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Arabic and Spanish personal statement help

Hii, I’m currently a yr12 student that studies History, Spanish and Religious Studies. I’m predicted all A* and I’m very interested in studying Arabic and Spanish at Cambridge. I’ve been doing lots of super curricular activities for Spanish and I feel very confident writing about them in my PS, however, because I would apply for Arabic as well, I am completely stuck. I’ve taken 3 Arabic classes but other than that have no previous knowledge and I have nothing to talk about. I think Arabic is an amazing and beautiful language that has ties to Spanish and I am genuinely interested in learning about a language and culture that is very different to anything I’ve done before. Because Arabic is quite a niche degree I’ve had trouble finding out about ideas on what to write or some topics that I could explore and I’m completely in the dark. As I study Religion I was thinking about mentioning the importance of Islam and exploring that in my own take on its importance in Arab culture and society but I’m not sureee. I was also wondering if I should incorporate the link between Arabic and Spanish and its history of why that is and I could do this by reading about it and seeing what I conjure up. If anyone has any ideas/ books or suggestions pls help me I feel so lost😪
Just write about why you want to study Arabic - that's all they're looking for :smile:

Reply 2

Original post
by sarahllandy
Hii, I’m currently a yr12 student that studies History, Spanish and Religious Studies. I’m predicted all A* and I’m very interested in studying Arabic and Spanish at Cambridge. I’ve been doing lots of super curricular activities for Spanish and I feel very confident writing about them in my PS, however, because I would apply for Arabic as well, I am completely stuck. I’ve taken 3 Arabic classes but other than that have no previous knowledge and I have nothing to talk about. I think Arabic is an amazing and beautiful language that has ties to Spanish and I am genuinely interested in learning about a language and culture that is very different to anything I’ve done before. Because Arabic is quite a niche degree I’ve had trouble finding out about ideas on what to write or some topics that I could explore and I’m completely in the dark. As I study Religion I was thinking about mentioning the importance of Islam and exploring that in my own take on its importance in Arab culture and society but I’m not sureee. I was also wondering if I should incorporate the link between Arabic and Spanish and its history of why that is and I could do this by reading about it and seeing what I conjure up. If anyone has any ideas/ books or suggestions pls help me I feel so lost😪

Hi! Here are a few ideas you could explore:

Connections between Spain and the Middle East:

Islamic architecture in Andalusia.

Coffee culture - As a practice of social and intellectual exchange and how the coffeehouse tradition spread from the Middle East to Europe.

Ibn Batutta - The famous 14th-century Moroccan traveler who documented his journeys across the Islamic world and other countries such as Spain.

Arabic-focused topics:

Poetry - You could explore the works of famous poets such as Mahmoud Darwish, Fadwa Tuqan, Nizar Qabbani and Khalil Jibran.

Music - You could analyse tradition and modernity in twentieth-century icons such as Umm Kulthum and 'Abd al-Halim Hafiz.

I hope this helps!
-Szara (BA International Relations and Arabic)
Original post
by sarahllandy
Hii, I’m currently a yr12 student that studies History, Spanish and Religious Studies. I’m predicted all A* and I’m very interested in studying Arabic and Spanish at Cambridge. I’ve been doing lots of super curricular activities for Spanish and I feel very confident writing about them in my PS, however, because I would apply for Arabic as well, I am completely stuck. I’ve taken 3 Arabic classes but other than that have no previous knowledge and I have nothing to talk about. I think Arabic is an amazing and beautiful language that has ties to Spanish and I am genuinely interested in learning about a language and culture that is very different to anything I’ve done before. Because Arabic is quite a niche degree I’ve had trouble finding out about ideas on what to write or some topics that I could explore and I’m completely in the dark. As I study Religion I was thinking about mentioning the importance of Islam and exploring that in my own take on its importance in Arab culture and society but I’m not sureee. I was also wondering if I should incorporate the link between Arabic and Spanish and its history of why that is and I could do this by reading about it and seeing what I conjure up. If anyone has any ideas/ books or suggestions pls help me I feel so lost😪

Just to note for ab initio languages especially, you are absolutely allowed to (and encouraged to) read works in translation.

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