“Life is a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.” I never really understood the gravity of this quote until I started doing theMLang degree. By choosing this degree scheme, you are blessed with string of new chances and opportunities. You meet new and exciting people, immersing yourself into new cultures and experiences. You have the chance to shape your degree to fit you so that when you fly from the nest, you are uniquely qualified to start the next chapter of your life, and grow into successful and exceptional young adults that will contribute to the lives of many. The MLang is a journey, and what a journey it has been!
Each year gives you the opportunity to expand and develop different parts of yourself, starting with first year Mling life, and moving all the way up the ladder to final year Master’s life. If you had told pre-MLang me that I would be who I am today, having done the things that I have done and learnt the things that I have learnt, I wouldn’t have believed you. It is scary to jump into the unknown, something that was very real for me and my co-class of 2018 MLang Alicia, as we were the first year to ever take part in the scheme, and so there were no support systems specifically designed for us. Because of this, we have worked closely with Olga, Charlotte and Michela to help facilitate the life of an MLang student, through more cohesive handbooks, a website and a fancy mentor system. In this article, I am going to try and explain in a little more detail the roles and importance of each year of the degree, what you are expected to do, and how you can make the most of your time in Lancaster.
First Year: The MLing
As a fresher, your main task is to start learning how to be independent, and also enjoy university! Yes, you will have to work a lot harder than your fellow freshers, as you need to achieve at least 60% at the end of your first year to be considered for the programme, but that’s okay – the teachers would not have approached you if they didn’t think that you would be able to do it. You are amazing and smart, and it’s okay to unwind a little.
I remember in first year I had a very particular timetable: Dalton Mondays, Hustle Tuesdays, Sugar Wednesdays, Pendle Live Thursdays, and Sugar Fridays.... I would give myself the weekend to die from hangovers and catch up on homework, but rest assured, I didn’t break that cycle, and I always turned up for my 9ams the next day, even if I was a little tipsy. I am not advocating this behaviour- it is an extreme case, I know, but the point I am making is that it is possible to enjoy yourself and make the most of Lancaster’s nightlife while you are still young, and it doesn’t take three days to recover from a hangover.
As an MLing, you will usually find that you will meet and have a Q/A panel with the MLang departmental representative in first term, and then after Christmas you will be designated an MLang mentor. This person will be in their third year of study, usually will have studied in one of the same languages as you and will get to know you through socials and informal chats throughout the year as they give you knowledge and advice on how to proceed with the MLang YA programme. This person will become your rock and first point of call for any assistance. Remember that they are only human, and do not have departmental authority – you will still need to talk to your professors for any actual course advice – but your mentor will be there to give you any help that you need, and calm any doubts or fears that you may have. They will be your rock, and will support you whenever you need support.
Your classes in this year will be exactly the same as the first year BA students, the only exceptions being that your pass rate is 60%, whereas theirs is 40%, and you also will have the opportunity to join second year classes in your second and third term. These will be extremely helpful, as when you are on your Year Abroad, you will be expected to do some form of language and translation classes.
My main advice for this year: ENJOY IT! Enjoy the freedom and independence, 2 for £5 jagerbombs at The Crafty Scholar and 99p entry at Sugarhouse, but also work hard and keep on top of your studies. You can do it!
Second year: The Year Abroad
When anyone ever asks me about my YA, I always say that it was the best and worst experience of my life. Although, I have to admit, it definitely leans towards the best. I’m not going to do a fully in-depth “what to expect” section, as it will have been covered beautifully by other members of the MLang degree for all the different countries that they have studied in. But I will say this: If you are doing a single honours you will usually stay in the same place for the entire year, which is great because you can open a proper bank account (for some reason, I couldn’t open a bank account in France, and I will be forever bitter), you can get better accommodation and most importantly, you will feel rooted enough that you can properly explore and travel around your chosen country and get to know a lot more of it better. If you do what I did, a joint honours degree, you will split your year between two countries, and those two experiences will be completely different from each other.
The first part of my year abroad adventure was spent in Poitiers, France, and if I am being brutally honest, I have no idea how I survived it. It was incredibly difficult for me, as I was only 19, the MLang degree had only just been created and so I went away not knowing anyone, and I was still in the ‘fresher year’ mentality of wanting to go out partying every night, which I did. You need to keep street smart when you are on your year abroad, something that I did not really understand beforehand, and I was extremely lucky to have met my fellow MLang-er Alicia, who kept me in check. If you are going to be living in a foreign country, and wanting to go out and party, make sure that you do not do it alone. Poitiers is a relatively safe place, and so I was very lucky, but in the bigger cities this may not be the case, so learn from this old girl’s mistakes, or at the very least learn self-defence! This was my first true experience of culture shock, and it happened in all parts of my life in those three months: from parties and nightclubs, to conversation topics, the way that classes were taught and even the weather – it reached 30 degrees in November, which I was not prepared for! I still remember walking down the halls of the Faculté des Lettres et Langues, inhaling second-hand cigarette smoke and feeling slightly unnerved at how much the decor and the cliques reminded me of a rundown version of high school musical... but I mostly remember having some amazing times with amazing people, and meeting some of my best friends for life in the overly-bright cafeteria.
The second part was completely different. In France, while they are not pro binge drinkers like the unrefined English, they do mainly stick to night-time drinking, and bars and nightclubs are similar, without the slutdropping girls that are chundering in the toilet (woops).
In Spain, sometimes the beer is cheaper than the water and comes with free food! For me, this was the much better experience, as not only did I discover the gym and my abs, tinto de verano and day drinking, and tinder, which led to discovering the love of my life, but I also did a lot of travelling at the weekends. The workload in France did offer me free weekends, but there was homework and studying involved for each lesson, so it was a little more intense, whereas in Spain, although there were more hours of classes, there was only roughly 2 hours of homework given a week, and classes were finished by 4pm. I visited every beach town that I could reach – including a weekly trip to Malaga (only 15€ return from Granada) for the golden three: McDonald’s, Primark and Beach – and all the major cities nearby both on my own and with an Erasmus travel company. My fondest memories of being in Granada mainly centre around Parque Garcia Lorca, only 5 minutes walk from my house, where I would go with my friends in the evening drinking cerveza, eating pipas and listening to them play guitar and sing in Spanish and Arabic whilst playing Ludo. Never in my life have I been so happy, healthy or relaxed, nor did I ever have such a good tan.
My advice: Your lessons are very important, so don’t forget to put the time in and do the homework and study for your exams, but embrace and live every moment. Get Tinder and play the “I’m foreign and want to learn the language” card (if you are single). Go on every Erasmus trip and event that you are able to. Do crazy different things and put yourself in new situations, but always keep yourself safe. Also, it’s always a good idea to learn Karate.
Third Year: The MLang
Congratulations – you did it! You managed to survive your Year Abroad, and the hard work has paid off. You at least feel pretty good about one of your languages and some of you may have even come back with an exotic beau, which can lead to many great opportunities in the future, including a few free cheeky trips abroad. Now, you face the biggest challenge to date: your first true experience of being a year behind in studies. This may seem daunting, I know, but if you have gone to second year classes while you were in first year, you will know most of your classmates, and most people will come back off their year abroad at a similar level. One thing that you have to remind yourself on a regular basis is that you are not going to be the bottom of the class, and even if you are (which you won’t be, because you are fabulous), you have had a year less of studying than the rest of them and so you can cut yourself a little bit of slack at first and knuckle down hard to get the best results. Plus, you are going to be doing a dissertation, which is worth 30 credits and on a subject that you are uniquely passionate about. If you read Alicia’s article, there are some great pointers on how to write a great dissertation here.
There is a problem which most people don’t realise when they come back to Lancaster, which usually doesn’t come to light for a few months, and that is “reverse culture shock”, or the “Erasmus blues.” Be careful of this, but don’t let it get you down - everyone goes through this in DeLC, not just MLang, and so talk to someone. Your peers will be going through it at the same time, and if you want to have a chat with your mentor from your stint as an MLing, even though they may have graduated, will always be there for you if you need them. If not, find some sun and give yourself a much-needed dose of Vitamin D. Sun always helps if you are returning from Sunny Spain, Germany or France, and have to live in the dismal, wet weather conditions of Lancaster.
I would recommend at this stage, if you don’t already, consider living with your fellow MLangs or your final year. Depending on your preferences, living on or off campus both have a lot of benefits and I personally recommend living off campus because you will have missed that golden second year opportunity to live in town. Yes, the bus fare is not cheap, but you can get an all-year bus pass for a reasonable price, and being able to walk into town for a drink or to get groceries is so much more convenient. Plus, you can much easier separate university life from home life and truly learn how to relax in your downtime.
This is the year that you will decide if you want to become a mentor or not. You will not be an MLang Rep in this year, as you have not had the full experience and so cannot comment on the needs of the many, or sit through bi-monthly, two-hour long meetings to discuss the progress of the course (unless you want to for pure bantz), because you will have to do a lot more studying. Being an MLang mentor was one of the most rewarding parts of this degree – you learn to be a rock for your MLings, answer questions when they are nervous and keep them motivated when they are down. To be selected for this course means that you are incredibly intelligent anyway, so there does not need to be too much guidance, however you get to help arrange the fun stuff such as mixers and meet ups so that you can make sure that they bond within their year group. Later in the year, I will write a post about how exactly to be a great mentor, but each person will bring their own different skills to this post, and hopefully make it a great and relaxed environment for years to come.
Fourth Year: The Master
The end is in sight. You have been at Lancaster for 3 years, and painfully watched your friends all graduate over the summer months. Maybe you went to the Grad Ball, maybe you did some travelling, maybe you did an internship, but at the end of the day you are now entering your final push before beginning the rest of your life. It’s been a long struggle, and you have done the majority of the hard work. However, don’t stop now!
This is your final chance to enrich your CV, enjoy your last year of university life (unless you decide to do a PHD), and start looking for a job. Most grad schemes have deadlines at the end of November, so it is best to start applying and thinking about getting a good CV together before you leave university for the summer. There are a lot less contact hours this year, but many more things to do, so utilise your time well. You have an opportunity to join a department outside of DeLC, which I would recommend that you consider long and hard – you will only be allowed to do one module, and it may be intensive, or clash with your other subject, which is a lot to take on. I studied in the Management School and I loved it – it was a great opportunity to learn more about Project Management, something that comes up a lot in the translation field, but the course was extremely intensive and linked to other modules, so it has meant that I have spent less time on things that I should probably have spent more time on, such as job applications. It’s a tricky one to balance, even without working 20 hours a week on weekends at a bar.
This year contains the two most important roles of the MLang: “The MLang Rep” and the “Website Co-ordinator.” The MLang Rep, like most representatives of DELC, is there to listen to your concerns and be your advocate in meetings. First years will be paired with their third year mentors, and you will meet with them at the beginning of the year to check how the MLangs are adjusting to life back in England. Your mentees will be on their Year Abroad at this stage, meaning that you will be in good contact with them throughout the year, making this the perfect year to be the rep as you will know most of the people that you are going to represent. Great for your CV, this role will also be the ‘Head Mentor’ and so if you haven’t mentored an MLang student in your previous year, this role may not be for you. As the intake for each year remains relatively small, it makes sense to combine these roles, but as the MLang grows in size, then maybe in the future ‘Head Mentor’ and ‘Course Rep’ can be split into two roles!
The other role is the ‘Website Co-ordinator’ I have carefully designed this website to be a space for MLang students to write blog posts about their life as an MLang student, so that when people are looking to apply for the MLang, they have a much clearer picture or what it is, which some of us didn’t have when we began the course. The role will be to pester people to write more things and give more quality content, check the grammar and tonality of the posts (i.e. no swearing), and also be in charge of the Facebook group, and the email address. This is a digital role which you can expand on as much as you like: Keep the website up to date, but feel free to add new social media accounts (such as twitter, a public MLang Facebook profile, Instagram or Snapchat) if you feel you can take on the workload. Only you will have access to the passwords, but you don’t have to be the only one doing creative work!
There are many things that you can go into after you have graduated, not just translation or interpretation. There is still a chance to do British Council and teach abroad, or you can go into a graduate scheme in any field. People that speak a foreign language are increasingly employable, and most grad schemes teach you your chosen field on the job: business, management, marketing, finance... the world is your oyster.
Hopefully this (incredibly long) article has cleared up the MLang degree for you in a little more depth. If you are unsure about anything, or want an idea of what life is like for a graduated MLang, feel free to contact me on the email address provided, or connect with me on LinkedIn!
Fly my little MLings, Fly!
