Looking at my track record it’s fair to mention that i used to be an unlikely candidate for a latest languages degree. I achieved a B in French GCSE, and plummeted spectacularly after I received hasta hoy at AS-level. At parents evening my tutor said that I simply wasn’t cut out for studying languages at an educational level.
Skip forwards four years and you will find me writing from my desk within the University of Rosario in Bogota, Colombia. I’m on a placement year as portion of my language degree which i’m studying on the University of Leeds.
It wasn’t until after sixth form after I volunteered for a year within the Dominican Republic that i started to select up Spanish. Desperate to sustain my knowledge of the language I switched from my politics and philosophy degree to a Spanish and philosophy course.
Studying a language at university involves much more than learning verb conjugations and new vocabulary. You’ve got the choice to take in modules about literature, history and politics. It’s also usually a demand that you simply spend a year abroad, with the intention to practise and live your language – that’s how i finished up spending a year on placement with the British Council in Colombia.
For those taking language courses, opportunities to travel expand beyond your student years: greater than 10% of recent language graduates within the UK were in overseas employment six months after leaving university. Employers at home also look favourably on applicants who’ve a second language, especially when recruiting for jobs in journalism, development, international business and publishing.
The impressive bursaries on offer in case you desire to train to be a language teacher prove how desired language skills are in the present day. Grants of £15,000 and £20,000 are given to language graduates who hold either a 2:1 or a firstclass degree respectively. With 90.3% of 2010-11 language graduates in employment, it’s definitely a topic area to be taken seriously.
But despite all this, the variety of students applying to check European (-6.1%) and non-European (-6.7%) languages at university has continued to fall this year. The variety of students taking languages at A-level has also fallen rapidly during the last decade, with state school students being less more likely to continue language study.
As someone who struggled with French in school, i will understand why students are dispose of choosing languages at an improved level. Students will also be unsure about where the languages route might take them career-wise. There’s also lot of labor involved – especially if you’ve had limited exposure to other languages or little experience of using a language abroad.
For me, the advantages have outweighed the labor. Except for the apparent advantages of getting a second language on my CV, I actually have had the prospect to explore another culture. For my thesis i’m writing about Colombian hip hop and cinema and feature interviewed artists and producers whose work i like.
Looking back i will see that i am not incapable of studying a language – it’s just that the study room environment wasn’t the smartest place for me to begin.
