Beginners' Italian and Portuguese

Beginners' Italian and Portuguese at Oxford offers the rare opportunity to start two major European languages from scratch and to develop real proficiency in both within a four-year undergraduate degree. Italian and Portuguese are members of the Romance language family, sharing Latin roots, and a student who has learned one will find the other more accessible, though each has its own distinct phonology, grammar, and literary tradition that demands serious study in its own right. Italian gives you access to one of the world's great artistic and literary heritages, the language of Dante, Petrarch, Machiavelli, and a tradition of opera, architecture, painting, and film that has shaped Western culture.

Portuguese is a world language of remarkable reach: spoken not only in Portugal but in Brazil, which has the world's largest Lusophone population, and across communities in Africa and Asia, it is the language of Fernando Pessoa, Jorge Amado, and one of the most vibrant literary traditions of the twentieth century.

At Oxford, you will develop both languages from the foundation upwards over four years of intensive full-time study. The tutorial system means your linguistic development is closely supported and individually calibrated, and you will engage with grammar, phonetics, and conversation alongside the reading of literary and cultural texts in the original. As your proficiency grows, you will engage with the literatures, histories, and cultural contexts of both Italian- and Portuguese-speaking worlds in depth.

Oxford's resources for the study of Romance languages are exceptional, and the programme draws on a strong tradition of research in Italian and Lusophone studies.

Graduates who have developed genuine fluency in Italian and Portuguese alongside the analytical and interpretive training of an Oxford degree have a set of skills that are rare and highly valued. Careers in diplomacy, international organisations, journalism, translation and interpreting, international business, and roles in the cultural sector connecting the UK with Italian- and Portuguese-speaking markets are natural destinations. The Brazilian economy and the cultural institutions of the wider Lusophone world offer significant opportunities for graduates with Portuguese.

Academic research in Italian, Lusophone, or comparative Romance studies is a common path for those who want to pursue the languages and their cultures professionally. The degree also provides an excellent foundation for law, finance, and many other professional fields where the Oxford combination of rigorous analytical training and rare language expertise is valued.