French and Modern Greek

French and Modern Greek brings together two European languages with very different trajectories but each of profound cultural importance. French is one of the world's major diplomatic, literary, and academic languages, spoken natively by more than seventy million people and used as a second language by hundreds of millions more across five continents. Modern Greek continues a linguistic tradition stretching back to the ancient world, and while Greek as a spoken language has changed considerably since antiquity, Modern Greek provides access to a living culture with a rich contemporary literary and artistic scene, a complex modern history, and a geopolitically significant position in the eastern Mediterranean.

At the University of Oxford, this four-year degree brings the full depth of an Oxford education to both languages. The tutorial system means that you will develop your ideas in close, sustained conversation with expert tutors, building not just competence in each language but genuine scholarly understanding of the cultures and literatures they carry. In the French strand, you will study literature from the medieval period to the contemporary, engage with French cinema and cultural history, and develop your written and spoken French to a very high level.

In the Modern Greek strand, you will build linguistic proficiency and engage with Greek literature, history, and society from the nineteenth century to the present day. The four-year structure gives adequate time for deep engagement with both languages and the intellectual traditions they represent.

Graduates with this combination pursue careers in translation and interpreting, diplomacy, European and international affairs, journalism, and academia. The French language opens particularly wide career options given its global use, while Modern Greek expertise is more unusual and correspondingly distinctive in fields such as European policy, archaeological organisations, tourism management, and cultural institutions with Hellenic connections. Many Oxford modern languages graduates go on to postgraduate study or to highly competitive graduate schemes where analytical and linguistic ability are primary selection criteria.