Languages at A level

Hi!
I'm planning to do French, Spanish, Maths and Further Maths for my A-Levels. I really enjoy languages and have studied French, Spanish, and Mandarin for GCSE. I am predicted 9s in French and Spanish and I sat mandarin last year and got a 9. However, I'm wondering whether I should choose just one language for A-Level. I think I could do well with both, as long as I enjoy them, but I'm concerned they might feel too similar to English Literature, which I don't really enjoy. Does anyone have any advice? Would it be too much to take both languages? Thank you!

I too was in a similar boat took GCSE Spanish loved it wanted to be fluent in it and decided to take it for A level. honestly the curriculum taught at A level is honestly so rubbish I dropped it after AS level I did AQA. so much history was being taught I genuinely feel like I was in a history class ( I was so bad at it ) but this time it’s in another language so on top of me being bad at the subject I could barely understand it. from day 1 I’d say they just threw us in the deep end, endless things about dictators in Spain it’s history and not even one thing about having a simple conversation in Spanish. I had to write many essays too and that just reminded me of English language which I also struggled in so if you struggle with it I don’t entirely reccomend taking one let alone two A level languages. I rmener at times I’d even translate the essay question to English hoping that would help but I was still equally as lost. Long story short if you like the structure of GCSEs and are hoping to build on that from A levels you’re mistaken the curriculums are so different it will feel like you are an international student taking a history class. I thought it was so funny in my class also, no attempt at fixing pronunciation yet we’re saying advanced nonsense talking about our opinions on the Spanish kings and queens. don’t let my experience sway you perhaps we have different mindsets I entered wanting to gain the knowledge to be fluent and conversationable in Spanish I mean I doubt any Spanish locals would want to have a chat about the 1800s

Hi!
I'm planning to do French, Spanish, Maths and Further Maths for my A-Levels. I really enjoy languages and have studied French, Spanish, and Mandarin for GCSE. I am predicted 9s in French and Spanish and I sat mandarin last year and got a 9. However, I'm wondering whether I should choose just one language for A-Level. I think I could do well with both, as long as I enjoy them, but I'm concerned they might feel too similar to English Literature, which I don't really enjoy. Does anyone have any advice? Would it be too much to take both languages? Thank you!

I do French! its not as history based as Spanish. However, paper 2 may feel that way as we have to write about a book and film that we have studied.

Thank you for your reply! That’s interesting. Do you enjoy it or is it quite boring?

I personally really like it! Learning a new language and studying the culture interests me a lot. However, it definitely can be difficult with grammar and stuff but there's nothing revision can't fix!

Hi!
I'm planning to do French, Spanish, Maths and Further Maths for my A-Levels. I really enjoy languages and have studied French, Spanish, and Mandarin for GCSE. I am predicted 9s in French and Spanish and I sat mandarin last year and got a 9. However, I'm wondering whether I should choose just one language for A-Level. I think I could do well with both, as long as I enjoy them, but I'm concerned they might feel too similar to English Literature, which I don't really enjoy. Does anyone have any advice? Would it be too much to take both languages? Thank you!

I do A Level Spanish and to be honest the essay is only 20% of the overall grade, so it’s not that bad. The biggest bit is still listening, reading and writing like GCSE. It is hard, and I do find some of the history bit a bit boring (but this is only really one or two units out of 12 total). If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Thank you so much for your reply! If you don’t mind me asking, what other subjects are you taking with Spanish? Do you have any idea on how you might use it in the future?

I’m doing biology and chemistry. To be honest Spanish isn’t at all related to what I want to do in the future, but that doesn’t really matter because I’ve learned a lot and it’s regarded highly by unis.

I did both. It was a big step up from GCSE in difficulty, and the literature we had to study was boring. I remember it was Bonjour Tristesse for French, and Como Agua Para Chocolate for Spanish, among other things I've long since forgotten.

But saying that I'm a languagey person so there's nothing else I would have swapped them for.

My third subject was Classical Civilisation.

Ooooo. That’s interesting! Thank you for your response. Would you recommend doing both or would you say it’s better to just pick one?

I don't think they interfered with each other particularly - it's not as though I was getting confused and mixing up the languages or anything. But both are a lot of work. Both are hard at A Level - the ramp-up in grammar expectations from GCSE to A Level is immense.
So it's really just more about the workload. If you're okay with dedicating a lot of time into each subject then you'll be okay. What concerns me is the fact that you're doing 4 A Levels. You really don't need 4, so if your heart is set on doing 2 languages you would be wise to ditch the Further Maths, as 2 languages plus a third subject is more than enough for anyone to deal with.
It really depends what you want to do at uni and for a career though of course.