Arabic and French MA (Hons) personal statement example

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

The first Algerian rap song I tried to follow line by line switched languages three times in one verse. I could catch the French, and a friend's older brother explained that "tomobil" was simply the French automobile reshaped by Algerian Arabic. That one word made me want to understand both sides of the switch. French has been my strongest subject since Year 7, but I had only studied it as the language of France. Realising that it is spoken daily alongside Arabic in Algiers, Tunis and Beirut, with each language borrowing from the other, showed me that studying the two together would deepen my understanding of each. I am also drawn to how Arabic works. Since starting a weekly beginners' class at our community centre last September, I have enjoyed seeing how the root k-t-b produces kitab, maktab and kataba, so that recognising three consonants lets me guess at words I have never met. I can now read short, vowelled texts slowly, and I want to build that properly from the ground up while taking my French much further, with time abroad using both.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare?

At A level I study French, History and English Literature. In French, our unit on immigration led me to prepare a presentation on Maghrebi communities in Marseille, drawing on newspaper articles and a short documentary. My teacher asked me to compare how different sources used the word "intégration", which taught me to treat vocabulary as part of an argument rather than neutral description. For my Independent Research Project I am studying Faïza Guène's Kiffe kiffe demain, looking at how Doria's narration mixes slang, Arabic words and standard French to show a teenager negotiating two worlds; I have kept a glossary of the expressions I had to look up. In History, our study of decolonisation covered the Algerian War, and writing an essay on it made me aware of how many of the voices I could access had been recorded in French, and how many I could not reach without Arabic. English Literature has sharpened my close reading, which I use when translating short French poems for myself and comparing my versions with published ones. I have also been reading Amin Maalouf's Les Identités meurtrières with a dictionary beside me; his argument that a person should not be forced to reduce several allegiances to one has shaped how I think about bilingual writers.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

Last summer I spent two weeks helping at a conversation café for adults learning English, run by a local charity. A coordinator led each session, and my role was to set up tables, sit with small groups and keep conversation going on topics she chose, such as shopping or using the bus. Several regulars spoke Arabic or French as their first language. When one man from Chad was stuck on a word, I could sometimes bridge it in French, and a Syrian woman patiently corrected my Arabic greetings in return. Watching the coordinator rephrase questions rather than translate them showed me how much careful explanation matters when learning a language. On Sundays I work on reception at our leisure centre, handling bookings, answering phone queries and calmly dealing with people whose class has been cancelled. I have been trusted to train two new starters on the booking system, which needed clear, step-by-step explanation. I also play bass in the school jazz band; learning to listen for the shape of a phrase before my entry has made me a more attentive listener in French oral practice. Between work, the band and my Arabic class, I have learned to plan my week carefully and keep up steady, independent study.