Hello, goodbye, nice to meet you, and I love you — in French, these words and phrases are bonjour, au revoir, enchanté, and je t’aime. With over 320 million speakers, it’s one of the most common languages in the world, which also means there’s no shortage of universities offering French as part of degree programmes, whether in linguistics or literature.
Now, people are familiar with wǒ ài nǐ (我爱你), the Mandarin Chinese way of saying I love you, as much as they are with je t’aime. It’s the second most widely spoken language in the world, ranking third in the US. Yet, 91% of Americans studying foreign languages in schools and universities would instead choose Spanish, French, Italian, or German, leaving only 9% to pursue non-European languages like Mandarin Chinese or Arabic.
At SOAS University of London, this is set to change.
“The School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics offers unparalleled disciplinary expertise and access to language study for anyone interested in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East,” says Dr. Ilana Webster-Kogen, Head of the SLCL. “Our world-class scholars lead their fields in the study of literature and film, linguistics, and poetry.”
Amidst a Eurocentric society, SOAS stands out with its 109-year legacy of challenging the global status quo. With the support of nearly 600 experts active in a wide range of disciplines, students are empowered to discover solutions to the world’s most pressing issues, developing skills through cross-cultural communication, project management, and research. From climate change to political and social polarisation to inequality, here’s where you will collaborate with a diverse community of peers, professors, and researchers, using decolonial frameworks to shape a more just world.
Area Studies at SLCL includes programmes like MA African Studies, MA Middle Eastern Studies, MA South Asian Studies, and more. Source: SOAS University of London
Programmes designed for a globalised world
Whether you’re looking to explore culture, history, and society from a contemporary or traditional context, SLCL offers many undergraduate and postgraduate programmes to cater to your interests. The school comprises the Department of Linguistics, the African Languages, Cultures, and Literatures Section, the China and Inner Asia Section, the Japan and Korea Section, the Near and Middle East Section, the South Asia Section, and the Southeast Asia Section.
The MA Linguistics programme is ideal if you’re eager to master linguistic research methods, with a unique focus on the languages of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. If you’re leaning more towards developing practical translation skills and cultural mediation, then the MA Translation and Intercultural Studies should be your top choice.
The MA Postcolonial Studies, Comparative Literature, and Culture Studies programmes are perfect for those looking to explore the histories of colonialism and imperialism through non-European epistemologies, literatures, and pop cultures, while Area Studies allows you to focus on a particular region through a multidisciplinary lens. You could take an intensive language pathway alongside the programme, with options available in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Swahili, Hindi, Urdu, Indonesian, and Vietnamese.
SOAS was founded in 1916, and it has been challenging Eurocentric worldviews ever since. Source: SOAS University of London
Making a difference beyond the classroom
With access to cutting-edge research centres like the Centre for Cultural, Literary, and Postcolonial Studies (CCLPS) and the guidance of award-winning scholars, you can get involved in interdisciplinary research projects to seek explanations of undiscovered concepts in linguistics, history, and literature.
Projects are often backed by prestigious funding agencies in the UK and overseas. SOAS’s vast industry connections — including other institutions and non-governmental organisations across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East — also provide opportunities for collaborative research that transcends borders. For example, the CCLPS is conducting a five-year research project titled “Multilingual Locals and Significant Geographies.” The project is funded by the European Research Council, aiming to counter the association of world literature with English by studying materials from multilingual societies.
There are plenty of other opportunities to expand your knowledge and skills beyond campus. SOAS offers study abroad opportunities to enhance your cultural immersion, including the option to spend a summer or a year abroad in Tanzania or Kenya, where you can pursue fluency in the Swahili language. Through the SOAS Careers service, you can also secure a work placement or an internship to gain practical experience with organisations like Amnesty International, the United Nations, the BBC, and more.
Check out the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics today.
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