Building the Future

You are in:  Churchill College » Admissions » Undergraduate Admissions » Courses » Modern & Mediaeval Languages

Churchill is an excellent place to study Modern Languages — about 20 students are studying Modern Languages here at any given time. Although much of your teaching would take place in the Faculty, quite a bit of it would also take place in the College, depending on your choice of subjects. For example, intensive native-speaker language work and small-group teaching ('supervisions') are often in the College: for subjects that we do not cover, we send you to good, carefully selected supervisors in other colleges. All Cambridge colleges work in this way, ensuring that you get a mix of teaching inside and outside your College. We are fortunate in having an extremely strong group of teachers within the College — dynamic, enthusiastic, and supportive. We have Teaching Fellows in French, German, and Spanish, and we have regular native-speaker teachers in French, German, and Spanish. The Head of the University's Language Centre is also a Fellow of Churchill and is on hand to give advice, as well as being the College's Director of Studies in Linguistics.

We welcome applications to study any of the languages taught in the Faculty — i.e. French, German, Modern Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, or Spanish. Whatever languages you are studying, the person with whom you would plan and discuss your academic progress would be your College Director of Studies in Modern Languages. Your Director of Studies in Modern Languages at Churchill is keen to help you develop to your full potential during your time here: we want to help you find out what courses of study suit you best, what you are most interested in, what you enjoy most, how to build on your natural strengths, how to improve your knowledge and skills as much as possible. We treat each student as an individual rather than expecting them all to follow the same course of studies or to improve at the same rate. Our students come from very different backgrounds; they have all kinds of different personalities and interests. We give lots of practical help too: generous grants are available to enable you to improve your language skills by following vacation courses abroad. Our students regularly do extremely well in their degree examinations (in 2007, a Churchill student came top of the whole Modern Languages Faculty in Finals).

Teaching Fellows

The Course

If you like learning languages but also want to learn more than just the words — for example, you want to learn about the culture, literature, history, philosophy, ideas, values, and/or cinema of other countries, or about the nature of language itself (linguistics) — then the Modern Languages course at Cambridge University may well be for you. To find out about it, have a look at the University Prospectus at the URL given above. For a more detailed guide to the course, consult the Faculty Prospectus at http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/prospectus/.

Applying to Churchill

We assess all applicants as individuals, using their application form and two interviews to build up as full a picture of them as we can. Almost all applicants are invited to interview. We also ask you to send us two or three essays from your A2 (or equivalent) courses (preferably that you have done during Year 13, but otherwise during Year 12):

  1. If you are studying two languages at A2 level, whether or not you are applying to continue both here, we ask you to send us one essay written in each of those two languages (for example on one of the topics you've been studying). If you have also written in Year 13 an essay for an A2 subject such as English, History, Psychology, Sociology, Politics, or Geography (human), then we ask you to send us that too.
  2. If you are studying one language at A2 level, we ask you to send us one essay written in that language (for example on one of the topics you've been studying) and, if possible, another for one of your other A2 subjects, particularly if it's English (literature), History, Psychology, Sociology, Politics or Geography (human). If you're not doing such a subject, then we ask you to send instead a second essay in the language that you're studying.

We only wish to see essays that you have produced in the normal course of your studies, sent to us exactly as your teacher returned them to you; that is, we don't want you to rewrite, copy out, type up or word-process essays especially for us.

You will be interviewed by two language specialists. They will include one representative for any language(s) that you are taking at A2 (or equivalent) and that you wish to continue studying here. If you are applying to study one language from scratch (as about half of our students do) then one of the interviewers is likely to be a specialist in that language. Even if you have no knowledge of that language, they will want to ask you why you wish to study it. During the subject interview, you will be asked:

Finally, while you are here you will also be asked to sit a 45-minute written test: you'll be given a passage that's written in English and then asked to write about it in a foreign language of your choice. It's just to give us an idea of how you write in the language. This test only amounts to a small part of our assessment of you. You can see a sample test at http://www.mml.cam.ac.uk/prospectus/undergrad/test.html.

All of this might seem daunting; but if you feel that you haven't done well on one item of assessment (for example, grammar — the one that makes everyone nervous!) then try not to worry, since we're assessing you on many criteria, not on any single one, and it's quite possible not to do yourself justice on one aspect but still to be offered a place. We don't want to catch you out or intimidate you — we want to give you every opportunity to show us what your potential is. And it's potential that we're really looking for: students who are inquisitive, who like reading books of any kind, who have an open mind, who like learning languages but also want to find out about other things, and who are willing to think about ideas that are new to them, even if they don't fully understand them at first. If you think you fit the bill, then we'll be delighted if you apply to us! The standard entry requirements are available here.

Churchill modern languages students in a College room
Churchill modern languages students in a College room.

What our students say

Laura Chapman (from The West Bridgford School, a state school; studying Spanish from scratch and German): "Churchill is a great place to study languages. The arts students are valued members of the college; we have concentrated teaching and generous travel grants. The quality of language teaching is very high, and the supervisors support and encourage us to reach our full academic potential. I have warmed to Churchill for its friendly atmosphere and its down-to-earth students. People are made to feel welcome here regardless of their previous schooling. It is also easy to establish a balance between work and social activities, as the college has thriving sport, drama and art societies, as well as a bar, cinema and disco, which is always the highlight of my week!"

Maria Marshall (from the Girls' Grammar School, Wirral, Merseyside): "After just one night at Churchill, all my worries and preconceptions about life at Cambridge disappeared. The warm and friendly atmosphere hit me straight away, and I immediately knew I'd made the right choice to come here. After a year at Churchill, I wouldn't choose anywhere else to study and socialise. Linguists are particularly well catered for. Our progress is well monitored and we are taught by top-class supervisors. The special attention for students here has really benefited me; I've noticed a huge improvement in my work and an increase in my enthusiasm for languages. But at Churchill it's definitely not all work and no play: the social side is just as important for fun-loving Churchillians! You just have to watch them at the weekly Friday event the 'Pav'! All in all, the chance of coming to a place like Churchill is far too good to miss."

Laura Chapman and Maria Marshall
Laura Chapman and Maria Marshall.

Churchill student Roisha Hughes on her year abroad
Churchill student Roisha Hughes on her year abroad.