George, 2nd Year, Modern Languages

My name is George, and I study French and German. Worcester is a great place to study languages and there’s usually a big group of us doing straight languages or joint honours so there is always someone to help with work. Within a few days of arriving there were a bunch of second year linguists hovering around to help us out if we had any questions and to just help us settle in.

You’ll have seminars and tutorials each week on your texts, and will also have various grammar classes, and language seminars to help with written and spoken language. These classes are very enjoyable, and are a really good chance to get to know a text well, and to voice your opinion on it- so make the most of the opportunities you have!

The course for Prelims (first year exams) consists of four papers, with an exam at the end of the year. Papers I and II are translation papers, with Paper III typically being a commentary paper, in which you will write essays on a given passage from one of the texts you have studied. Finally, Paper IV is another literature paper, in which you will be asked various questions on the texts you have studied. (If you do sole French or German, there will be eight papers to sit, balanced out by a film module, or philosophy). People who do joint languages, or joint schools, e.g. English and Modern Languages will have other papers made up by their other subject- everyone sits between 6 and 8 papers at the end of the year! Have no fear, you will all be ready.