spanish book and film, and secondly because, although it sounds counter-intuitive, I prefer speaking Spanish and Spanish culture to French. So I know that if I took Spanish, I'd probably never really bother too much keeping up my French, and so I'd forget it a lot of it within five years or so. Whereas with Spanish, I know that I want to continue it as a hobby basically forever, especially my speaking and listening skills

That was such a long rant sorry! I just love finding people who did French and Spanish GCSE too <3

I get you!! I'm kind of the opposite: speaking French feels so much more natural to me, and I talk to my sister in it, (we're not french, we just learnt it at school, and she took German instead of Spanish, so we can't use that) so I took Spanish as I might forget it all! Also, for some bizarre reason I get better grades in Spanish than French, so i thought an A-level in it might be slightly easier lmaoo. aww i love finding people like us

ahh that's so cool that you speak to your sister in French! my grades are pretty much always the same in Spanish and French and I find them the same level of difficulty (French grammar is slightly easier bc the subjunctive is used less) so I just decided on French because after A-level I probably won't use it much

by the way, what are you thinking about doing at university?

thank you xx we try to keep things fresh hehehe
yeah, i always thought french grammar was easier than Spanish! fewer conjugations and tenses i suppose. But french pronunciation is such a nightmare!
I'm not sure, perhaps medicine? but it just seems so basic. most people i know want to be doctors, despite numerous engineering lectures our school sets up argh. I don't want to continue formally studying the languages, bc i've realised i like linguistics itself more. But i don't know what i would do with all of that cool language knowledge.
what about you?