Bachelor's Degree in Modern Languages and Letters: German, Dutch and English

 Daytime Programme   180 credits   3 years

 European Qualifications Framework (EQF): Level 6 
 Internship: no   Final assignment: yes   Exchange Programmes: yes

Undertaking studies in Germanic languages and literatures means setting out on a voyage of discovery: encountering foreign languages entails learning about other people’s worlds - how their cultural and social realms are constructed. For Germanists, studying languages obviously involves being able to speak them, but also to know them at the structural level and explore their literatures: it is in literary texts that we find the most inventive forms languages can take and that we can best grasp their particular dynamic. Germanists are not only excellent users of the languages they study, they are also mediators, bridging different cultural worlds and highlighting the richness specific to each of them.

The BA programme in Germanic Languages and Literatures begins with a study of various facets of any two of three languages: English, German and Dutch. In effect, becoming a Germanist means learning, from the perspective of the linguist, past and present forms of the chosen languages as well as their systemic functioning; Germanists also practise analysing literary texts, and study literary history and the cultures of the chosen languages. To achieve a comprehensive mastery of the subject, theory is matched by an intensive study of language as such. Activities include: writing miscellaneous texts, exercises based on audio-visual materials (films, documentaries etc.,) discussion of various topics, role-plays, introduction to translation and interpreting. In addition, in year three, under the EU’s Erasmus programme, students spend an academic term in a Germanic-language country or region (Flanders included) where they experience full immersion in a specific linguistic / cultural environment.