Modern and Medieval Languages

Modern Languages is one of the stronger subjects at Fitzwilliam, and Fitzwilliam is one of the stronger Colleges in the subject within the University. This is attested by the number of students who have stayed on to do postgraduate work after getting Firsts in Tripos. We have Senior members in French, Spanish and Russian, which means that we can do most of our main-line teaching 'in house' - but we also have private arrangements with colleagues in other colleges in the areas we do not cover ourselves to ensure that Fitzwilliam students, whatever combinations of languages or papers they choose, can always be sure of receiving individual tuition from first-rate specialists in every field.

We aim to take six or seven undergraduate Modern Linguists a year. There are thus about twenty linguists in residence in College in any single year.

MML - The Movie: Languages at Cambridge

Recent Fitzwilliam MML graduate Joe Neill plays the lead in this short film about the subject, released by the Outreach Committee of the MML Faculty in November 2011.

Choice and combinations of languages

A high proportion of our undergraduates read French and German or French and Spanish, but at Fitzwilliam we also actively encourage less common combinations such as French or German with Russian, or Spanish with Portuguese or Italian.  Students may begin the study of any language from scratch except French, which Cambridge only offers as a post-A-level course. A candidate who has done French and Spanish at school may decide to continue with French and add Russian or continue with Spanish and add Portuguese, while one who has studied German and French might choose to drop one of the A-level languages and study German and Dutch or French and Italian. At Fitzwilliam our policy is to explore the possibility of any such changes with every candidate.

This flexibility also enables us to accept keen linguists who have studied only ONE language at A-level. We are always happy to receive applications from such students.

In their second or final years, students may also take introductory papers in a third language, among them Catalan, Dutch, Portuguese and Ukrainian.

University Regulations permit a student to read a Modern Language with a Classical Language, but experience has taught us that the combination is not a felicitous one, and we tell those who apply to Fitzwilliam for this combination of languages either that if they are accepted they will be strongly advised to begin a new Modern Language instead of the Classical Language or to change their application in order to read Classics. Information about combining the study of Classical and Modern Languages is available here.

Students who wish to study a European language in combination with Arabic, Hebrew or Persian must apply to the Tripos in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Information about this combination of languages is available  here.

How the Cambridge Tripos in MML works

The Modern Languages Tripos at Cambridge consists of three parts. Part IA in the first year and Part IB in the second year are mainly language courses with literature culture or linguistics components. The course is arranged so that students who are starting one of their languages as beginners at university, as well as those who continue studying both of their A-level languages, all achieve the same standards of excellence by the time they are ready to take Part II in their fourth and final year. Part II of the Cambridge MML Tripos is famous for the exceptionally wide choice of subjects it offers in literature, fine arts and film studies, linguistics, philology, and history. Students have to take four of these papers in Part II in any combinations of languages or areas they wish (e.g. all French or all German; some French, some Spanish, some Portuguese; all linguistics or all literature; some of each with some philology or history, etc.). Most school students have no knowledge of linguistics, and nowadays many also come up to Cambridge having had no chance to gain literary experience from their A-level studies. This is certainly not now a disadvantage. The University has for some years become quite used to providing specialised teaching to enable students quickly to acquire the skills necessary for both literary and linguistic studies.

Lectures for the literary, linguistics etc. papers are provided by the Faculty and so too are the weekly language classes. The College provides supervisions.  These are generally regarded as the most important feature of an undergraduate's working life for it is for these occasions that the student writes his/her essays.  Each hour-long supervision takes the form of a detailed criticism and discussion of the student's work by his/her supervisor for the subject concerned. Topics are set for further study, bibliography is recommended and help and tuition are given to students in both language-work and literature either individually or in pairs.  Usually there is one supervision per fortnight for each paper being studied.

The year abroad

The year abroad (taken in the third year) is compulsory unless a good case for exception can be made out by the student and his/her Tutor. The whole course is therefore of four years' duration. Sometimes students apply for assistantships in foreign schools through the Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges or take one-year places at foreign universities; but it is also possible for students to arrange approved employment abroad. Students have to complete a dissertation on a subject of their choice by the end of their year abroad. There is nothing to prevent a student from spending periods in both the countries of interest although arrangements for this may be complicated. 

The College itself is not strictly responsible for arranging the year abroad for students but we give undergraduates every help possible in making their applications.

We also very much encourage students to spend up to a year in one or both of the countries whose languages they are studying before they come to Fitzwilliam. The advantages of this are obvious, and especially so in the cases of students who are taking up a new language at University. In planning their pre-Cambridge lives students are therefore advised to take this fact into account if it is at all possible for them to do so. The majority of our students reading Modern Languages spend the year between school and Cambridge in this way. Since it is the norm, we are likely to raise this question at interview with all applicants who have not applied for a deferred place. 

Social life

The Modern Linguists at Fitzwilliam are normally a strong and distinctive group within College.  We encourage them to work together and to help each other as much as possible so that first-year students soon get to know those in their second and final year and benefit from their experience of the College and the University.  The linguists thus come naturally to form a sort of informal club, and therefore there has never been any need to set up a formal Modern Languages Society in College. (Within the Faculty there exist undergraduate societies for each of the languages or language groups.) Frequently the Fitzwilliam linguists arrange parties for themselves and their friends (usually including linguists from other colleges). The Modern Linguists' Dinner, held in the Lent Term each year, has become one of the most well-attended functions in the College calendar.  The Modern Linguists End-of-Year Garden Party is also a very popular event.

What does it all lead to?

On graduation at the end of the fourth year the degree of BA (Hons) [not joint hons] is awarded. Seven terms after going down from Cambridge a graduate may apply for the degree of MA, which will be granted without any further studies or examination, simply by complying with some minor College formalities. Cambridge graduates in Modern Languages seem to be highly employable people judging from the fact that most of them are successful in finding jobs and careers either before they graduate or shortly afterwards. Not many go into teaching and not all of them use their languages very much in their work. The most popular careers are in international banking, insurance and finance, but there are also many in the media, business management, marketing, industry, the civil and foreign services, private and public administration, both at home and abroad, publishing, etc. The possibilities are great and the range of choices is very wide indeed.  It is difficult to say why Modern Linguists are so attractive to employers. Perhaps it is because they acquire such varied skills - the technical appreciation of accuracy and attention to detail (which comes from language work), the ability to analyse and synthesize complex material and an understanding of cultural values (both of which come from their range of study), the practical skill of speaking and writing fluently two or more foreign languages, a certain ease in dealing with people (which comes from work-experience abroad), and an open-mindedness and tolerance of other points of view and cultures and an almost professional interest in world affairs (which all come from the fact that their studies reveal new horizons to them not normally seen by other people studying other narrower subjects).

Modern Languages is a subject well worth studying which can lead to a fine career in the modern world.  At Fitzwilliam we can give the best that Cambridge has to offer in this field.

Directors of Studies in Modern and Medieval Languages

For students in Part IA

Dr Dominic Keown, University Reader in Catalan and Spanish, Fellow of Fitzwilliam College.

Dominic Keown was born in Manchester where he attended the Cardinal Langley School in Middleton. He studied Spanish at the University of Sheffield where he stayed as a doctoral student, completing a thesis on the Avant-Garde in Catalonia. After many years lecturing at the universities of Bath and Liverpool he is now Reader in Catalan Studies at Fitzwilliam College where he has been Director of Studies since 1996. His publications include books on Catalan literature, film and cultural studies though he has occasionally strayed into things more widely Hispanic in nature. His affection for Valencia is attested by the proud possession of a season ticket for Levante UD which can lead annoyingly to over-booking given his ownership of a similar item for Manchester City. He spends his entire life trying to track down his elusive but esteemed colleague Dr Leigh for whom he feels responsible.

For students in Part IB

Dr Susan Larsen, University Lecturer in Russian, Fellow of Fitzwilliam College.

Susan Larsen was born in San Francisco but grew up in the southern United States where she attended schools that seldom send students to Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard or Yale.  Luck and a few good teachers brought her to Stanford University for undergraduate work in English, French and Russian literature and later to Yale University for doctoral study in Russian literature.  After completing her dissertation on the work of Mikhail Bulgakov, she taught at several U.S. universities before taking a post in 2009 as Lecturer in Russian at Cambridge, where she convenes the introductory paper on Russian culture and co-convenes the papers on 19^th and 20^th-century Russian culture. Her publications include articles on Russian literature, Soviet theatre and post-Soviet cinema, as well as literary translations. She divides her research time in Russia between film festivals and dusty archives as she juggles projects on gender in Russian cinema with work on Russian girls' culture from 1764 to 1917.  She prefers fringe theatre, contemporary opera and very modern dance to pub quizzes and sport of any kind (apart from the Giants’ rare appearance in the World Series);  she feels fortunate to be a Fellow and Director of Studies at Fitzwilliam College, which iwelcomes both students and fellows with passionate interests in an exhilarating range of subjects and pastimes.

For students in Part II:

Dr John D Leigh, University Lecturer in French, Fellow of Fitzwilliam College.

John Leigh was born in Sheffield and went to Desborough School in Maidenhead. As an undergraduate, he read French and German at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. There he stayed as a doctoral student, completing a thesis on Voltaire's response to history in his fictional works. He became a University Lecturer and Fellow of his favourite College in 1995 where, ever since, he has been a Director of Studies. He is active as a researcher, lecturer and supervisor in eighteenth-century French literature and ideas. His publications include books on Voltaire and on the Enlightenment, as well as editions of Beaumarchais' plays and Voltaire's letters on England. He has never forsaken his love of German literature though. He has also spent many happy times in Italy confused by the dialects. He has even been seen in the company of Dr. Keown in the Balearics. Like him, he is an indispensable part of a pub quiz team, just as long as the questions are all on English parish churches, nineteenth-century operas or Sheffield Wednesday.

Additional College Fellows and Teaching Staff in Modern and Medieval Languages

Dr Elina Vilar Beltrán, Batista i Roca Fellow in Catalan Studies, Fitzwilliam College.

Dr Jennifer Chamarette, Junior Research Fellow in French, Fitzwilliam College

Mme Marie-Claude Harrison, Lectrice in French, Fitzwilliam College.

Professor Robert Lethbridge, Professor of French, Life Fellow and Master of Fitzwilliam College.

Miss Carme Calduch Rios, Lectora in Spanish and Catalan, Fitzwilliam College.

Further information about this subject can be found on the Faculty of Modern & Medieval Languages website.