Modern Languages are the hardest degrees at university

There have been many disputes about what the hardest degree is. Is it Medicine? Law? Engineering? Economics? But the argument stops here because we all know: Modern Languages.

Most people study two languages

First of all, linguists often study two languages at the same time, as well as keeping our native language intact. Do you know how confusing it is having Spanish grammar straight after Italian oral? Sometimes you don’t even notice the change in language and come out with a Spanish-Italian hybrid when asked a question.

The lack of contact time is really frustrating

Language degrees really mess with your body clock. There’s nothing more inconvenient than having to go in to uni for just one hour from 2pm to 3pm only to trek back home again in the rain. Why wouldn’t they provide a normal nine to five timetable which would make the journey much more worthwhile?

Imagine having to endure this disgusting view for six months

You have to start a new language

The pressure is immense. Often starting a new language from scratch, linguists are faced with fear and horror for most of first year. Professors then encourage you to find a partner, claiming things like “the best thing to improve your Italian is to get under an Italian”. It’s bad enough living in a time of such high societal and parental pressure to get married, without having teachers breathing down your neck too.

Homework

Language students also have more homework than other students. Film modules are the worst in terms of preparatory material. How ridiculous is it to spend an entire term in first year watching Italian neorealist films? I mean is this what you pay for? At least when you’re cutting up dead people you feel like you’re getting some value for money.

The year abroad is a nightmare

Having to eat this everyday was just pure misery

Now here comes the worst bit: the year abroad. Not only is it an obligatory part of the degree to go abroad for a whole year, but it also doesn’t even count towards the degree. What’s the point? Students are forced to spend six months of their degree suffering at the beach eating pizza and gelato when they could, and should, be fulfilling their thirst for knowledge by learning something about Dante. What’s more is the weather. They’re forced to experience a world where there’s no rain and only 30 degree weather, forcing adaptation before being brought back to the UK and suffering forever chapped lips and frostbitten fingers. How dare they mess with people’s thermoregulatory systems like that?

A future of uncertainty

And then of course, there’s the question of the future. It’s so messed up students finish their four year degree fluent in at least two or three languages, because with so many jobs and sectors they could go into, it makes an already difficult decision even harder. Why couldn’t they just have been given one option like with Law? It’s so unfair it hurts.

I felt abandoned the entire time

So before you jump to the conclusion the hardest degree is Law or Medicine or something else that’s piss easy, think about how hard it could really have been.