Modern Languages

As you sit around, peering gloomily at parochial little Britain, permanently in thrall to American culture, you wouldn't be human if you didn't fancy trying something else. The first place to start that is learning a language, and with that comes knowledge of another country's literature, culture, history and politics. And such knowledge is not just incidental - juggling verbs (well, language and language-related studies) is only a part of any self-respecting language course: cultural forms such as literature or film will also be examined, as will the contemporary cultural, social and political contexts of the country or countries where the language is spoken.

As well as the obvious language choices - French, German, Italian - you can learn Latin American or Middle Eastern languages, or Serbian and Croatian, or Japanese, or Mandarin. The possibilities are as wide as the globe, but what-ever you choose, an affection for the country or region linked to your language is rather important. Anything less, and four years of study could leave you with a love/hate relationship for anything Portuguese, Russian or Norwegian.

Most prospective applicants will already be studying a language at A-level, though it is not always necessary to be studying the one you take to degree level, especially for less mainstream languages, which you can't be expected to learn at school. Generally speaking, this is a very good time to be aspiring to study languages at university. In the past few years the numbers of young people taking language A-levels has fallen dramatically and the number of students going on to take languages to degree level has taken a tumble too.

Although this is very worrying for universities, it is good news for you if you fail to get the grades that they were hoping for. You may be able to negotiate your way on to the course you wanted despite having slipped a grade, or there may well be opportunities to find a vacancy on a language course at another university during Clearing.

Once there, you can study a single language or opt for joint honours in two languages; a few places will let you take three. Alternatively, you can combine a language with almost any other subject imaginable: French with music, Spanish with molecular biology, accountancy with German and so on. Most UK universities offer courses in French, German and Spanish; there are nearly 2,000 courses and combinations with French alone. For less common languages, such as Dutch, Danish and modem Greek, your choice of institution will be far more limited.

Integrated studies, in which the study of a language is one component of, say, a science or technology degree, are also increasingly available. You could, for example, do marine sciences with French, or engineering with European studies. This might well involve you spending a year in France studying engineering, but in French.

A modern languages degree makes you eminently employable and not just as a teacher or a translator, so don't feel you need to combine a language with a vocational subject merely to improve your job prospects. More than 50% of jobs are open to graduates from any discipline and modern languages graduates have lower rates of unemployment than almost all others. You'll emerge at the end of your degree with highly developed linguistic, analytical and communications skills.

There are two broad reasons for this. First, graduates tend to be good communicators, both oral and written, in their own language as well as in those they have studied. This makes them ideally placed to convince prospective employers of their suitability for work. Second, the advantage they have over the vast majority of other graduates is that almost all modern languages graduates have spent a character-building year abroad during their course. As well as being an exciting and usually enjoyable experience, getting to grips with an unfamiliar culture helps students develop vital life skills - maturity, independence and tolerance - that employers will value.