BA Chinese/BA Korean

Guys what do I dooooo!!!

I am interested in applying for BA Korean at Sheffield and SOAS, but can't find any other Korean courses that interest me, but don't wanna apply to just 2 unis.

As it happens, I'm also interested in the BA Chinese offered by a number of unis, which would increase my chances as I'd apply to 5 unis instead of 2.

Can I apply for both? That is to say, apply for the BA Korean at SOAS and Sheffield and BA Chinese at 3 other unis (say, Manchester, Durham and one other undecided uni).
I could apply to do Chinese at Oxford and do Korean as a subsidiary language, but I know my chances are awfully slim there as a resit kid.
I'm doing an accounting apprenticeship (AAT) at a top 25 firm but wanna go to uni, so I'm gonna do the apprenticeship for the 2 years and also resit my A-levels in summer 2025.

Anyway, is it feasible to apply for some Korean degrees and some Chinese degrees?
Do I need to generalise my personal statement somehow?

If it's worth anything, I have proficiency in Chinese up to HSK 2 and Japanese up to JLPT N5 (both of which took about a year) but virtually no proficiency in Korean, with my language knowledge being limited to Hangul, a few phrases, sentences and basic grammar points.

Thanks!

Original post by Al_the_Pal

Guys what do I dooooo!!!

I am interested in applying for BA Korean at Sheffield and SOAS, but can't find any other Korean courses that interest me, but don't wanna apply to just 2 unis.

As it happens, I'm also interested in the BA Chinese offered by a number of unis, which would increase my chances as I'd apply to 5 unis instead of 2.

Can I apply for both? That is to say, apply for the BA Korean at SOAS and Sheffield and BA Chinese at 3 other unis (say, Manchester, Durham and one other undecided uni).
I could apply to do Chinese at Oxford and do Korean as a subsidiary language, but I know my chances are awfully slim there as a resit kid.
I'm doing an accounting apprenticeship (AAT) at a top 25 firm but wanna go to uni, so I'm gonna do the apprenticeship for the 2 years and also resit my A-levels in summer 2025.

Anyway, is it feasible to apply for some Korean degrees and some Chinese degrees?
Do I need to generalise my personal statement somehow?

If it's worth anything, I have proficiency in Chinese up to HSK 2 and Japanese up to JLPT N5 (both of which took about a year) but virtually no proficiency in Korean, with my language knowledge being limited to Hangul, a few phrases, sentences and basic grammar points.

Thanks!

Hiya

You can apply to more than 1 course through UCAS- in fact, all your courses at all 5 unis can be different. It can be difficult to reconcile your personal statement to each one, so UCAS has given some advice here- https://www.ucas.com/how-write-personal-statement-works-multiple-courses

As for Durham specifically, you can submit a substitute personal statement if you're applying to multiple courses. So, for instance, if your PS in your UCAS application is geared more towards BA Korean but you're applying to BA Chinese at Durham, you can submit a substitute PS.

Additionally, it is possible to study Korean as a subsidiary language whilst studying Chinese as your major. So in your 1st, 2nd and 4th years (not 3rd because you'll go to China), you can study the Korean language module with CFLS. It only has three stages, so you'll basically be able to study all stages if you wish to. Also just because you studied Korean Level 1 doesn't mean that you have to take Level 2 also. You may decide to study Level 1 in first year and decide that you don't like it- you won't be obligated to study Level 2. Here's the module handbook for BA Chinese if you wanna see which modules you can study: https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/faculty.handbook/degrees/frameworks/t102.pdf

I know many students take this path because I'm studying Korean Level 2 right now (I'm a law student and did Level 1 too). Students in my class are studying BA Japanese or Chinese and studying Korean as an optional module. It's not your major but will count towards your qualification scores.

Hope that helps :smile:

-Himieka

(edited 6 months ago)

Reply 2

sakurui

2

I had a similar problem, I only found 2 unis that did a Japanese course that I wanted to apply to, so I applied for Chinese (all joint hons with international relations) at other unis. Only just sent my application so I have no responses yet, but I tried to up my chances by talking about "East Asia" and "sinosphere" in my personal statement to show that I also was interested by Chinese and language/culture in general for the other unis. But tbh, my top 2 choices are both Japanese courses so if I get offers from them I don't really care about the other unis.

I think it shouldn't be hard to relate your experience studying Chinese and Japanese to studying Korean in your personal statement, just mention how these are linked and maybe talk about East Asian culture in general, on top of talking about Korea/Korean. They're very interrelated topics and I think your experience with Chinese & Japanese would actually make you a stronger candidate, so definitely mention that regardless of what courses you choose.

Good luck! If you want to ask me any other questions go ahead xx

BA Chinese/BA Korean

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