what are you studying and where?
My field is called English Language and Culture and I study it in the Dutch student city of Groningen. The content is mainly the English language and, as the name implies, the associated culture, linguistics and literature. For over a year now, I’ve been specializing specifically in linguistics.
what are the other specialization options?
Modern literature and medieval literature.
what are the most and least interesting subjects you have had?
The most interesting subjects for me are those focused on linguistics, for example Sociolinguistics, where we learned how language is currently developing, how people speak it and such social aspects. We also had very interesting subjects in medieval literature. There I really enjoyed the subject focused on the English writer Chaucer. Last year we also had Morphology, where we learned how words are formed, we compared it to other languages, I quite liked that too. Phonology was also interesting, but EAP, which stands for English for Academic Purposes, is also a useful subject.
Probably the worst subject was called Composition, where we learned how to make presentations, which is basically a pretty good knowledge, but we worked there for 8 weeks with one text, with one about five-page short story, and after that we couldn’t do it anymore concentrate. Good idea, poorly constructed subject.
tell something interesting that you learned.
As I mentioned phonology, I think it’s pretty cool that I can read the phonological alphabet without any problems. I can also translate texts into the phonological alphabet, which I am quite proud of. We also had one subject where we translated medieval texts into modern English. It was very challenging, but interesting, to learn to read texts that contain letters that no longer exist in today’s alphabet.
“If anyone is interested in this field, it should be mentioned that it has been named one of the top 10 bachelor’s fields in the Netherlands for the last two years in a row.”
did your major also give you some more practical experience in life?
I definitely learned to write well, because in that linguistics and literature we are forced to write texts, we are forced to rewrite them and think about what we write. Not all majors have such strict criteria for writing as we do, so that moved me quite a bit. I have also improved in reading comprehension, which mainly concerns work with academic articles and research.
you are actually finishing your bachelor’s degree now, so if you look at the three years in total, would you recommend English language and culture?
This field is useful, especially if one wants to study languages. Classmates who want to continue with this for a master’s degree can, for example, devote themselves to translation, journalism or another type of writing. I was thinking about teaching English, which can also be done after completing this field. But there is a lot to do – interpreting, proofreading or forensic linguistics. If anyone is interested in this major, it should be mentioned that for the last two years in a row it has been named one of the top 10 bachelor majors in the Netherlands and is the best major in the Netherlands focused on the English language. So it is definitely a very good choice.
what type of person would you recommend your field to? What should that person like, what should he be interested in?
He should like to read, and by that I don’t mean just some leisure literature, but he should really be focused on the texts he reads, or even some more specialized articles, because this department really has a lot of reading, both in terms of literature and linguistics. In some subjects, it happens that they have to read a book for a week, so surely the relationship to reading should be there. Of course, also the relationship to English, to languages, and I would say that there should also be something to Slovak, because many subjects deal with grammar, sentence structure and similar things that you will encounter in a high school Slovak class. And then I would say writing – if a person likes to write, whether it’s articles, something professional, for school magazines or it’s just some work for himself, writing short stories or poems, he will find it useful in this field.
and when you have to say for yourself personally, do you enjoy it?
I enjoy it, especially Linguistics, but last semester I had Psychology as a Minor. Almost all majors here in Groningen have the option of a Minor. During the first semester of the third bachelor’s year, you can try a different field within our university for half a year. This is how I tried Psychology and I enjoy it a little more than Linguistics, but these two fields can be combined quite well.
Top Degree Programmes in the Dutch Higher Education Guide: University of Groningen, English Language and Culture = 76/100 bodov
World University Rankings 2024: University of Groningen = 79. miesto
daniela Ivančáková she is a member of the newly established young editorial team of the week and a student of Media Studies – Journalism at the University of Groningen.
As part of the young editorial team, we decided to launch the project “WHAT WILL YOU BECOME?” aimed at bringing popular and lesser-known fields of study closer together through the eyes of their students and graduates. We want to help decided or hesitating high school students get real information and personal experiences of young people from studies at universities in Slovakia and abroad. Short interviews, or parts of this series, will be published almost every other day during the following weeks, in the category .young. We would be grateful for any recommendations of trades that we should process or specific aspects that you would be interested in as part of the interviews.
young editor of the week
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