French and Turkish

French and Turkish is one of the most unexpected and intellectually rewarding language combinations available in the UK, bringing together two languages of world importance that are rarely studied together and yet open onto cultural and civilisational territories of immense richness. French is one of the great diplomatic and literary languages of the modern world, with a literature spanning several centuries and a francophone world extending across five continents. Turkish is the language of Turkey, a country that straddles Europe and Asia, a major NATO member, a secular republic with a rich Ottoman and Anatolian heritage, and a society whose political and cultural dynamics are increasingly important in European and global affairs.

To study both languages seriously is to gain access to two very different ways of making sense of the world.

At the University of Oxford, this four-year programme is taught through the tutorial system, providing intensive individual academic supervision alongside lectures and seminars. Oxford's modern languages provision is among the finest in the world, and its resources for both French and Middle Eastern languages, including Turkish, are exceptional. You will develop genuine proficiency in both languages, reading literature, history, and contemporary texts in the original, and engaging with the cultural, political, and intellectual traditions they carry.

The range of skills required, across a Romance and a Turkic language, with very different grammars, scripts, and literary histories, is genuinely demanding and genuinely rewarding.

Graduates in French and Turkish go on to careers in diplomacy and the foreign service, where expertise in both languages is specifically relevant to the complex bilateral relationships between the UK, France, and Turkey; in international law and arbitration; in journalism focused on Europe, the Middle East, or Central Asia; in translation and interpreting; in international business; and in academic research. Postgraduate study in French, Turkish, Ottoman studies, or international relations is a natural continuation.