My name is Alice, and I recently entered my final year of study in a BA in Linguistics & Spanish. At this point in my degree I can confidently say I have gotten a lot from my course. I initially chose to study it because I had heard that language degrees had high employability rates, and I already loved learning languages. Studying at Manchester seemed perfect for this, as they offered a wide variety of modules to study for each degree: I chose to study Catalan alongside Spanish. This quickly became my favourite module as I was able to learn the language from a native speaker in a relaxed and welcoming learning environment. We learnt through games and socials where we would practise the language, which motivated me to learn beyond textbooks and grammar activities; I feel that this attitude to learning strengthened my communication skills both in the languages I learnt and in preparation for a career. I feel this was a big draw for me with choosing to study languages, as in Manchester we have a well-established careers service who help you look for job opportunities for after graduation. In a languages degree programme, the skills we learnt can be applied to a wide variety of careers, so I am able to take this communication skills into whichever career path I choose. As such, I am especially grateful that my department prioritises these skills through practical learning like the societies they offer. For instance, I regularly attend the Spanish “Cine Club” where we watch films in Spanish, and the Catalan Coffee Club, where we meet to talk in Catalan. This forms part of a typical week for me, along with around 11 contact hours of lectures (where we are taught the key information about the specific module) and seminars (where we discuss this and any homework we’ve done). 

With languages degrees, we get the opportunity to study abroad for a year as part of the course, and I spent my third year in Bilbao in the north of Spain. This was an incredible experience as I got real experience of Spanish culture and improved my Spanish as well as my confidence by speaking to the locals and living there. Since returning to Manchester, I am also undertaking a dissertation in Linguistics, and the staff have been incredibly supportive in this part of my degree. While it seems daunting to face writing 10,000 words analysing your own research, I am lucky enough to have a supervisor who is guiding me through it, and recommended a module they teach to provide foundational knowledge of the topic I chose. Through taking a dissertation as part of my degree, I am able to explore a topic in linguistics that interests me and conduct my own research which will help me develop skills relevant to future careers. 

Written by Alice Bull, a final year Linguistics and Spanish student

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