Arabic and Spanish MA (Hons) personal statement example

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

Most evenings I sit at the kitchen table with my nine-year-old sister while she does her spelling, and for the past year I have used that half hour to practise Arabic script. She now asks why letters change shape depending on their position, and explaining that ب, ت and ث differ only in their dots has made me think harder about how a writing system carries sound. I began Arabic because Spanish kept pointing me towards it. In A-level Spanish I noticed how many everyday words, such as aceite, almohada and azúcar, begin with al- or a-, a trace of the Arabic definite article. Learning that they entered Castilian during centuries of Muslim rule in Iberia turned a list of oddities into a piece of history. I want to study the two languages together because each makes the other more interesting: Spanish leads me into the history of al-Andalus, while Arabic opens a far larger modern world of literature, media and politics that I can only glimpse at the moment. I know Arabic will take years of sustained work, and that is part of the appeal.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare?

I am studying A-levels in Spanish, English Literature and Geography. Spanish has given me grammatical confidence I now rely on: understanding the subjunctive properly, rather than memorising triggers, made Arabic verb patterns feel less alien. For my Spanish independent research project I chose Lorca's Romancero gitano, examining how he presents Andalusian identity and people on the margins. Some critics link his imagery to the region's mixed heritage, and I learned to be careful about how far that argument can stretch. English Literature has trained me to read closely and write about tone, which helps when I translate short passages and notice what is lost. Outside school I work through Mastering Arabic 1 by Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar. I can now read and write the script, manage simple conversations about family and routine, and recognise the root-and-pattern system linking kataba, kitab and maktab. I listen to BBC Arabic headlines to tune my ear, even when I follow only the outline. María Rosa Menocal's The Ornament of the World gave me a vivid account of cultural exchange in medieval Spain; reading reviews arguing that her picture of tolerance is too optimistic showed me that this history is still actively debated. That disagreement made me separate a persuasive account of cultural exchange from the evidence supporting each of its claims.

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

Because both my parents work late shifts, I collect my sister from school four days a week and look after her until about seven. It is an ordinary responsibility, but it has made me organised: I plan my study around her routine and do my Arabic in short, regular sessions. On Saturday mornings I help at a lunch club for older residents at our community centre, setting up tables, serving food and chatting to regulars. One member, a retired teacher originally from Morocco, noticed my workbook and now spends a few minutes each week correcting my pronunciation and telling me which words she would actually say at home in Darija. That made me aware of the gap between Modern Standard Arabic and spoken dialects, which I want to understand properly. I also work six hours a week on a supermarket checkout, where I have learned to stay patient and polite when queues build up. For relaxation I play badminton at a local club and bake with my sister, which has nothing to do with languages but keeps my week balanced. These commitments have taught me to keep steady habits over months, which is exactly what learning two languages at once will demand.