English literature at uni, anyone?

[Schokokeks]

hi everyone!

at the moment, I'm on the verge of having to decide what courses I would like to opt for at university and although I've made up my mind several times, I thought I could need a little help and advise from you! People around here in Germany do not talk about universities in the English speaking world very much, and for I'd like to study abroad, I probably had the better asking the ones directly at the source. :D

As I would absolutely love to study English literature, I wondered if there are any forum members who have already done so or are doing so at the moment. It would be very nice of you if you could post down a few lines about your courses, whether you like them or not, what are the topics, your ways of working, which university you would recommand, just anything! :)

Thank you very much in advance!

Love,
Schokokeks

[Scatterbrain]

I'd be very interested to know about the English Literature courses in England, too
I'm hoping to get on that degree next year

[Jay]

Hey Schoko, looky here (http://www.phil.muni.cz/angl/).

edit: on the left there's a menu, I think it's easiest if you go Regular studies, On-line support, subsection Courses, a site loads on the right, there you can browse the courses, most of the course desribtions should be in English.

[scruffy_danny]

I know that the Literature course at Manchester University is supposed to be good (my friend has just started) and I know for sure that is where I am hoping to go, but it is quite difficult to get in. You need AAB in A level (or the equivalent)...

[Koa]

If I had thought about it before I would have studied abroad too... given the possibility.
If I go on in my studies I'll go abroad, England is my dream but it's only slightly expensive... eastern european countries are a good second choice, their level of instruction is usually excellent.
At the moment I'm stuck in Italy where University is a joke (badly organised, not based on culture but on a mixture of money and power...well a bit like the whole country), so I won't recommend it to my worst enemy...and after all, even at Languages faculty the literatures are taught mostly in Italian so you wouldnt have a great time I guess.

[Nocturnal]

I suffer from the same problem...I am studying English Lit at my Portuguese speaking Uni and I feel SO frustrated...it's simply not offering all I think I ought to have in terms of tools to understand and comment literature.
I am planning to make a grand exodus and study in the UK...tomorrow I am going to check the British Council and see what my options are

[Monica]

I study English and American Literature (2nd year) and I love it. Usually we have discussions in the class, not just a lecture. We work in groups, have different projects to do (sometimes connected also with culture) and the assesement is almost always an essay and almost always there's a free topic, but, naturally connected with the things we were doing, although the reading that you did for yourself can also be included. We study literature by epochs, of course, but we also try to connect the works with later ones or sometimes also with non-English works. Apart from just reading and writing, we also have interpretation classes during which contemporary English literature and film is discussed. I love it :D

[Koa]

Monica... that must be so lovely and motivating...

[Scatterbrain]

Monica...that sounds so amazing! You have no idea how excited you just made me! I can't wait to start studying English Lit (hopefully).

[Schokokeks]

Hi Monica,

same goes for me, your description sounds very promising! :)
Would you mind telling us which university you attend and maybe rate it in general?

Thanx!

[Monica]

It is lovely, it really is. But I think that with literature on every university is like that. My university (Silesian University) isn't really a great one, but English stands actually quite high. The people, the classes - everything's just perfect, but the place itself, the city, a bit dreadful :) But nobody cares really :p everyone is so absent-minded that they don't notice it, I think. The thing that I'm sometimes fed up with is the fact that everything is in English. Even German sometimes!!! :eek: Anyway, to anyone who's going to study literature I wish good luck and a lot of nice reads :D

[Koa]

It is lovely, it really is. But I think that with literature on every university is like that.

Correction: every university in a serious country.

English Lit. lesson in Italy: you sit down, the teacher speaks, you take notes, sleep, talk with your mates, copy notes from other lessons, do whatever you want, the lesson is over.

From an English Lit. lesson on my second year:
Teacher: you know, I should start speaking English during the lesson, not just Italian...at least half of the lesson...
Voices from the class: NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Koa and a few brave voices: YEEEEEEEEEEEES

Conclusion: I had English lit. in English when I did my semester abraod in Hungary.

There is just no stimulation here, the teacher speaks, rarely people ask questions and even if a question came to my mind I'd never really bother to ask, there is not such mentality of participating in the lessons so only the real smartas*es do and of course they're not really popular cos of that.

I've been looked on as weird cos I was reading the books in English not in translation...
so the students don't care, the teachers can't do much more cos of lack of support from institution (too few hours of lessons, no good structures....) and our Uni is like...useless.

[Schokokeks]

aww, Koa, that really sounds dreadful, poor you! :( Actually I understand quite well what this must be like for you, it's the same with our English lessons at school, but I imagine it must be even more frustrating for you at Uni...
I hope that you find an English university that agrees with you before long, in spite of all the money needed! *prays that Koa might win the lottery* :D

The question about which university and which course to choose really really starts to worry me...Around here, there's just NOBODY you could ask for help (no college-counsellor, nothing...). Studying abroad is just so expensive and I really could need someone to see through all the application- and scholarship-forms with me...
But hey, even if I end up at the most down-and-end uni one can think of, I can still start dating my professor to overcome boredom :lol: just kidding, of course! :D

[Koa]

*prays that Koa might win the lottery* :D



Yay thanks I'd love that.
Unfortunately my studies are almost finished so I'll just conclude them feeling like I dont have a useful degree and totally unmotivated to go on. IF in one year I decide to do a Postgraduate course I'll go abroad.

Here too, there's no counceling...at school they make you all nervous about what to choose, with tests like 'do you prefer French or Biology?' that should help you find your way... But noone tells you how Uni actually IS... what it requires from you...not even how it's organised! The first weeks of a newbie are hell, none of us was even able to read that timetable cos we didnt know how it worked!
I even wasted one year of my life in a 'wrong' Uni, even if I've always known that my main interest are languages...

[Schokokeks]

But noone tells you how Uni actually IS... what it requires from you...not even how it's organised! The first weeks of a newbie are hell, none of us was even able to read that timetable cos we didnt know how it worked!


Aye, that's just what I already feel now! I don't even know how many courses I may choose, how many lectures I must attend and whether there's anyone at Uni I can ask if I prove myself unable to figure out these questions myself... :confused:

As for now, I've decided that I'll just pay a visit to the next Uni around here, and just attend some of the lectures. All the rooms being overcrowed anyway, no one will take notice of me, I hope. That way, I might also get the chance to chat with some of the students already familiar with the courses I'm interested in.

In spite of your bad experiences with your studies, Koa, could you still tell me something about the way you had to work in class? I mean, where there any papers you had to hand over? What topics did you talk about? Was there any knowledge that you were expected to have already when classes started or was it like "literature-from-zero-upwards" ? (hihi, my English....)

Thank you very much for sharing your experiences anyway! :)

[Koa]

Aye, that's just what I already feel now! I don't even know how many courses I may choose, how many lectures I must attend and whether there's anyone at Uni I can ask if I prove myself unable to figure out these questions myself... :confused:


I suppose there must be someone to ask to, I mean for what I know Unis in Northern Europe are some kind of paradise for organisation...or are you from Germany? I forgot. Maybe not even from there? Whatever, any place northern or western than here is considered well organised...well, to me, any place really. Here they'd just send you from a place to the other and noone would tell you anything useful...:D

Here we dont even choose our courses. We choose a course, eg Languages for Tourism and we have the list of courses, so we attend those. No way to escape... well no serious way. We usually have a few free choice courses, like I had 2 in my 3 years I think.


In spite of your bad experiences with your studies, Koa, could you still tell me something about the way you had to work in class? I mean, where there any papers you had to hand over? What topics did you talk about? Was there any knowledge that you were expected to have already when classes started or was it like "literature-from-zero-upwards" ? (hihi, my English....)

I dont think my experience can help you at all since the system is different in different countries... However, in this 3rd world country University system there is no papers to hand in. Ever. (at least where I study but as far as I know it's like this everywhere in Italy). The only thing we write is our final paper, which I'm currently working at, so no wonder we are totally lost when we get to that point and we have no clue about how to do that (and apparently some people can't even write in decent grammar at that point). All the exams are oral, and often what makes your mark high is not your knowledge but either luck or how good you are at speaking. I'm a very bad speaker, though I had my moments of luck especially in my last exams.

As for literature, no knowldge was really required but I think that people with a technical background, that is those that came from a technical/commercial high school must have had their troubles cos often references were made to philosophy or to literature in general besides what we were studying... I had no problems with that since in my school we did literature and philosophy as well, but some people certainly had to struggle more...

[michela]

Uni. in Italy is a big mess,but let me say something...
I'm studying english lit. in Naples the first year it was in italian 'cause many of my mates didn't know english at all,anyway it was amazing 'cause my professor did a really interesting course about not only the period we were supposed to study that year, but also a "themed" course about the historical novel during the years and all around the world which was really cool because of all the intercultural discussions.
During the second year it was half in italian and half in english which was quite bad 'cause i thought that finally we were going to do all in english but it was harder for them who just were at their second year with english' cause the entire course was about Shakespeare...
Now i'm attending the third year and the course is only in English(the teacher is from usa and she can't speak very well italian)no matter what knowledge of english students have so i'm finally happy.
But being honnest i think i would have study english literature always in english just to enjoy it better. At the beginning of uni. i found it strange 'cause at the high school we studied english, french and spanish literature in mother tongue while at uni we didn't.

[Virgil]

I don't know the finacials of coming to the United States, but have any of you considered applying here. We have lots of exchange students. I don't know how that works, but if someone is serious I can ask around. My experience with english classes in the States is that it is mostly class discussion, as long as the class is doing the work. Almost all advanced classes are in a discussion format.

[Dark Lord]

Lucky u , at least u are studing English lit , what u really liked , unlike me i really liked it but couldnot study it even a courseat uni, i only took it as a hobby , self education , caz my parents didnot allow me to do so , they thought it is useless thing , so now i involved myself in medicine :( really complicated thing

[Virgil]

Lucky u , at least u are studing English lit , what u really liked , unlike me i really liked it but couldnot study it even a courseat uni, i only took it as a hobby , self education , caz my parents didnot allow me to do so , they thought it is useless thing , so now i involved myself in medicine :( really complicated thing

Actually Dark Lord, you haven't read my profile and introduction (http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14853).

In essence, I studied english lit as a hobby. I felt compelled to do something that would provide a good job. I didn't want to teach, so if I had majored in English there wouldn't be specific application of it for me. My friends who majored in english either are now teachers, journalists (pooh, even more so), or doing something unrelated. You should at least understand those options as you go forward. I don't feel I made the wrong choice. Hope that helps.

[Koa]

At the beginning of uni. i found it strange 'cause at the high school we studied english, french and spanish literature in mother tongue while at uni we didn't.

Same for me...

[Virgil]

I must say that we in the US are way behind on studying languages. I took spanish as a language in elementary and high schools. Frankly I hated it. Those were my lowest grades, pulling down my average significantly. Even though I passed I couldn't say a complex sentence. And cewrtainly I could not understand any of the native spanish speakers. Kudos to those who are multi lingual; shame on me for not trying.

[Koa]

Though I wish I had been able to take a more useful course, as you said Virgil, but the only things I enjoy are these useless ones... :rolleyes: I would have ahted anything technical like medicine or engineering or even economy, and thsoe things are so difficult for me while I' ve always felt I'm kinda 'gifted' for languages...

Hm but this is off topic. Now I do want to study abroad, but not in the USA. I don't want to pick up an American accent :D ;) And I'm scared of flying so I dont want to go that far ;) No really, I'm not so attracted by the USA anyway... UK! UK! UK! :D

[Virgil]

Though I wish I had been able to take a more useful course, as you said Virgil, but the only things I enjoy are these useless ones... :rolleyes: I would have ahted anything technical like medicine or engineering or even economy, and thsoe things are so difficult for me while I' ve always felt I'm kinda 'gifted' for languages...


We each have our abilities. I wouldn't call your gift for languages useless. Nor did I say majoring in english is useless. If I implied it, I apologize. What I meant was that for a person who lives in an english speaking country, majoring in English lit does not provide a lot of job opportunities. I would think that there could be lots of good jobs with your skill with languages.

[michela]

We each have our abilities. I wouldn't call your gift for languages useless. Nor did I say majoring in english is useless. If I implied it, I apologize. What I meant was that for a person who lives in an english speaking country, majoring in English lit does not provide a lot of job opportunities. I would think that there could be lots of good jobs with your skill with languages.

In reality also in Italy is quite difficult to find a good job with the english lit. majoring and above all it's hard to get a job opportunity which is really related to the literature, at least we can just wish to work with languages...and that's all.

[Dark Lord]

Thanks virgil thats true , thinking about ur future with English lit is not that much promising , my sister herself studied it and now she is English teacher in elementry school ,but the most frustrating thing for me that i've met many English lit students as they called themselves ,and i've discovered that most of them chose that thing not of loving it , they only wanted something easy , unaware of the deep values of ENGLISH lit ;)

[Virgil]

Yes, I've come into contact with those who thought it was going to be easy. Actually I didn't mind them. I looked at those as someone who was going to get the lower grades, and make me stand out better.

[Koa]

Here where I studied those who work less have the same grades as those who work hard anyway... :rolleyes:

I also thought there were going to be many job opportunities with languages, but it's not really so, unless you want to be a commercial clerk, which I'd do only as a last chance, not being my cup of tea...
These days pretty much anyone knows English to some degree (and not all employers would look for someone who's really fluent...), and in my area Russian is not that requested and anyway there are so many Russians living here and knowing Italian well enough, that I'm starting to have a feeling they'd prefer a native anyway, rather than my still unperfect skills... Well I don't mind the idea of moving somewhere else, I don't mind it all, I actually fancy it (aww sorry 'fancy' sounds too British I fear) but...hm whatever, whatever your studies have been, finding a good job seems just a real challenge anyway - though I suppose it's easier with a technical degree... At least I don't really dream of working with literature, but something cool where I can use languages... ok vague enough :D

Oops, I'm babbling again...

[Virgil]

Some advice for all you young people starting out. Take it for what it's worth.

Sometimes you just have to start at something and let life evolve. Don't ever feel fixed or unchangeably defined. You can always change your situation, your skills, and the direction of your future. It may not work out the way you want or planned, but you can change. Life is long. Opportunities may not be here now, but with perseverence and application and keeping a sharp eye open, at some point you should get a chance at something you desire. I imagine this sounds very American. Perhaps it does. And don't be afraid to make a mistake. You're young and mistakes will get corrected. When you look back on a mistake you have the option of two rationales. (1) You can say should have done that or (2) You can say I shouldn't have done that. If you want peace of mind, you should frame your decisions (for the most part, I won't absolutely always) so that if you did make a mistake you can rationalize it by the second option. At least your tried.

I admit, it is scary starting out. And I didn't have anyone giving me advice when I was young.

So much for grandfatherly advice.

[Schokokeks]

No really, I'm not so attracted by the USA anyway... UK! UK! UK! :D

...and as a final encouragement to everyone still thinking and mulling over it, I sent away my application to 4 British universities just this morning and I'm so extraordinary happy about the fact that I finally did it, it's undescribable! :D :D

Hope to meet you soon there, Koa! ;)

[emily655321]

Congratulations, Schoko! :thumbs_up Beginning college is terrifying and awesome at the same time, and I didn't even leave the country when I did it. Let us know how it goes. :nod:

[Schokokeks]

Let us know how it goes. :nod:

I'd be glad to do so! You'll all be invited to champagne and crackers in case I'm offered a place anywhere! :D