2023 Finalists and their plans

This week our fabulous finalists become our fabulous graduates and, as well as congratulating them all on their achievements over the past few years, we also wanted to give you a sense of the range of plans they have for the months and years ahead. So, in no particular order, and with others to be added into the mix over the coming days …

Lauren, who’ll be graduating with a BA Hons in French with Spanish and Professional Education is about  to start her probation year teaching French and Spanish in secondary schools. She’s due to find out where she’ll be teaching in the next couple of weeks and, after 5 years at university (and being the student for 20+ years!), is excited to start! And Ewan, who is graduating with a BA Hons in French and Spanish, and who spent time in Quebec during his studies (merci pour les photos!), plans to take a year out of education, and then to go to Montreal next year to study a masters in translation from English to French. He is looking into deferring the offer he has received until next year in order to be able to work and save some money before he goes over there.

Emma, who has just completed her BA Hons in International Management with European Languages and Society has just found out that she has been accepted on the British Council English Language Assistantship scheme for a placement in Spain. When she comes back, she’s thinking of going on to do a postgrad course in secondary teaching for languages. And Nela, who’ll also be graduating with a BA Hons in International Management with European Languages and Society is off to undertake a 7-month residential programme at the Isha Yoga Centre in India. She’ll be doing daily sadhana and volunteering in exchange, hopefully translating some of the Sadhguru’s teachings into French. As for Eden, who is graduating with a BA Hons in French, she’ll be working as a waitress at Taymouth Marina Resort for the next year to save up money for some Marine qualifications and then plans to work as a deckhand on superyachts in the Mediterranean, hopefully based in France.

Jannie has just finished her BA Hons in Psychology and a European Language with us is planning to head to Strathclyde Uni on the master’s for organizational and work psychology. Before then, this summer, she will be travelling, visiting her friends across Europe, and working back home in Denmark. And Beth, who will be graduating with a BA Hons in French and Spanish, has been accepted for the MA Translation and Cultures at Warwick for the coming academic year. Beth is waiting to see if she has been successful in getting a scholarship and, if she has, then she’ll be Warwick-bound! Until then, she’ll be working in an inn on Mull to earn money before moving down south.

Many, many thanks to all our soon-to-be graduates for having got back to us with all this information about their plans. We wish you all the very best for the future and have thoroughly enjoyed teaching you all throughout your degree! Enjoy your graduation ceremony and do keep in touch. And, if you happen to be reading this as a finalist and haven’t had a chance to get back to us yet, please do drop us an email and we’ll very gladly add your plans into the mix. Mainly, though, félicitations à toutes et à tous!!

2022 Finalists and their plans

Our annual post about our fantastic finalists and their plans for life after graduation has become something of a blog tradition (see 2021 here, for example, or 2020 here) and this year is no different. As this year’s finalists prepare for their graduation ceremonies next week, it’s great to be able to share their thoughts and plans for what lies ahead so here goes…

Morgan, who’ll be graduating in International Politics with Languages, is spending her summer volunteering in Calais and working in the refugee camp there (keep an eye on the blog for Morgan’s own post about that). At the end of the Summer, she’ll be off to Belfast to start an MA in Conflict Transformation and Social Justice at Queen’s University. And Pauline, who is also graduating with a BA Hons in International Politics with Languages is spending her Summer working as an intern in the European Parliament, working for an independent MEP. From October, she will be doing a trilingual Master in Applied European governance and policymaking, based in Nice, Kent and Berlin. Sophie, who has just completed her BA Hons in French and Spanish, is also continuing with her studies and is starting a BA in Theology and Christian Leadership at Missio Dei college which has affiliation with the University of Chester. Sophie will also be working with her church in Stirling to manage their social media and communications. As she says, this is a bit different from her degree work but she will have the opportunity to use her French and Spanish on missions trips and will also get the opportunity to learn Hebrew and Greek.

Finn will be graduating in French and Marketing next week and has a part-time field sales role with Fuel10k, an up-and-coming breakfast/cereal brand who also do their fair share of charity and environmental work that has led them to become the first cereal B-Corp brand. Finn’s cycling career is also going well and we’re delighted to be able to report that he has been selected to represent Scotland at the Commonwealth Games this August in Birmingham. He’s also got some big races coming up on the continent, as well as throughout the UK, so we’ll all be keeping our fingers firmly crossed. Then there’s Brendan, who’s graduating in French and Spanish, and who we’re really pleased to say will be returning to Stirling in the Autumn for this to work on our Master’s programme in TESOL. Like Brendan, Ceinwen is also planning future postgraduate studies as she looks forward to a research Master’s, building on her BA Hons in French, and both Muirne and Vasiliki, who will be graduating in Business Studies and French, are also planning postgraduate studies. Muirne will be starting a Master’s in International Business in September and Vasiliki intends to undertake a Master’s in Business based in Madrid, as well as being interested in an internship or a future career that would involve translation further down the line. And Sofia, whose degree was in French and Spanish, is planning a Master’s in South Asian Area Studies at SOAS where she hopes to research the transmission of intergenerational trauma in Asian women in the UK.

As for Maria, who has also just completed her BA Hons in Business Studies and French, at the moment she is working for her family’s business and she hopes to secure a job in Human Resources by the end of September. Maria is currently looking for positions both using French and English and hopes to secure one where she will still be able to practise her French on a daily basis. As part of her degree, Maria spent a semester at our partner institution ESSEC Business School in Cergy-Pontoise and her tip for future languages graduates is to make the most of Study Abroad in job applications because it gives you a real advantage as a candidate. And then we have Jackie, who’ll be graduating with her BA Hons in English Studies and French, and who is currently back home in Chicago with a very busy schedule, working full-time at a hair salon, part-time as a gymnastics coach, and working on writing her seventh book in her spare time. Jackie has been independently publishing books since she was 18, and her goal is to one day become a full-time author. She would love to be able to write full-time and travel around Scotland, France, and more of Europe once she has the savings to do so. Her current plan is to work and save money for a year or two, and then hopefully spend some time in France to really get fluent. As if all that wasn’t enough, Jackie is also currently taking an online TEFL course so would love to build on that in France as well.

Valentina has just completed her BA Hons in International Management with European Languages and Society and is already in employment, working in the finance department of our local translation and interpreting agency Global Voices. Her role is as a credit controller for the Italian and French markets so plenty of scope to continuing using her language skills in a friendly environment where they’re looking to expand their multilingual workforce. And David, who will be graduating with a BA Hons in French and History, is currently in Minnesota working as a Division Director in a summer camp until the end of August. After that, he plans to return to Stirling either to work in the heritage sector or to undertake our own Master’s in Heritage. And Courtney, who is graduating with a BA Hons in French, is continuing her current career path with a job in a pharmacy. She’ll be starting her dispensary course soon which means she can become a dispenser and will be eventually undertaking a course to become a dispensary technician. 

Caitlin, who will be graduating with a BA Hons in French, has an offer for a place on the PGDE in Primary Teaching at the University of Strathclyde, a career that has always been her goal and her dream, so she’s really looking forward to starting on her teaching career. Like Caitlin, Eilidh is also heading for a career in teaching, as she reaches the end of her BA Hons in French and Spanish with Professional Education (Secondary) and is particularly pleased to have learned that her probation year will be spent teaching in her own former high school. Shannon, who has just obtained her BA Hons in French and Spanish at Stirling, is moving on to study for a PGDE in Early years and KS1 education at Liverpool John Moores University. She has always wanted to teach primary and her time teaching in Spain through the British Council helped her decide which age she’d like to teach. Shannon hopes to let her language work influence some lesson plans in the future. And our other Caitlin, who is graduating in French and Spanish with Professional Education (Secondary) will also be beginning her probationary year in August and is very much looking forward to getting the opportunity to inspire young people to learn languages. And Lara, who has just completed her BA Hons In French and Spanish, is also off to teach but, in her case, it’ll be through the British Council English Language Assistantship scheme. Next year, she’ll be working as an ELA in the Community of Madrid to experience full immersion in Spanish language and culture and to explore the opportunity of a future career in teaching Languages. Lara is planning on reapplying next year to do the same in a French-speaking country.

And Joanna, who’ll be graduating in French and Spanish, is planning to apply for a post working with PwC and intends to begin a Master’s in either Business or Translation later next year. First and foremost, though, Joanna’s getting married in two weeks’ time and, on behalf of everyone in French at Stirling, we wish her and her partner a very happy future together!

We’ll keep adding to this post as and when updates come in from more of this year’s finalists but, as ever, this is definitely one of the most fun posts to put together and we’re really grateful to all the finalists who have been in touch so far. On behalf of everyone in French at Stirling, we wish you a fantastic graduation and all the very best for the future, and we hope you’ll keep in touch with us over the months and years ahead.

French at Stirling: Confidence, Communication, Travel

We’re all getting ready to welcome our new students who’ll be joining us in just a few weeks, and to welcome back continuing students, but that also means saying goodbye to those who’ve just graduated and who are off to other things and other climes. It’s a busy time for them all but we’re delighted to be able to post this article by Emily, who just graduated in French and History and who has taken the time to reflect on her five years with us, before heading off to start a postgrad course in a couple of weeks:

‘It feels a wee bit strange writing this post for the French at Stirling blog, as it’s the last one I’ll write as a student at Stirling before I start a Masters at a different university. Honestly, I can’t quite believe it, it seems like last week that we were all lined up outside Pathfoot A96 for our first introductory lecture. I certainly don’t think that any of us then could have predicted how our studies would end up finishing this year with the pandemic!

Now that I’ve got the degree, I think I can admit that Stirling wasn’t initially my first choice, but in the end, it was definitely the right one. I remember coming to an open day way back in 2016 with my dad and loving the uni and its location straight away, and this only grew when I started my studies. First and second year seemed to go by in a flash, and although I maybe spent too much time going out and not enough studying, I wouldn’t change any of it for the world. During these first two years away from home, I met some of the best people who have gone on to become some of my closest friends, which I think is just as important as good grades, if not more.

That being said, after reaching the halfway mark, I decided that it would be a good idea to take a year out to work in France as an English Language Assistant to improve my French, but more importantly, to eat my body weight in cheese and croissants. I was placed in lycée in a wee village in Brittany, and even though I’m not planning on going into full-time teaching, this role taught me loads, and it really was one of the best things I’ve done in my life so far.

However, it wouldn’t be entirely honest if I painted it as all sunshine and roses. Moving to a completely new country, having to speak another language and adapt to new cultures and customs can be really hard at times, and I know I had my fair share of ups and downs along the way. Despite the difficulties however, I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending it to any current French students who get the opportunity, because you get so much more out of it than just improving your French skills. I won’t use that gap-year cliché and say that I ‘found myself’ during my year abroad, but I feel that I did quite a bit of growing up while I was away, and that I came back a more independent and understanding person. Even if you learn nothing else while away, meeting new people that you wouldn’t have met otherwise and learning to understand their perspectives is always going to be worth it.

Taking a year out really helped my French skills, but after it I was really looking forward to getting back into uni. I think that a lot of people, myself included, feel the pressure being turned up in third year with results counting towards our final degree, but now when I look back on 2019, especially with everything that’s happened in the last year, I can’t help but see it as some sort of golden age when we could actually sit together in classrooms without social distancing, when in reality it was still quite difficult! In third year we also had the opportunity to participate in an Erasmus exchange, and so I spent that spring semester at the Université de Limoges in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. It was nice to experience French education as a student instead of a teacher, and although it was cut short because of the pandemic, it was still a really fun experience.

And so, that brings me onto my final year at Stirling. I think everyone had their highs and lows during this year: not having to commute and being able to wear PJs to class was nice, but not seeing any classmates or lecturers and being stuck inside for a whole year? Not so good. Despite all of our classes and lectures being online, the staff in the language department did a really good job at trying to make the year as normal as they could for us. Hopefully we’ll eventually get an in-person graduation ceremony so we can actually see each other in real life instead of through a screen, and celebrate the fact that we made it through the toughest year of uni – during a global pandemic no less.

Over the last 5 years, the question I’ve probably been asked the most in regards to my degree is ‘what are you going to do with that?’, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s heard this. Still, I never get tired of explaining to people that actually there are so many options with a language degree, and you get a lot more from it than just a second language. It teaches you how to be confident, how to communicate effectively, and it also teaches you that making mistakes is okay!

So, what am I going to do with it? Well, the next step for me will be in September, when I’m due to start a master’s degree in publishing at Edinburgh Napier. I’ve decided to go down this route because I feel that I’ll be able to put a lot of the skills that I’ve learned through my degree into use in a career in publishing, potentially in international rights or marketing. But before all that, I’ll be working over the summer as an optical consultant and a French and History tutor!

Before I finish, I would like to take the time to thank all of the amazing lecturers that have taught and helped me over the last 5 years: Cristina Johnston, Elizabeth Ezra, Mathilde Mazau, Brigitte Depret, Jean-Michel DesJacques, Fiona Barclay, Bill Marshall, David Murphy, Fanny Lacôte, and everyone else in the Language Department who I’ve come across whether it be in an exam or just in the corridor! THANK YOU!’

Many, many thanks to Emily for such a great article and for the kind words, and we all wish you all the best for the postgrad course this coming year and for life beyond that. Keep in touch and best wishes!

Virtual Graduation Celebrations

Unfortunately, our in-person graduation ceremonies have had to be cancelled this year but Languages at Stirling organised an online graduation get-together for our graduating cohort on Wednesday this week. An excellent reason to repeat our congratulations to them all, to pass on special congratulations to Rachel who was this year’s recipient of our Simone de Beauvoir Prize for an excellent performance across her French modules and, for those who were unable to attend, to reiterate French Programme Director Elizabeth Ezra’s congratulatory message:

‘On behalf of French, I’d like to give my heartfelt congratulations to the class of 2021. You’ve not only successfully navigated the obstacle course that we normally put in place for our students to ensure they can handle anything and everything that might come their way in the future world of work or study; you’ve also had to deal with much, much more than your fair share of additional obstacles that fate added to the mix, all of which you have borne with grace and good will. Here you are on the other side, having succeeded, frankly, against the odds, proving that you are indeed ready for anything. You really are a pretty wonderful group of accomplished, kind, and well-rounded students, and we will miss you. Please do keep in touch with us in the years ahead; we love hearing about what our students get up to. My colleagues and I wish you all the very best in your future endeavours, whatever the future may hold for you. Félicitations!’

Reflecting and looking forward…

And following on from Nela’s post about her Stirling journey, as promised, an equally great post from Charlotte who graduated last June in French and Spanish and who reflects here on the year that has just gone by and the year that lies ahead:

‘Looking back on 2020, as a whole, it has been a rollercoaster! In January, I started my final semester of my French and Spanish degree, not quite knowing where it was going to take me yet. In my head at the time, I had been more focused on postgraduate applications, graduation, and grad ball.

Final semester was in full swing and as we know, the last few weeks weren’t as we thought they were going to be. The day after the University announced its closure, I packed up my things from my Stirling flat and went back up to Inverness to complete my first experience of ‘virtual learning’, which I think we can all agree isn’t the easiest thing to do! 

Nevertheless, Uni finished, I completely exceeded my expectations of myself with my degree award and I had accepted my place at The University of Highlands and Islands to complete my PGDE in Primary Education. I had always gone back to the idea of becoming a Primary Teacher, but when originally applying for university in 2014, it had never crossed my mind to go straight into it. In my head I wanted to go to University to study something non-career specific and something I felt passionate about which was French and Spanish. If I wanted to become a teacher by the end of it, I could do it as a postgraduate.  

I am so glad I took this route. Studying French and Spanish gave me so many tools and transferable skills that have been indispensable and so useful for my journey to becoming a teacher. The biggest learning curves definitely came during my year as an English Language Assistant in Spain through the way it helped me grow my confidence and my love for teaching.  

I’m writing this in December 2020 and I have now completed about 15 weeks of the PGDE programme. I’d be lying if I said it has been easy. Online learning has been tough with lack of interaction, especially when you are becoming a teacher where your whole career involves socialising and communicating in person! However, I have been very, very lucky. Through the University I have made some great friends (virtually) from study groups and classes, and I have loved the practical side to things.  

Because of Covid-19, I have only completed 4 weeks of placement so far, but I have loved every second of being in the classroom. I have been really fortunate to have had a really welcoming and supportive school and the kids have been amazing. By the end of the 4 weeks, I really didn’t want to leave and go back to online classes and the kids were super sad about it. However, the light at the end of the tunnel is that for my second placement I get to return to the same class. I am already so excited and have been thinking non-stop about what I can do next with the kids. 

I am so excited to see what 2021 has in store for me in terms of completing the PGDE and seeing where it will take me. You never know, I might end up back in Stirling…’

Many, many thanks to Charlotte for having taken the time to send us through the post and we wish you all the very best for the second placement, and for the rest of your PGDE and beyond. Do keep in touch! And thanks also to Alfie (Charlotte’s cat) for reminding us of the unexpected side of the online learning environment…

Student Successes

We’re a week away from the end of teaching and a few hours away from the weekend, and this seems like an excellent time to post congratulations to some of our students.

Félicitations, firstly, to Ewan, Agathe and Shryia who graduated yesterday from our postgraduate Translation programmes, and to their French dissertation supervisor, Aedín ní Loingsigh! Their graduation ceremony was online, with well-deserved congratulatory speeches from our Chair in Translation, Raquel de Pedro Ricoy, as well as our Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Gerry McCormac, and our Chancellor, Jack McConnell. And as our colleague, Liam Bell, in Creative Writing highlighted, there really is something lovely about the hope represented by the work our postgraduate students have carried out from March, and the start of lockdown, and August when they submitted their dissertations.

And a second set of felicitations to final year undergraduate student Christina who studies Modern Languages and Business with us. Christina’s entry to the Institut Français d’Ecosse’s Creative Writing competition, organised in collaboration with Napier University, was awarded the ‘Coup du Coeur du Jury’! You can read her entry (inspired by ‘Ne me quitte pas’ by Jacques Brel and ‘Are you with me’ by Nilu) on the IFE’s website and, as Christina says, ‘I’m thankful for the opportunity, I love creative writing in my spare time and having the chance to write something like this in a different language was a challenge but also new and exciting. I hope everyone who reads it enjoys it and I hope to enjoy the little confidence boost it gave me.’

A brilliant way to end the week and congratulations all round from all in French at Stirling.

One Year On

This time a year ago, we were welcoming our new colleague, Nina Parish, to French at Stirling. A tremendous amount has happened in the intervening twelve months and Nina has been kind enough to send us her thoughts on her first year working at Stirling:

‘Last week I completed my first year of working in the Division of Literature and Languages at the University of Stirling and what a year it’s been!

The year started with floods and a very washed out graduation ceremony (I still can’t quite believe that it took place – kudos to those who made this happen!) and a considerable amount of damage to the Pathfoot Building where I have my office and do some teaching. The Pathfoot also houses and exhibits the University’s wonderful art collection – what an absolute headache for the curators! But by the start of the semester the vast majority of us had access to our offices and the teaching rooms were ready to be used again!

And so Semester 1 started – earlier than what I was used to in England – and I began to get to know my wonderful colleagues and my new, mostly Scottish, students. I was struck by how pleasant these students are and it made me think a lot about how high tuition fees have changed the student-teacher relationship south of the border. There were also a couple of students from the EU in most of my classes and I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed teaching a class with this diversity of experiences. I’m sad that this is likely to change in the future.

Just as I was getting into my stride (and beginning to know my way around the Cottrell Building!), we went on strike. It is always tough to stop teaching in this context and to not have the contact with students that you did previously but it is also important to fight the good fight and there was a lot on the line here from casual contracts to pensions. Looking on the bright side, you also get to know colleagues better on the picket line.

There had been talk about the Covid-19 virus from the beginning of the year but I had managed to ignore it quite successfully and was all set to travel to Warsaw for a research meeting mid-March, to give papers in St Andrews and Aberdeen, to go to a conference in Rome and then travel on to Armenia for a month-long research secondment as part of the EU funded DisTerrMem project in May and June. All this was obviously cancelled and my world shrank to the tremendous city of Edinburgh where I live. Getting to know this city has been the high point of the lockdown and in the last weeks getting out into the glorious Scottish countryside to go walking again has been such a relief. I was appointed Director of Research at the beginning of the year and having the time to be able to talk to my brilliant colleagues about their research trajectories and future plans has been a delight.

I sometimes wonder what my second year at Stirling will bring (I was due to go to Lebanon and Pakistan for the Memories from the Margins and DisTerrMem research projects), but I’ve decided to focus on enjoying the summer and preparing online classes for September for now.

Bilan de l’année: des évènements inattendus (c’est le moins qu’on puisse dire!) mais j’aime vivre et travailler en Ecosse.’

Many, many thanks to Nina for the great post (and for the pictures of Scottish views) and we’re delighted to have you as a colleague at Stirling, and look forward to pestering you for more blog posts in the months and years ahead!

Congratulations to our 2020 graduates!

This time last year, French at Stirling was still somewhat in awe of our honorary graduate, French international footballer Lilian Thuram, as well as admiring the achievements of the rest of our graduating students. We were also marvelling at the fact that graduation managed to go ahead in the first place given that campus was hit by flash floods the day before and I think all of us probably assumed that would be the most eventful graduation for some time…

How wrong we were! This week should have been graduation time for the vast majority of our students and, in a virtual sense, it was. However, we would all have preferred to have been able to be on campus, proudly watching our students making their way across the front of the stage, the occasional wave to family and friends in attendance and the occasional nervous look towards tutors and lecturers in their gowns to find a friendly face.

We hope, somehow, that we’ll get a chance to congratulate this year’s French at Stirling graduates in person at some point in the future but, in the meantime, on behalf of everyone, we offer you all our hearty congratulations and wish you all the very best for life after graduation. Please do keep in touch, drop us an email, follow us on the blog…

Félicitations!

 

A journey into the wonders of French

Two blog posts for the price of one today! Both the authors – Artie first, then Julian – are very much caught up in the current Covid-context so there are some thoughts here on the immediate impacts that is having on the lives of recent(-ish) Languages graduates. However, both have also been kind enough to reflect on their lives and career paths since graduation, with plenty of food for thought for anyone reading this and wondering where a degree involving a language might lead them… First, it’s Artie’s turn:

‘My journey into the wonders (and confusions at the many same-sound endings) of French language learning began with my studies at the University of Stirling in September 2012 with a degree in French and Spanish. I began the degree with a beginner’s knowledge of French (and by beginner’s, I mean absolutely zero French know-how, I still remember learning the phrase “Je suis de Doncaster” in one of my first classes…).

By graduation in 2016 I had vastly improved my knowledge of both French language and culture, with some of my French writing assessments equalling, and even surpassing my Spanish writing. I graduated with a First-Class honour’s degree and this became the foundation which I have since used to explore multiple career avenues.

Through the University of Stirling, I was able to complete a year as an English Language Assistant with the British Council in Tenerife upon graduating. I had two potential career paths I was interested in following, teaching or translation, and this allowed me the opportunity to trial run one. My professors at the University of Stirling also helped me apply for a scholarship to fund a research project while working with the British Council, an opportunity I surely wouldn’t have had otherwise. While I enjoyed my time immensely as an English Language Assistant and was offered to stay a further year, I ultimately decided to return to academia, and began a Masters in Translation Studies at the University of Glasgow.

I continued with my original language pair, French and Spanish, while attending advanced translation and translation theory classes. Here, I was able to build on practices already learned in my Undergraduate course adding further translation theory, fully confident, not only in my ability to state where I’m from, but also pay attention to nuances within the French language, differences between French and English writing styles, becoming ever more confident in my own writing abilities and stylistic choices as a translator.

After completing my Master’s in Translation Studies at the University of Glasgow, I started work as a Videogames Localisation Quality Assurance Tester, a really rather long title for what I actually did – play video games and make sure translations are error free and feel made for the target audience. It has been an excellent graduate role where I mainly work with likeminded people of a similar age group, in a fairly relaxed multicultural office environment with plenty of opportunities to practice my speaking skills (not that I ever feel like I do this enough). After beginning work as a Tester, I then combined my testing experience with my background in teaching and began training any new starts that came into the company. Following on from this, I moved onto Project Coordinating where I began coordinating the testers, as opposed to directly testing the videogames myself. Through this role, I further developed managerial, timekeeping, organisational and communication skills – all of which are highly coveted in the world of translation where Project Coordinators are always needed.

And so, we have arrived my present situation! I, like most everyone else, am currently at home, self-isolating, faced with the current global circumstances but, oddly enough, it is a time when we are all most connected, checking in with each other, doing those little things that have been neglected on our to-do list (like… say… writing an article for a blog) and where language skills are just as important as ever. Most recently I had the opportunity to translate a UN document from French into English as a volunteer while staying at home, interview for a potential role in Bordeaux, and I’m using this time to attempt to build up a freelance client base in the hopes of maybe, hopefully (fingers and toes crossed!) being able to translate as a Freelancer by the end of the year. And let’s not forget the most taxing at home activity of all – watching an abundance of French films and series as a vital means of continuing my exposure to the language, it’s a hard job but someone has to do it!

I do hope everyone is keeping safe in these tricky times and remember enjoy your time at the University of Stirling while you can, it’ll be over before you know it!’

Many, many thanks to Artie for taking the time to send us this fantastic blog post – I, for one, have learned things about the role of translation in gaming that I certainly didn’t know before! We hope all goes well with the client-base-building and we look forward to more updates in the future. In the meantime, stay well and stay safe.

Old dog, new tricks!

With the start of the new semester (and all good wishes to those enrolled on our wide range of French modules and programmes, and to our students off on Semester Abroad or working as Language Assistants…), it’s time to post a new profile of one of our French at Stirling graduates, Kerstin Rosée, who has sent us this great article:

‘Bonjour, mes amis! French has always been a part of my life, with a last name like mine, this is hardly a surprise. I knew how to spell out my last name to people before I could write it myself and I could confidently say accent aigu before ever attending a French class in my long history of attending French classes.

Language teaching in Germany (where I originally come from) used to be taken more seriously than in the UK. At least until the introduction of the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland which put a new and enthusiastic emphasis on learning not one, but two foreign languages with many pupils now starting at primary school age. Going back to the 80s and 90s in Germany, English was introduced in 5^th grade and in 7^th grade you would pick another foreign language, usually a choice of either French or Latin. Why Latin? Well, in Germany to do any kind of degree in medicine, dentistry or veterinarian studies, you need at least your small Latinum (that’ll be 4 years of study) – makes sense if you consider that most of your textbooks will be full of Latin words. Since the thought of having to put down somebody’s pet guinea pig put me off veterinarian studies quite early, I decided to go for a more practical approach in studying French. Foreign holidays were beckoning and at that time I had already visited France with my family several times.

When the time came to pick a career and to think about what kind of training would be necessary, I found myself stumped by the idea that I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grow up. I still don’t, and I’m getting the feeling that I’ll probably be retired before I figure out what I’ll do with my life.  But… I was good at English and French and ended up at an academy training to become a trilingual executive secretary, adding Spanish to my portfolio en route.

Sadly, the job I took after leaving the academy was with an American organization and while my English improved my French and Spanish were neglected. I missed the golden opportunity to spend my holidays in French and Spanish-speaking countries and along the lines of ‘use it or lose it’, well, I lost it.

In my late 20s I relocated to Scotland and, being armed with a good grasp of the language and a willingness to delve into the local lingo (thank you, guy at the chippy, you were my trial of fire), I continued in my field of work but suddenly minus the trilingual aspect. Why? Mostly because many people speak English anyway and there were very few jobs for people with language skills in the Central Belt unless you wanted to settle in call centres. I tried, I escaped.

Having dabbled in part-time study for a while, I finally started a full-time course at the University of Stirling: Primary Education with Modern Languages. The course was brand new to the university at the time and we were the willing guinea pigs together with a cohort studying Primary Education and Environmental Science. I had just turned 38 when I started my degree at Stirling and my daughter had just joined P1. Great, I thought, we’ll learn together. To cut a long story short: I did not end up being a teacher. It turned out that I really didn’t like the classroom. Unlike my new just-from-school study buddies, I loved the semesters and hated the placements; I loved the languages but never really warmed to the pedagogy. For myself, the mix of classes, lectures and tutorial groups in French were a winning combination. Grammar: the necessary evil. Passé simple you say? Yeah sure, it rings a bell. Spoken language with Bernadette, the Spoken Language Tutor at the time: simply hilarious. Lectures and culture tutorials opened a whole new world to me. A word of warning though – reading, writing and talking about 2^nd wave French feminism may come with strange side effects if you are an adult returner, for instance: flares of anger and bursting out into tears.

I graduated in 2012 and, thanks to my last-minute degree change, I was the only student to graduate with a BA in French on that day amidst a sea of Education students. I cannot thank the BEd Primary Education cohort enough for my round of applause when I entered the stage while everybody else in the room probably wondered whether I had showed up on the wrong day.

Everybody’s question was: what next, then? I’ll be honest, if you are in your forties and tied to the Central Belt as a location, career prospects in Languages are somewhat limited. If you have done the Call Centre gig and have no intentions of ever returning to it and if you need to plan your workday around the school hours, it makes it just that little bit harder.

Will I be using French for work at some point in the future? Well, this brings us back to ‘use it or lose it.’  The sad thing is, if you don’t use your languages regularly, you will forget a lot of vocab and grammar. The silver lining is that it will be easier for you to pick it up again, every time you do pick it up again, as long as you have a decent foundation. My current exposure to French language and culture is singing along loudly to Les Misérables and Plastique Bertrand while scouring Netflix for French crime shows I can binge on. The beauty of Netflix is that it provides you with crutches; I love to listen to the original French actors but using English subtitles to make sure I don’t lose the plot (literally) but you could swap this around if your reading skills need to be honed.

To make matters worse, a certain referendum 4 years ago which is intent on ending our opportunities for free travel to work in any of 28 European countries without a lot of red tape may be a further deterrent for pupils to even consider modern languages as a subject for their university studies. Businesses may decide that the UK is no longer an attractive location for them and those precious few jobs that open up opportunities to graduates in modern languages may leave the country. I am still cautiously optimistic that Brexit will turn out to be undeliverable and we will all just forget about this embarrassing episode in recent UK history – I guess we’ll see.

In the end, all is not as gloomy as it seems, and you must look for opportunity where it presents itself. My plans are to convince the family to holiday in Canada and spend some time in Québec: find out how different from metropolitan France it really is, sample some of the lifestyle and speak French, a lot of it, possibly very basic. After that, I might try to duplicate my experience of moving to Scotland and visit Bretagne – I was there on a holiday when I was 5 years old, armed with only once sentence: Je ne parle pas français!

Surely, it has to be better than that by now!’

Yes, we’re sure that it is! Many, many thanks to Kerstin for this great post and for the fantastic pictures of childhood holidays in France. And we wish you all the very best for travels to Quebec and to Brittany, and to many other Francophone locations beyond!