MML Study Skills Day
Wednesday 8th April 2015
Programme
Arrival
Please go to the main Porters Lodge on arrival, where you will be greeted and given directions.
Applying to Oxbridge for Modern and Medieval Languages
Dr Isabelle McNeill (Arts Admissions Tutor and MML fellow), will talk about the
University and give an overview of the admissions process, including applications,
interviews, tests etc.
Essay Writing at Cambridge
Suggestions for essay writing in general which should be useful for AS/A2
Studying Foreign Language Films:
Using examples from the Oscar-Winning Almodovar film Hable con ella (Talk to
her). There will be no need to have seen the film in advance.
Studying a Literary Text
Using Camus’ L’Etranger, a popular A2 text. Again there will be no need to read
this in advance.
Translation into English
A university exercise with creative potential. We will split up into smaller groups
for French, German, and Spanish.
Parents
We are keen to fit in as many prospective students as we can, which means we are
not able to include parents in the main programme. However, parents are welcome to explore the College grounds at their leisure, or to enjoy the shops!
Programme
11:00 Welcome and introduction—with Fellows and current undergraduates
11:15—12:00 Applying to Oxbridge for Modern and Medieval Languages
12:00—1:00 Essay writing at Cambridge
12:45—1:45 Lunch (if you have booked a college lunch this will be served
in the cafeteria)
1:45—2:25 Studying foreign language films
2:45—3:30 Studying a literary text
3:30—4:30 Translation into English
There will be plenty of opportunity, both during the days and after the formal programme ends, to ask specific questions about studying modern
languages in Cambridge, the sort of careers that linguist graduates pursue,
the type of small group teaching Cambridge offers, etc.
“
There's no such thing as dead languages, only
dormant minds.
Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind
If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that
goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language,
that goes to his heart.
Nelson Mandela
Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Maxims
and Reflections
With languages, you can move from one social situation
to another. With languages, you are at home anywhere.
Edmund de Waal, The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's
Century of Art and Loss
The dictionary is based on the hypothesis -- obviously an unproven one -- that languages are
made up of equivalent synonyms.
Jorge Luis Borges
Language is the road map of a culture. It
tells you where its people come from and
where they are going.
Rita Mae Brown
”