BA Italian and Beginners' Russian
About this course
Italian carries with it one of the world's great literary and cultural traditions, from Dante and Petrarch through the Renaissance to the twentieth-century novel and contemporary cinema. Russian, even for absolute beginners, opens a linguistic and literary world of remarkable depth and complexity, with a grammar and alphabet quite distinct from those of western European languages and a cultural tradition that includes some of the most celebrated fiction, poetry and theatre ever written. Studying both at the University of Oxford gives you access to two profoundly different European traditions while also developing the linguistic discipline and comparative sensitivity that comes from working across language families. This four-year full-time programme provides both practical training in written and spoken language and an extensive introduction to the literature and thought produced in both tongues. You will develop fluency and accuracy in Italian alongside a rigorous introduction to Russian, building from foundations towards genuine communicative competence. Alongside language study you will engage with the literature, history of ideas, linguistics and culture of both traditions, with options to focus on particular periods from medieval to contemporary, or to explore areas including film, linguistics, philology and gender studies. Oxford's tutorial-based teaching gives you unusually close engagement with your subject and develops intellectual independence and critical precision. Graduates of modern languages at Oxford are exceptionally well prepared for careers requiring analytical rigour, cultural understanding and communication across difference. They move into translation and interpreting, diplomacy, journalism, law, academia, international business, broadcasting, the civil service, publishing and the arts. Postgraduate study in linguistics, literature, European studies, translation or related fields is a natural continuation for many.
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