French and Yiddish

French is one of the great literary and intellectual languages of the world, spoken across five continents and carrying with it a tradition of philosophy, literature, cinema, and political thought that has shaped Western culture profoundly. Yiddish, by contrast, is a language with a history unlike almost any other, a Germanic tongue written in the Hebrew alphabet that became the primary language of Ashkenazi Jewish communities across Central and Eastern Europe, and which survived genocide to persist as a living language and an extraordinarily rich literary and cultural tradition. Studying these two languages together at degree level is a combination that offers deep linguistic challenge alongside the chance to engage with two very different but equally compelling cultural and historical worlds.

At University College London, this four-year full-time programme gives you the opportunity to develop advanced proficiency in both French and Yiddish, studying the literature, history, cinema, and cultural production of French-speaking and Yiddish-speaking communities in parallel. UCL is one of the very few universities in the UK where Yiddish can be studied at degree level, and its Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies provides an exceptional scholarly home for Yiddish language and literature, including its pre-war European context and its contemporary forms. Alongside linguistic and literary study, you will encounter questions of memory, identity, migration, and cultural survival that Yiddish carries with particular urgency.

A four-year modern languages degree at UCL will involve substantial engagement with the languages outside the classroom, and the structure of the programme reflects the depth of commitment studying two languages demands.

Graduates of French and languages programmes at UCL move into careers in translation and interpreting, international organisations, diplomacy, journalism, publishing, academia, education, and cultural institutions. The depth and rarity of Yiddish expertise is particularly valued in Jewish cultural organisations, archives, and research institutions.