MODERN LANGUAGES NEWSLETTER MARCH 2015
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Hello! I am delighted to share with you some of the exciting developments in our language-teaching provision, here at the University of Manchester. Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish: we teach them all across a vast range of courses, with cutting-edge expertise and benefitting from a fully immersive programme. Whether you study these languages from scratch or are already proficient, a language degree at Manchester will allow you to realise your potential, and will very likely represent the most fruitful and constructive four years you will ever spend. In our globalised world, the ability to speak languages is central to leading richer, more interconnected lives, and students here develop the communication and critical skills that not only enable them to understand others better, but also to grow into socially responsible and culturally attentive citizens. With flexibility of course options, native-speaker staff, superb facilities, round-the-year cultural events and numerous employment opportunities, we are confident that we deliver one of the best learning experiences for modern languages in the UK. Take a look through this magazine for highlights of our courses, events and partners. I really hope to see you next year! Dr Barbara Lebrun, Modern Languages Undergraduate Admissions Director. 2
1 CONTENTS News from our language subjects
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News from our Joint Honours programmes
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Residence Abroad
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Recent and forthcoming cultural events
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Languages in Manchester
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Contact us
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NEWS FROM OUR LANGUAGE SUBJECTS (listed alphabetically) Arabic As in previous years, the L-PAL ‘language buddy’ scheme is teaming up students with native Arabic speakers, and the film club is showcasing films in Arabic, Persian, Hebrew and Turkish (all with English subtitles). In February, our seminar series kicked off with a talk from Dr Elian Weizman (SOAS, London) on ‘Resistance to Zionism as an Educative Practice’. You can hear staff from Middle Eastern Studies speak about their teaching and research. Two recent publications by colleagues include Public Culture and Islam in Modern Egypt (I.B.Tauris, 2015) by Dr Hatsuki Aishima, and a special issue of the Journal for Cultural Research on ‘Women, Culture, and the 2011 Egyptian Revolution’, edited by Dr Dalia Mostafa. Aspects of their research are woven into the undergraduate programme.
Chinese Happy Year of the Goat/Sheep/Ram! We’ve recently welcomed the New Year with numerous activities held within the department of Chinese Studies, the university’s Confucius Institute and Manchester’s bustling Chinatown (a short walk from campus). Over one hundred students of Chinese Studies and international students from China enjoyed a take-away from a local Chinese restaurant, played mah-jong, practiced paper cutting and generally had a great time! Our teaching is always supported by extra-curricular activities, and Dr Christopher Payne, who teaches the popular Y2 module ‘Contemporary Asian Art’, recently took his class on two fieldtrips, one to Manchester’s newly reopened Whitworth Art Gallery (for the special exhibition of the acclaimed Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang), and the other to see Sun Xun’s animated short film What Happened in the Year of the Dragon at the local Cornerhouse cinema. We also welcomed American film-maker Jocelyn Ford for the UK premiere of her film Nowhere to Call Home, which was followed by a lively Q&A about ethnic relations between Tibetans and Han Chinese in China. Another recent visitor was the author Martin Jacques, who gave a talk on his bestselling (and controversial!) book When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order. You can read more about what we offer and watch videos featuring current Chinese Studies students on our new subject page. 4
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French In French Studies we hold year-round events that bring together students from all year groups, along with staff and the francophone community of Manchester. These recently included La Nuit gourmande in November (with lots of rich food to sample), and the roundtable discussion Are we Charlie? in January, which featured a former journalist from Charlie Hebdo. For our Year 2 students, we have recently held two activities showcasing the different opportunities for the Year Abroad, one set up as a speed-networking event with returning students, and the other held in partnership with the Alliance française de Manchester and business partners working with language graduates. On 18 March, we welcome Professor Sonya Stephens (from Mount Holyoke College, USA) who will deliver a special lecture entitled Postcards from Paris: Past and Present. From 23-27 March, as every year, our finalists will have the opportunity to follow a stage de perfectionnement (intensive language revision course) in the beautiful surroundings of the Institut de Touraine, in the Loire Valley. And for all our past and upcoming events, news, interviews, food and music reviews, visit our Manchester French Connections website, which is run by students for students, and showcases ‘all things French and Francophone’ in Manchester and the North-West region.
German In German Studies we continue to offer our huge variety of courses from the 18th century to the present, with particularly popular courses including ‘Gender, Sexuality and Race in the 20th century’, ‘Screening the Holocaust’ and ‘New German Identities: Turkish-German Culture’. Drama is also an original asset of our department, with Professor Steve Parker’s expertise on Bertolt Brecht being woven into course modules –his biography of the playwright, Bertolt Brecht: A Literary Life, came out last year (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014). The German Society is one of the most active student societies in the University, and is currently busy preparing its annual play: Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui (The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui), the 1941 play by Brecht that satirizes Hitler’s rise to power, will be performed, in German, at the Contact Theatre on 16-18 April 2015 during our regular Palaver Festival.
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Italian Building on our illustrious history, with its long tradition of expertise in comparative literature, translation and medieval and Renaissance culture, we offer an impressive range of course unit options in Italian Studies, with classes on early manuscripts and printed books, paintings, film, children’s literature, fascist periodicals of the 1930s and crime fiction being only a selection. In particular, our students work closely with the John Rylands Library and the Whitworth Art Gallery to enrich their learning experience, gaining privileged access to a Manchester-based, Italian cultural patrimony that was collected by local Victorian merchants. Until June this year, for instance, the John Rylands Library on Deansgate is hosting an exhibition of rare Italian editions entitled ‘From Venice to Manchester’, drawing on the expertise of Italian Studies staff. Like all departments, our native language tutors provide excellent language tuition across all years, with various peer-assisted schemes helping first-year students in particular. For more news and views from the Italian department, you can follow us on Twitter: @UofM_Italian.
Japanese We recently revamped our Year 1 programme with the new core course ‘Introduction to Japanese Studies’, and a new optional one, ‘Film and Society in Japan’, and are developing a Year 2 option on ‘Science, Technology and Civilisation in East Asia’. Regularly offering access to Japan-related events in Manchester and beyond, our next trip is to the Royal Northern College of Music for The Legend of Dojoji, a traditional Japanese tale accompanied by flute and drums. The Japanese conversation café continues every Wednesday afternoon, bringing together Japanese exchange students and our own students for mutual benefit. This year’s visiting speaker series is coming to an end, but Semester One saw two talks on the representation of gender (especially women) in Japanese media. Other forthcoming events, including film screenings, are announced on our Facebook Japanese Studies page, which helps keep students into contact with Japanese culture and with stimulating academic ideas from colleagues in Japanese Studies internationally. For the Year Abroad, we now have 25 active exchange agreements which offer an unparalleled range of destinations for our students. 6
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Portuguese At Manchester, Portuguese is taught with Brazil very much in mind, and so we’re following with excitement the preparation for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (2016), and we recently set up a new university exchange with the Universidade de Santa Catarina in Florianópolis, located on the Brazilian coast just South of São Paulo, where we already have an exchange programme. Our new Portuguese language tutor, José Coelho de Souza, is organizing a Lusophone film cycle and this, alongside our very successful Café Lusófono, provides regular and informal gatherings for students to practise their Portuguese and to immerse themselves in Lusophone culture. As always, we maintain a keen interest in the Lusophone world beyond Portugal and Brazil by following events in Portuguese-speaking Africa, and our colleague Professor Hilary Owen (a specialist in Portuguese women’s writing) will host a symposium in March entitled ‘Mediating Africa in Lisbon’.
Spanish The first semester was very lively in Spanish and Latin American Studies (SPLAS for short). The latest version of El Periódico, a collaboration between students and staff, came out; the Café en Español, our regular Spanish-language get-together, is up and running; SPLASSS (the student society) ran their hugely successful trip to Madrid and have several new events planned. We helped with the programming for the 21st VIVA Spanish and Latin American Film Festival, now split into three events taking place in March at Cornerhouse (Manchester’s art-house cinema) and in June and October at Manchester’s new cultural hub, HOME. Our Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies’ seminar series continues with talks on illegal settlements, favelas and urban inequalities from Mexico to Colombia and Brazil, amongst several other exciting topics. Film screenings continue at the Instituto Cervantes. ¡Es que hay muchísimo! In the meantime all the Semester Two courses are at full tilt, exploring aspects of 20thcentury Spanish history, revolution in Latin America, Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quijote, Latin American visual cultures, social issues in Spanish and Portuguese cinema, to mention only a few. We hope you will become part of it all and that we can look forward to welcoming you here in September. 7
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Russian Manchester is one of the best-known centres of Russian and East European Studies in Europe, and our wide-ranging programme allows you to learn about Russia’s great culture, fascinating and complex history, and often troubled politics. Our language provision includes training in Russian-to-English translation, in Business Russian and in Polish, another Slavic language. In November, our vibrant Russian Student Society invited the Kalina Balalaika Ensemble, a group of musicians specializing in traditional Russian music who performed for our students. Lech Majewski, a famous Polish artist, film-maker, poet and stage-director, visited Manchester in February. In March, we’re hosting a Russian cooking evening with a local Russian chef who will teach everyone how to make traditional delicacies. In the spring, those students taking Polish will participate in the 2015 Lingua Polonica Prize Competition for the best student work on Polish culture, sponsored by the Embassy of Poland in the UK. Looking ahead to next year, we have already started recruiting new student leaders for our Peer-Assisted Study Scheme (PASS), which gives first-year students additional practice and support with their Russian language classes. We are also busy preparing new course units, including the first-year course ‘The making of modern Russia’, and the Year 2 course ‘100 Years of Revolution: Russia from Lenin to Putin’.
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7 For all languages Please check out the current (2014-15) Modern Languages Brochure where details of course units are listed. Some variation may occur from year to year, but the general principle of choice among the optional course units remains. All languages offer peer-support sessions where older students guide first-years in their learning, and organise regular cultural events. Each new student is paired up with an individual member of staff (‘Academic Advisor’) upon arrival; this colleague gets to know the students best and remains their main point of contact throughout their studies. This colleague also writes reference letters once you graduate. We recently inaugurated a state-of-the-art Interpreting Suite, where undergraduates can practice the art of simultaneous translation and interpreting with trained specialists, who themselves have experience of working for major international bodies (European Parliament, United Nations).
New in 2015 for Single Honours programmes Single Honours students can now take optional units outside their main area of study for between 20 and 40 credits per year (out of a compulsory yearly total of 120). This includes modules from across the Faculty of Humanities, and can include an additional language.
An additional language? Depending on the combination of languages you already do, and the level at which you study them, you may be allowed to study an additional language for 20 credits per year. This could include Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Urdu and TESOL (English for foreign speakers).
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NEWS FROM TWO OF OUR JOINT HONOURS PROGRAMMES
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At Manchester you can study languages alongside these non-language subjects: Business and Management; Classics; European Studies; History; Art History; English Literature; English Language; Linguistics; Life Sciences; Maths. Crucially, you can combine your two subjects flexibly. Whereas Year 1 requires you to split your subject evenly (50%-50%), in Years 2 and 4 you may focus on one subject more than on the other (40%-60% split). Most combinations also allow you to take a free-choice option, selected from a huge range of modules in the Faculty of Humanities; this may include an additional language.
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Business and Management With as many as 28 different second-year and 24 final-year modules to choose from, across business, management and economics, the Business & Management programme at Manchester is unique in its breadth, and only delivered by experts. The Manchester Leadership Programme, an optional course unit in Year 2, offers hands-on training in Management, with leaders from all sections of society, including academia, business, charities and the public sector, giving master classes to students. On the Language side, we offer dedicated business language classes, a huge number of opportunities for term-time work placements, internships abroad and contacts with business once you graduate. In French Studies for instance, the specialist Business French tutor runs a ‘Working with French’ event every year which brings local businesses and language graduates together.
European Studies On 3 March, the Politics Society ran a ‘Question Time’ event with lecturers and Professors, where students could ask staff questions about ‘hot’ political topics (assisted by free drinks). On 30 April, the University Of Manchester will host the Politics and International Relations Undergraduate Research Conference, in which undergraduate students from European Studies, Politics, International Relations and Government across the UK will have the opportunity to present their final-year dissertations and receive feedback from specialists. These are just two examples of the kind of extra-curricular activities that go on round the year and which facilitate learning while providing employment opportunities for Manchester students. On finishing their studies, graduates in European Studies with a Modern Language are in most cases engaged in further education (MA and doctoral studies) or in further training to become accountants and lawyers, and many work for international organisations in the areas of business, media and communication. 11
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RESIDENCE ABROAD All students spend Year 3 abroad, and depending on your proficiency in a given language, and which languages you combine together, you will spend between 2 and 8 months in a single country, or much more time abroad overall across at least two destinations. Not only do you have a choice in where you go, but also in what you do while abroad. You can study, teach English or do an internship, and usually mix and match these possibilities. Example 1: a Single Honours French student may study for one semester in La Martinique (French Caribbean), then do an internship in Paris for the second semester. Example 2: a Joint Honours German & Chinese student may work in Berlin for 3 months, then study in Shanghai for 6. Example 3: a Joint Honours History of Art & Italian student may teach English in Bologna for 8 months, then follow a language course in Rome for the summer. If you choose to work, our superb Careers Service provides a database of reliable foreign companies where our students have already had very positive experiences. If you are interested in studying abroad, see the full list of our current university partners.
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And remember‌ French, Spanish and Portuguese are not just spoken in Europe: you can immerse yourself in these languages much further afield.
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RECENT AND FORTHCOMING CULTURAL EVENTS
‘Are we Charlie?’ On Friday 30 January 2015, only three weeks after the Paris terrorist attacks, staff from French Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Politics and History came together to share their expertise on post-colonial immigration, terrorism and counter-terrorism, the place of Islam in France and beyond, and freedom of expression. Olivier Cyran, a former journalist from the magazine Charlie Hebdo, was invited. Listen to the podcast here. With a crowd of over 250, drawn from staff, students and visitors, this was just one recent example of the kind of public, topical events that we organise all year round, and which the resources and prestige of the University of Manchester facilitate. ‘Palaver festival’ Forthcoming in April 2015, the Palaver festival is a week-long celebration of art and culture in foreign languages, in partnership between the University and the Contact theatre. Music, plays and other types of performance are on the programme.
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Languages in Manchester – it’s not just for the Degree!
Being the large urban centre that it is, Manchester is particularly multicultural and student-friendly, and the ideal place to learn languages given its long-established partnerships with cultural institutes, chief among which are the Confucius Institute, the Alliance française de Manchester and the Instituto Cervantes.
Manchester is itself a popular destination for foreign students, and the University’s links with European and world-wide institutions means that the campus is always abuzz with visitors. It couldn’t be easier meeting up with foreigners whose native language you’re hoping to learn!
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CONTACT US ug-languages@manchester.ac.uk Undergraduate Admissions Office School of Arts, Languages and Cultures Room A19, Samuel Alexander Building The University of Manchester Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PT United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)161 275 3265
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