Magdalen offers an annual prize for a long essay in a foreign language, funds for travel abroad, and substantial grants to enable its modern languages students to take part in language courses in target countries during one of the Long Vacations. Magdalen students have formed a high percentage of those students who have taken the new final-year option in advanced translation from French. When you graduate, you should be able to converse fluently and write accurately in one or two foreign languages. Yes, up to a point. Some of the greatest works of literature were written in languages other than English and we will certainly encourage you to read widely and learn to appreciate them.
Many students become enthusiastic about literature once they study it at university.
Don't forget that our course offers options in Linguistics, the history of the language and Film Studies. As a foreign language assistant in one country. As a student in one or two foreign countries. Working in a paid job in one or two foreign countries. Magdalen students have recently spent their year abroad at the British Institute in Paris, the Conservatoire de Lyon, working in an orphanage in Central America, teaching in Siberia, and working in banks in Paris and Frankfurt.