I have only been studying this course for a year and I have to say, it was one of the best decisions of my life. The course is structured in a way that allows anyone to learn. If you’re finding it hard to get your head around, the wonderful professors are always willing to lend a hand to those in need. Additionally, one of the main reasons the Modern Languages and Cultures curse at Sheffield is so amazing, is the fact that it offers around 10 Languages for you to pick up and it is one of the very few Universities that have the option to choose 3 Languages. Furthermore, the variety of languages is very good too, it even includes learning Czech and Luxembourgish, something again, is very minimal in the university field, which gives you a better offer and another reason to study here.

Studying modern languages and cultures at The University of Sheffield allows you to combine up to 3 languages from an extensive list that the uni has to offer. I loved the fact that I could tailor my degree to what I wanted it to be. I chose to go down the Hispanic studies route in the first year, studying Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan. I realised in the second year that three was too much for me, so I dropped Catalan. This is a prime example of how you can personalise this degree programme, and I love the freedom of it. The cultural aspect of the degree is extensive and varied, ranging from history and literature to art and politics, and I thoroughly believe that studying different cultures creates a more well-rounded, open-minded person.

The city itself, and of course I am biased, is a great city to be a student in. I always felt welcome and it soon started to feel like home. Now, when I am away from Sheffield, I miss it, and I cannot wait to go back.

The student’s union is rated the best in the UK, and has been for years, and I completely stand by this. Cafe’s, bars, a nightclub, places to work, pray, shop. It has everything you need! Not to mention the student support teams for wellbeing and careers offices.

The university is incredibly international and diverse, and international students are well-integrated into the campus, and are made to feel like they are at home. There are all sorts of societies that you can join, and I know that many international students found societies for people from their own countries to help them settle in to the new environment. Sheffield has hundreds of societies, all of which are a brilliant way to make friends.

The one problem I have faced at uni that has caused disruption to my degree, aside from Covid, has been the strikes. However, these take place at pretty much every uni in the UK, so this is not something that negatively sets Sheffield apart.

I enjoyed being given the opportunity to study three languages simultaneously – including 2 languages as a beginner! I felt encouraged and motivated throughout my course thanks to the lovely staff in the department. There were many interesting cultural modules offered on various aspects of society, history and linguistics pertaining to the languages I chose.

The university has many buildings and libraries which are all relatively close to each other. The Modern languages and cultures course has a diverse range of interesting modules and the teaching of the languages is excellent especially when learning a language from scratch. A negative would be the amount of strikes this year and how that has impacted the teaching and content.

There are definitely some positives. Student life is amazing, and I’m not surprised that Sheffield has the best student’s union. However, especially with modern languages courses, there is a severe lack of available modules. For example, if you chose to study Russian Studies for example, they do not actually have enough modules to offer this as a degree so you end up having to do very random modules, such as some in the psychology department. I have genuinely received feedback before from one of the sub-departments saying that my essay was too good, therefore it cannot be awarded a higher grade than a 2.2 as it’s beyond my abilities (yet I’ve been getting firsts in this subject for a while). There is a lack of choice of modules, lecturers can either be really nice and helpful or run away the moment they’re not on the clock. I know some people enjoyed the course, especially if they did more oversubscribed languages such as French or Spanish. I did study Spanish, and every year I would miss the opportunity to study modules that interested me due to factors beyond my control and I’d end up in random modules such as gender studies. You spend a lot of time on campus and it mostly didn’t feel worth it.

All professors have been very helpful. Both in person and via email. The lectures were question-friendly, interesting and enriching. Some tasks were quite challenging, but everything was doable when learned how to manage time efficiently.
Also, there is a splendid offer of societies you can join – there is literally at least one for what you can think of.

If you value your mental health and hope that teachers will be sympathetic for your reasons, Sheffield is not the place for that. I have been bullied off my Japanese Studies course in 2018 as the staff failed to meet standards to help students with learning disabilities and mental health problems. Since then I’ve even coerced into studying a course I dislike and they expect me to accept everything despite some situations being entirely their fault.

Whilst the university is good in other aspects, if you are interested in studying Chinese/East Asian/Japanese/Korean studies then I would recommend looking elsewhere for that, even going abroad straight away would be a better option as that I was I plan to do to instead of graduating from Sheffield with a Mickey Mouse degree.