BA Spanish and Beginners' Portuguese
About this course
Spanish and Portuguese together give you access to a vast portion of the modern world. Spanish is the native language of more than 480 million people across 20 countries in Europe and the Americas, one of the most widely spoken languages on earth and the official language of the European Union and the United Nations. Portuguese, closely related and mutually intelligible with Spanish to a significant degree, is the official language of Portugal, Brazil and several African countries, spoken natively by around 260 million people and particularly significant in the context of Brazil's growing global importance. Learning both together means opening access to the entire Iberian Peninsula and most of Latin America. At the University of Oxford this four-year programme begins Portuguese from scratch, building from your existing Spanish towards proficiency in both languages simultaneously. Oxford's intensive and rigorous approach to language teaching means that starting a second Romance language alongside advanced Spanish is a manageable challenge, especially given the structural similarities between them. You will develop your proficiency in both languages across reading, writing, speaking and listening, while also engaging seriously with the literatures, cultures and histories of Spain, Portugal, Latin America and the lusophone world. The tutorial system provides close scholarly attention throughout, and Oxford's exceptional library and academic resources support engagement with both traditions in depth. Graduates go on to careers in diplomacy, the foreign service, translation and interpreting, international business particularly in Latin America, journalism, cultural organisations, academic research, the civil service and international organisations. The combination of Spanish and Portuguese is particularly well suited to careers with a transatlantic or Latin American dimension. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in Hispanic or Lusophone studies, comparative literature, translation or international relations. This is a degree for people who want linguistic and cultural access to a very large part of the world.
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