First semester at Birmingham as a Modern Languages student

As a neurodivergent student starting university in an unfamiliar city, I’ve never felt more comfortable and relaxed than at the University of Birmingham. Part of this is due to studying two languages (French and Spanish) at advanced level having already had some prior knowledge from my A-Level studies.

My first impressions of the course in general - it seemed really enlightening, covering many different subjects. I thought this would enable me to have a much wider knowledge across several key topics in both the Hispanic and francophone speaking universe, such as economics, politics, history, geography, literature, the arts, etc. The variety also allows me to keep my future job prospects wide open without restricting myself to a subject with one very clear profession to enter post-graduation.

In my course, I chose to study two modules. The first one being ‘Unity, Diversity and the Re-shaping of Latin America since 1800’. I found this module particularly interesting to study as it covered several key elements of history in Latin American countries starting from the independence wars that arose to try and make these nations economically competitive in the exportation of primary materials, leading to the downfall of the neocolonial order caused by economic crises and the social unrest and uprising of new social groups as a result of this catastrophe. Studying this module, I gained a greater understanding of economic politics and social unrest during the late 1800s leading into the early 20^th century.

My second optional module was ‘Translation in Practice’, where I chose to focus on French translation. This module is my personal favourite as not only do you gain the skills to translate like a professional translator, but you get to translate a variety of texts ranging from Recipes created by Jamie Oliver, instructions from medical textbooks when caring for patients and tourism extracts targeted at people travelling to unique regions in the francophone world. This module is also available for students studying German, Spanish, Italian, and Russian who completed their A-Level and are classified as advanced students.

Transitioning from A-Level studies to university was a challenge due to the increase in independent study that must be completed prior to lectures and seminars, but this jump was mitigated as I built a strong student-lecturer relationship with several of my professors who are always there to help with any concerns that I may have.

As a language student you are assigned a Personal Academic Tutor who will organise one-to-one meetings to guide you through the year abroad process and also ensuring your general wellbeing and abilities in independent study.

Since joining university, I’ve thrown myself into many societies so that I can build social connections with like-minded students, my favourite being MFLSOC (Modern Foreign Languages Society). Not only does this further enrich my language proficiency, but I’ve also gained the confidence in communicate in both French and Spanish. Within a short space of time, I’ve realised how fortunate I am to study modern languages on such a fabulous campus with amazing student culture.