ukstudent

For medievalists, really? There's a tutor at my college who's a medievalist and he does all his work using translated texts apparently, without knowing any other languages. Must just be the US/UK difference that someone above mentioned. Well, that's annoying. I'm going to have to email lots of people.

So it's only by the end of year two that you need to be able to pass the exams? I had emailed Northwestern about it and they got back to me today saying that was the case there. This was all I wanted to know. I can learn them by the end of second year but if they're needed from the off in first year and are a prerequisite for entry then I'd be screwed. Where are you?

I'd prefer to stay in Britain, to be honest but the funding for postgraduate studies over here is terrible so that's why I was looking at the US. I know languages will be valuable and I do want to learn some (even if they don't aid my research). And I've started learning French. I'm more than happy to learn languages, I was just wondering if it's possible to be admitted to a program without them and then be able to learn them on the program before starting the actual PhD thesis when they're supposed to be used. I'd probably end up focusing on Irish-British relations and Northern Ireland so other European languages aren't really going to be that useful to me. It's probably even best to stay in Britain for something like that it's just that getting funding is an absolute nightmare. Taking a year out doesn't really appeal to me that much as I'm already a mature student. This is a bit more reassuring. Perhaps I'll try emailing some professors directly and asking about language requirements for what I'd like to study and research rather than trying to go off the general requirements for the whole department.

Thanks for the reply. I'd be most interested in doing modern (20th Century, mostly) British history although, like you've emntioned, that seems to get lumped in with European at a lot of places and seems to require at least French or German (even though I'm pretty sure none of the tutors who have ever taught me British history could speak other languages). I'd be interested in US history too (again, same period) but I haven't done much of it at undergraduate level so trying to be convincing on my application might be difficult there.

I still can't quite work this out. All of the grad programs require at least one foreign language (sometimes two) but do you have to have proficiency in these before starting the five year program or is there the opportunity to learn them int he first two (MA?) years so that you have the languages by the final three PhD years? I did a bit of a search but couldn't find anything exactly answering my question and the websites of most of the unis I've looked at haven't made it particularly clear either. It doesn't help that I'm from the UK and not used to the US system either. Sorry if this has been asked and answered before and is an annoying recurring question. Thanks.