Hi, I’m Callum, a third year German and Spanish student at Christ’s. Before coming to Cambridge, I wasn’t totally sure that it was going to be the place for me — as a Northern guy from a working class background I was convinced I was going to be the odd one out. To my surprise and delight Christ’s has been a wonderfully open and inclusive environment and doing MML here in particular has suited me perfectly.
Unlike other courses, most of your teaching is outside of college, either at the faculty (department) or at other colleges with academics there, giving you a chance to get out and about. The course is incredibly varied with papers offered in all disciplines from language to literature and history to linguistics. Last year I particularly enjoyed studying Latin American literature and film as well as the history of the German language.
I started Spanish new at Cambridge (ab initio), having not understood a word of it before arriving. In my first year I went from the odd ¡Hola! to being able to converse entirely in Spanish and read Spanish novels. The ab initio course can seem a bit daunting, but it is well worth the effort — so don’t be discouraged if you only study one language at A Level (or equivalent).
I am currently spending my year abroad in glorious Munich, working as a translation intern for Allianz Versicherungs-AG… not as drab as it may sound! You are more or less unrestricted in terms of where you want to spend your year abroad, whether you wanna feel like a local in a trendy European city, or would rather go off-piste and live up a mountain in the Andes, it’s up to you!
If you think Cambridge is too posh or stuffy for you, then Christ’s will definitely surprise you. If a little Geordie lad can fit in here, then you can too!
2017
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