Modern Languages Course

At Pembroke, you can study French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, or Modern Greek – either in a combination of two languages or in a joint degree with English, History, a Middle Eastern Language, Philosophy or Linguistics. Moreover, French, German and Spanish can each be studied in a single language degree (termed respectively French Sole, German Sole and Spanish Sole). We have Tutors in all these subjects, dedicated native-speaker language teachers, and special arrangements for the Year Abroad.

People sometimes think that the languages course is mainly literature. Language makes up roughly half the papers, and more than half the contact hours, that you study for your degree; you cannot get a degree in Modern Languages, or a language combined with another subject, without passing the language papers.

And though many candidates know little about European and postcolonial literature when they apply, the course offers a wider and deeper knowledge of its writing of human insight, history and experience than is available anywhere else in the world.