Hi everyone, and welcome to this short Q and A style video about
my experience studying a language
with the Language Centre at the University of Nottingham
alongside my degree, I hope you enjoy.
So in this video, I'm just gonna be sharing
my experiences of doing
a French module alongside my undergrad studies.
I'm a third year undergrad physics and I really love my degree,
but this was something that
really kind of added something extra.
And I really enjoyed the challenge of learning a language again,
I studied French a level,
but haven't really picked up since then.
So it was good to kind of get back into
it and to improve my language ability.
I'd love to live in France one day.
So this is kind of my main motivation for learning the language.
By thought the module was really,
really interesting and kind of
a different style of learning to A-levels.
So that's kind of my overview of it.
And I'm going to go into a few questions that you might
have about studying a language alongside your degree.
So question number one is,
why did I choose to study a language alongside my studies?
So for me, learning languages is just so fun and satisfying.
I find it really fulfilling.
And it's a really cool way to like
use my brain in a different capacity.
I love the process of learning new vocab,
and then making connections between
different words and different aspects of the language.
I find that really satisfying.
So that was kind of my main,
my main motivation for learning languages.
I'd also love to live abroad,
especially in France one day.
And so that was
a really good way to kind of pick up my French ability again,
and to kind of keep it ticking along while I do my degree.
And so that's why I chose to
study a language alongside my studies.
And for anyone who's not familiar,
the next question is, why is the Language Centre?
So essentially, the Language Centre offers
a range of different levels of language classes.
They're each 10-credit, semester-long modules.
And you can learn a range of different languages.
They have French, Arabic, Spanish, Italian,
and Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Chinese, and German.
And so there's so many different things
that you can get involved with,
kind of whatever you fancy.
The next question is,
how did you find time to fit this
in amongst the rest of your degree?
So for me, I found this kind of took up
a similar amount of time to my other 10 credit modules.
We had two engagement sessions a week.
When I did it, the the module was online and yeah,
it was kind of independent work on your own
in preparation for those sessions and then talking,
having conversations in the target language.
In those sessions.
It was really useful having like kind
of one-on-one time with the tutor.
You're always in a class.
When you were talking, it was mostly with the tutor.
And so you could,
you could have a real interaction
with them, which I thought was great.
I think it took up a similar amount of time to other modules.
And it's definitely something you can
fit if you're committed to doing it.
So I wouldn't worry about that.
I think it's just about priorities,
so if there is something you really want to do.
And learning a language is something that is valuable to you,
then you'll make the time to do it.
The next question is,
did you get much support? Yeah, definitely.
My tutor was really, really helpful,
beneficial, and she would always be
happy to answer any questions that you had.
I think as long as you're willing to speak up and address,
anything you're unsure about
then there's definitely support available.
It was also lovely to meet some new people and
to kind of interact with them and become friends.
And final question is,
how will you use your language skills in the future?
Like I mentioned at the start,
I would love to live in France one day.
I think that'll be so cool and so fulfilling.
And so this is like a good stepping stone to keep
my French ticking over while I
am doing my physics undergrad degree.
And then hopefully be able to put it into
practise in the target language country one day.
So I think it's just a really fulfilling thing today as well.
And something that kind of
builds your own confidence in yourself by pushing yourself.
I'm putting yourself out there.
And yeah, I would definitely recommend I
had a really great experience with
the language centre and I'd love to
do more modules with them in the future.
I hope this video has been helpful and insightful.
This is just me speaking from my own personal experiences.
So take everything with a pinch of salt.
But I hope you've enjoyed it.
I hope you found it interesting and
hopefully it's inspired you to take up a new language
or to continue growing your language ability in a certain language.
Thanks for watching and have a lovely rest of your day.