Langevity Residential

Many of Cambridge's language-oriented course do not require a Modern Foreign Language at A-Level to apply (albeit desirable). As such, participants will be introduced to the full range of languages and cultures that can be studied 'ab initio' (from scratch) at undergraduate level, and so webinars are accessible to both students with previous knowledge as well as those without.

While the webinars do introduce some elements of language, the focus will be more so on engaging with cultural material. This may be different to students' experience of learning languages at school via grammar drills and vocabulary lists; in having this focus, we aim to introduce participants to the much more expansive way in which languages are studied at university.

The 2024/25 Langevity series included the following topics:

• Webinar 1: Spanish and the Hispanophone World
• Webinar 2: Ancient Egyptian and Akkadian
• Webinar 3: Russian and the Slavonic Languages
• Webinar 4: Languages of the Classical World
• Webinar 5: Linguistics and the Science of Language
• Webinar 6: Introduction to German
• Webinar 7: Introduction to Japanese
• Webinar 8: Combining Languages with History

A small number of Yr12 students, selected based on academic record and Widening Participation criteria, will be invited to attend a free residential in Cambridge. The 2025 residential included some of the following activities:  

• A tour of Cambridge
• A visit to the Modern and Medieval Languages Faculty
• Academic taster sessions
• A formal dinner
• Social activities
• An interviewing for language-oriented degrees at Cambridge workshop

The entire programme is free of charge, with the cost of food, travel, and accommodation for those selected to come on the in-person residential covered by the College.