Everyone in Languages at Stirling, and beyond, has been very concerned to read about developments across Languages, Translation and Interpreting at the University of Aberdeen and we wanted to express our solidarity with our colleagues there, across French, Gaelic, German and Spanish.
We have a long history of connections and friendship (academic and otherwise) with Aberdeen and we hope to be able to continue to see those connections and friendships thrive over the coming months and years.
We have co-supervised and continue to co-supervise PhDs together: our former student, Fraser McQueen, currently at the University of Bristol where he is a Lecturer in French and Comparative Literature, was jointly supervised by Fiona Barclay (Stirling) and Nadia Kiwan (Aberdeen). Aedín ní Loingsigh (Stirling) is currently co-supervising a SGSAH-funded student in Translation Studies with Nadia and Nicki Hitchcott (St Andrews). Others of us have taught or, indeed, studied at Aberdeen: Cristina Johnston was a Teaching Fellow in French there in 2004-2006 before joining Stirling, while Pete Baker and Fiona Noble (both now in Spanish and Latin American Studies at Stirling) studied there as undergraduates. Pete’s PhD was supervised by mentors who had taught him at Aberdeen, while Fiona stayed on at Aberdeen to complete her MLitt, PhD and PGDE, as well as working there as a Teaching Fellow. Our (now retired) colleague, Alastair Duncan, also did both his undergraduate degree and his PhD at Aberdeen.
We’ve been involved in external examining at each other’s institutions which has often led to research collaborations between colleagues: Trevor Stack (Aberdeen) was one of our externals in Religion at Stirling for many years, Nina Parish (Stirling) is a current external at Aberdeen. And we’ve been delighted to welcome colleagues from Aberdeen to speak at research events over the years, most recently Ed Welch, who is also Chair of the University Council of Modern Languages (Scotland), with Stirling colleagues, including Nina Parish, Pete Baker and Elizabeth Ezra also having given research papers in Aberdeen.
‘Aberdeen 2040’, the University’s strategic plan (available in Arabic, Gaelic, BSL and Braille, as well as in English), proudly asserts that: ‘Through outreach and the exchange of ideas, we will teach and research across borders. We already rank among the best for our global outlook. We will continue to expand our networks and partnerships, and seek new opportunities for international and intercultural exchange.’ These are fantastic aims for any global University to be working towards and achieving them is dependent on Universities being able to support ambitious, resilient, interculturally literate graduates, equipped with the wide range of skills that will allow them to contribute to local and global communities. These skills are precisely those that are fostered through the study of languages, from Gaelic to German, from French to Spanish, and far, far beyond.
We hope that Aberdeen finds ways to support colleagues across Languages as they work on creative solutions to the extremely challenging circumstances they are facing and we look forward to finding more ways to work with them over the months that lie ahead.
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!!
One of the great things about this blog is that it gives us a means of keeping up, not only with what colleagues in French at Stirling are doing, but also with what our students and our graduates are up to. As we get closer and closer to this year’s graduations, we thought it’d be good to catch-up with some of our graduates from last year so, with no further ado…
Shannon studied for a BA Hons in French and Spanish at Stirling and as a 2022 graduate moved on to pursuing her PGDE in primary education: “I am now working full time in a nursery setting in Liverpool as the curriculum practitioner. And my languages have not been completely forgotten. My pre-schoolers enjoy having a Spanish lesson once a week and we may add French to their curriculum soon! Wishing this year’s graduates all the best in the future no matter how you do or what you do!” Sophie also graduated with a BA Hons in French and Spanish and, since graduating, has started another degree studying Theology and Christian Leadership: !I’ve loved using the skills I learnt at Stirling to help this degree and next year I have chosen to study New Testament Greek which makes me excited to be able to use my language skills again.”
Meanwhile David, who graduated with a BA Hons in French and History, spent time in the US after he graduated but has since returned to do an MSc in Heritage at Stirling, and is currently researching and writing his thesis: “You will also be happy to know I have been able to make use of my French skills I acquired at Stirling, in my capacity as a volunteer at the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Museum. As a guide, not only can I assist French tourists, but behind the scenes I have also been able to translate material into French to help the Museums accreditation and be more welcoming to foreign tourists.” Our other David, who joined us as a mature student, and graduated with a BA Hons in French, explains that “after 7 years of re-education which concluded with four unbelievable years of involvement with French at the University of Stirling, I promised my wife and my three grandchildren that I would devote more time to them which I have done but that has not stopped me for continuing to learn and practice French.” In the year since graduation, David has kept on reading French books (including re-reading some he’d studied with us!), revising French grammar, listening to podcasts and regular news bulletins and trying to speak as much as he can through websites such as Language Exchange: “My appetite for learning has not waivered or reduced in any way. I have always had the will and motivation to continue although, I do miss being a student on campus and the camaraderie of my peers and being able to have the skills of our tutors to hand for advice when required.”
Lara, who completed her BA Hons in French and Spanish last June, has just finished working for a year as an English Language Assistant in a secondary school in Madrid with the British Council: “It’s been a very enriching experience and I plan on returning for a second year.” Ceinwen, having graduated with a BA Hons in French last year, has stayed on at Stirling for postgraduate studies on our MRes Humanities programme carrying on the research she did during her undergraduate degree and “When I’m not doing that I’m making full use of the Institut Français’ cinema programme in Edinburgh.”
Valentina, who graduated with a BA Hons in International Management with European Languages and Society, she has spent the past year working for Global Voices, our local translation and interpreting company, as a credit controller: “I call and email every day in French as I look after the debt for the French and Swiss market, as well as the Italian one. So, naturally my languages skills have improved, I now feel comfortable to speak on the phone to a native speaker which is great! I’ve also learnt all about chorus pro which is the public administration invoicing system in France!” And Muirne, who completed her BA Hons in Business Studies and French last year, has been doing an International Business Master’s here at Stirling this past year and is starting work on her dissertation now: “I’ve really been enjoying this programme and it has opened up lots of different routes I can take to start my career journey. I was also one of the programme reps for the course as I wanted to have a bit more responsibility and show more leadership. I have still been keeping up with my French as I think that will be a useful tool in the future for me. I have also been able to keep in touch with a French pen pal I made in 3rd year which has been helpful for practicing French.”
Sofia, who graduated with a BA Hons in French and Spanish last year, has almost finished her MA in South Asian Area Studies and is currently working on my dissertation, which is focusing on the legacies of trauma stemming from Partition and how this has affected the diasporic descendants of the Partition. Sofia was also recently accepted into a summer programme for Our Shared Cultural Heritage which is a programme that experiments with ways for museums and heritage organisations to work better for young people. Their focus is on the South Asian diaspora in the UK and young people in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh: “I’m not quite sure yet what the programme will entail but it will be interesting to look at heritage, culture, and of course language and to look at the Scottish South Asian community.” Vasiliki, having graduated with a BA Hons in Business Studies and French, moved to Madrid after graduation to do a Master’s in International Trade and Business: “Classes are finishing at the end of July, then I have to submit my thesis by mid-September, so in the meantime I am looking for an internship in the field of marketing or HR mostly, and I am really just looking across Europe, as I don’t want to limit myself. I would also be very much interested in moving back to the UK.”
And Morgan, who graduated with a BA Hons in International Politics and Languages, is currently in Belfast where she has just started writing her Master’s thesis exploring who is responsible for the deaths of displaced persons who drown while attempting to cross the Channel: “While I no longer directly study French, my knowledge of the language and the country have been particularly helpful when conducting research for my thesis. I work part-time as a hotel receptionist where I regularly get to talk with guests from French-speaking countries who always love to be able to chat in their native language.” Brendan, graduated with his BA Hons in French and Spanish last summer, and applied for a Masters in TESOL (Teaching English to Students of Other Languages) here at Stirling Uni and started that at the end of September. He hopes to complete that, including his final teaching portfolio/dissertation project by the end of August at the latest: “Afterwards, in September and October, my programme may offer an external placement in various countries, one of them being France, where I would be asked to observe and do some English teaching in a language school. However, it is not clear if that will materialise yet so right now I’m just taking each day at a time and focusing on what I have to do at present. If everything goes according to plan, I will officially graduate in November. My reasoning for doing this Masters was to prepare me to be able to teach English and get employment more easily when living in France and Spain in the future. If I’m to be completely honest with you all, this has been the most challenging year in my academic journey so far (even more so than third year of undergrad when everything was online due to covid, which says a lot!). However, I’m hopeful that it will bear some fruit in the not-too-distant future in my pursuit to become a languages teacher, which is my dream job.”
Pauline, who graduated with a BA Hons in International Politics and Languages, is just finishing up her Master’s degree in Applied European Governance and Policymaking: “I will have written and oral exams throughout June. I am doing last revisions for my master thesis on the economic impact of integration of migrants in Germany and I expect to graduate at the beginning of July. I am also applying for traineeships and jobs, mainly in Brussels, for EU policy positions, with hopes to not be unemployed in August. We shall see how that goes. I’ve also been involved with a new volunteer network (Generation Climate Europe) and have moved up to now being the Network and Outreach Lead, which I am quite excited about.”
And finally (for the moment… if you’re a 2022 French at Stirling graduate reading this and you haven’t been back in touch yet, there’s still time!) Fiammetta, who graduated in Modern Languages and Business Studies says that her life has completely changed since graduation in June 2022: “After graduating, I was unsure which path to follow for my career. I wasn’t happy with my life and I almost decided to go back to my home country. I started a job in Edinburgh as a customer service assistant in a travel agency. The team was great, however after only 3 months I realised that it wasn’t the job for me so I decided to apply for a job I thought I would never get.
In February I applied for Emirates cabin crew and a few days later I received an email asking me to go to one of the company’s assessment days. Being cabin crew for Emirates has always been on my mind but I always thought it would be really hard for me to get that job. The day after the interview I received the “golden call” and after less than a month I moved to Dubai. I have now been living in Dubai for more than 3 months. It was hard to leave my friends again (I had left my family and friends in my home country 6 years earlier) but it was one of the best decisions I ever made. Now I get to travel and visit so many countries and I get paid for it! I am in contact with so many cultures and during my flights I can use my language skills to interact with customers. The best advice I can give to the graduates of 2023 is to always pursue your dreams, even if it’s not easy or if you have to leave everything behind, it will always be worth it. Now I’m having the best time of my life!”
It’s always lovely to hear from our graduates and to learn where life has taken them after their time as undergraduates at Stirling. Thank you very, very much to all of our 2022 graduates who have been back in touch and who have contributed to this blog post (and to Joanna whose earlier post started off this particular catch-up) and do keep in touch and keep us posted on what you go on to do next. Bon été to you all!
Continuing with this week’s accidental blog theme, it’s great to be able to post this update from one of our recent graduates, Nicole, who offers another example of the surprising directions you can go in after a degree involving languages:
‘I can’t believe it’s been 3 years since my last graduation ceremony at the University of Stirling. After graduating with a BA (Hons) in French and Spanish I decided to return to do a Masters in Translation Studies with TESOL.
After graduating, I decided to take a few months to relax whilst still working in my retail job. However, as those few months ended, COVID was just beginning. As a new graduate, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do next, and it seemed like a daunting few months ahead whilst I looked for a job. I’d always imagined I’d return to Spain or France again to work as a language assistant for another year after graduating, but given the travel restrictions at the time I decided it wasn’t for me. Unfortunately, I was gong to be working in retail for a bit longer than I’d hoped.
I stayed in my retail job for around a year, until a job as a project manager at a translation company popped up. I decided to apply and I was lucky enough to be offered the job. I worked there for around six months, in an incredibly fast-paced (and sometimes very stressful) environment. I certainly learned a lot about how the industry really works and how it compared to what I’d learned during my Masters degree.
After six months, I applied for a job closer to home which is where I am still working today. I work for an online company specialising in plants and garden supplies, and which sells in several different countries in Europe. I am responsible for managing anything which needs translated to be sold in EU countries, as well as doing some general content writing for the website.
Of course, the horticulture industry is definitely not where I expected to be working, but I think it’s proof that languages really can take you anywhere! I’m grateful to have a job that I enjoy and where I still get to use and incorporate languages every day. And I hope it’s an uplifting reminder for anyone recently graduated, or anyone in their final year who may be unsure about the future, there’s a job out there but it may be where you least expect it.’
Many thanks to Nicole for this fantastic post (and for your patience while you waited for us to actually get it up on the blog!) and thank you for the very kind words of encouragement to future Languages graduates.
There seems to be a bit of a theme emerging over this week’s blog posts, something along the lines of the surprising destinations that French at Stirling can lead to. Today’s catch-up with recent graduate, Joanna, who completed her BA Hons in French and Spanish last year, is very much in keeping with the theme…
‘I’m currently writing this from my lunch break- Since graduating and getting married last summer, I have been working in Financial Services, more particularly in the bond market, for TP ICAP here in Belfast. They are a company with a global presence, from Headquarters in London’s Bishopsgate, to New York, to Singapore and more recently they have developed a large presence in France and Spain with offices in Paris and Madrid that are rapidly expanding. Broadly speaking, my role is an analytical one and concentrates around the Settlement of trades and ensuring they are matched in the market in time for settlement date.
I work with banks right across the world and so as you can imagine my languages are very useful! Knowing French has been a hugely significant for me in my job. We work closely with SocGen, Crédit Agricole, La Banque Postale, BNP Paribas, HSBC France. So often, their employees don’t speak a lot of English and so having the ability to make a phone call to these clients in French is so useful and they really appreciate you being able to speak to them in their own language, something that really helps us with promoting and encouraging good customer relations, which is something trading really relies on!
I remember one of the first tasks one of my colleagues asked of me was to call a French client to settle an ongoing issue they were having for weeks that wasn’t resolved because the client couldn’t speak English and none of my colleagues spoke French! I was able to sort it out in a phone call and it really reinforced to me just how important it is to know languages in the workplace.
I really enjoy my job and love how I can continue to use and practise French while working in an environment that allows me to learn and develop new skills in a completely new area of work! There is no doubt that having a languages degree really opened up that opportunity for me and I’m really grateful for all the help I got at Stirling along the way.’
Many thanks to Joanna for this great update, for the pictures (of our lovely campus and from time spent in Southern France) and belated félicitations from French at Stirling! And for any language students reading this whose teachers or tutors keep telling them how many doors languages open… we’re really not making it up!
Time for some more from our students and graduates! I’ll be posting another profile by one of our Year 1 students a little later but to start of this week’s blog updates, news from Natalie who graduated in 2019 and who continues to find ways to put her languages to excellent use in her career:
“It’s hard to believe that I graduated over three years ago, where has the time gone! Since graduating in International Management Studies with European Languages and Society, I have been lucky to use my language skills on a daily basis in the workplace. Although, I have to admit that I wasn’t always sure what career path to take. But one thing was sure, I wanted to find a job that allowed me to not only pursue my passion for languages but also develop my knowledge of international business.
Since graduating, I have worked in an e-commerce business. I currently work as a Marketing Manager where I have been lucky to use my Spanish on a daily basis to converse with Spanish colleagues. I have also used my French skills to write copy for the web and translate our products for online platforms including Amazon.
It’s great to keep up my language skills, but it’s also important to not forget all the transferable skills my degree has taught me. Studying abroad at EM Strasbourg Business School developed my cross-cultural awareness and knowledge of international business. I also developed my communication skills working as a Language Assistant for the British Council in Spain.
One of the reasons I chose to study this degree was due to its flexibility. I have acquired skills which are highly sought-after in the global job market. I would recommend this degree to anyone wishing to use their languages in an international context.”
Many, many thanks to Natalie for sending through this update and we wish you all the best for your career and for the years ahead – we look forward to checking in again in the future!
Alongside all the usual activities happening in our classrooms and across our programmes (including our Year 3 students making plans for their upcoming Semester Abroad…), our outreach work centred on language learning in schools has also started up again.
On the European Day of Languages, a team of our Language Ambassadors were invited along to Wallace High to talk to the pupils there about the benefits of language learning. For Patrick, who is in his 2nd year studying French and Spanish with us, this was his first in-person school visit and a really positive experience: ‘The afternoon was a great success, pupils were engaging with the activities we had set out for them and have asked to be included in the future planning of similar events. From my point of view, it was an invaluable piece of my time used to hopefully persuade young pupils to continue to study languages.’ Feedback from the S3 pupils at the school was equally positive and huge thanks to Modern Languages teacher, Michelle McCaffery, for inviting us. We’re delighted our Ambassadors helped to convey the fact that, in the words of one pupil, ‘languages can take you places you would not expect!’
Despite some pretty atrocious weather, many of the Ambassadors got together at the end of that week, too, for a training and information session about the Ambassador scheme over the coming year. And while we were talking about that on campus at Stirling, some of the Ambassadors from our Strathclyde partners were out at St John Ogilvie High School, meeting with pupils and teachers there, including our own graduate Sam Evans! We’ll be joining forces for more school visits over the weeks ahead, working with Cédric Moreau from Strathclyde and Emma McLean from SCILT so watch this space…
And on Saturday 1st October, Cristina Johnston, Pete Baker, Fiona Noble and Elizabeth Ezra ran an online workshop for senior phase secondary school pupils, focusing on the multiple benefits that can come from using films as part of the ways we study languages. The event was part of a series of workshops organised by SCILT and was supported on the day by Sheena Bell, Suzanne Ritchie and Alice Lister. We were also really pleased that three of our current students, Dagmara, Alex and Helena, were able to join us on the day to talk about their experiences learning languages and, in particular, the ways in which film and visual culture have formed part of their own language learning. And we’re especially grateful, of course, to all the pupils who attended, from across Scotland, students of French, Spanish, German and Italian. They asked brilliant questions and worked hard on listening exercises involving songs from Encanto, as well as thinking about the wide range of topics that might emerge through the study of that kind of film.
Thank you, merci, Danke, grazie, gracias… to all the pupils at our SCILT workshop and to everyone who has been involved with our outreach activities so far.
Happy European Day of Languages to all our blog readers! As we’ve done for the past few years, we decided to use today’s celebrations as an excuse to take stock of the wide range of languages spoken, understood, read… by students and staff across our modules in French and, as ever, the variety is fantastic to see.
We’ll keep adding to the list as and when speakers of other languages get in touch but, in the meantime, to everyone who has already replied: Thank you, merci, gracias, go raibh maith agat, 감사합니다, obrigada, takk, 谢谢, ありがとう, дякую, köszönöm, gràcies, děkuji, grātiās tibi agō, grazie, mòran taing, danke schön, tak, teşekkürler, Ďakujem, спасибо, eskerrikasko, dziękuję, شكرًا…
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.
This is the last of our daily posts for this year’s Languages Week Scotland and we’re rounding off the week with an article written by one of our current final year students about her experiences at Stirling. It has been a busy blog week and I suspect the pace of the posts will be a lot calmer over the coming weeks but I’d like to thank all the colleagues and students who have taken the time to write for us this week. We’ve had around 160 visitors to the blog since Monday and I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about all things French at Stirling. For this final Languages Week post, then, time for thoughts from a final semester student:
I chose this course, because it enabled me to take both languages to degree level, as well as having a business and marketing side which I felt would increase my employability. In terms of my languages, I am an Italian native, I speak English and, at Stirling, I started from the Beginners’ stream in French and in the Advanced classes in Spanish. The Spanish course is taught in Castellano, which sounds difficult at the beginning, however, I feel it is effective in building confidence in speaking the language. French, on the other hand, is taught more in English to an extent. Both courses are excellent as they will inspire you to explore languages in your spare time too.
At first, as a foreign mature student, which meant I had to work, I was petrified that I was going to fail, because the class would have gone at a pace that I could not sustain or use jargon that I would struggle to get. Once I started, though, I realised that most of the lectures are recorded, and notes of each session can be accessed anytime on Canvas, our Virtual Learning Environment. It took me a bit to find the right working/ studying balance, but there is a good deal of financial and mental support to help in your studies all the way through.
I would choose Stirling over and over again, for many reasons, but the main one is that I haven’t felt that I was just a paying student number. The language department lecturers had a very positive impact on my learning experience, as I found them easy to talk to and they have made my language learning experience super interesting. They all have been very supportive, in my good and bad days. At my lowest this has meant a lot to me! Overall, I found that this “people person” culture within the university makes students feel much more appreciated, valued and supported and, therefore, more likely to be successful in their studies.’
Many, many thanks to Valentina for having found the time to write this great post and we wish you all the very best for this final semester at Stirling, and for life beyond graduation. Once again, thanks to all the contributors to the blog from this week and Happy Languages Week Scotland!
French at Stirling 
You must be logged in to post a comment.