German with a year abroad

Studies of graduate employability repeatedly stress the career value of language degrees. Employers in UK and international business, the press and media, IT and technology, marketing and public relations, public administration, international development, law, finance, teaching and lecturing, interpreting, translating and others have been found repeatedly to value foreign language competence, not just as a specialist skill, but as a personal quality that fosters relationship-building, teamwork, and the capacity to move easily in international contexts. Studying German, you will also gain fluency in a language and knowledge of a country and its culture that is increasingly in demand, given Germany’s central role in European economic and political development, and German and Austrian membership of the EU. Recent graduates have found employment in sectors including media production and journalism, human relations, finance, business development, retail and marketing, the civil service, teaching and lecturing. A considerable number have continued to further study. Recent employers of King’s German graduates include Goldman Sachs, Astra Zeneca, the National Assembly of Wales, CNN, the American University in London, and the University of Oxford.

In 2011-12, the Department launched a new curriculum that reflects our commitment to innovative and research-led teaching. Staff across the Department contribute introductory and specialist modules that draw from their own research in German literature, culture and history. Modules are taught through a combination of lectures, small seminars or tutorials, and one-to-one supervision. This brings you into close contact with tutors, in a department that is regularly ranked among the top three research departments in the UK. Language classes involve in-depth work with different kinds of media, literary and academic texts. Teaching is in German and English, according to the subject area. Our teaching style is interactive; students participate informally in small group discussions in seminars or online discussion fora, and formally through seminar presentations and oral assessments.

Following Year 1 foundation modules in culture, history and politics, more specialised modules in Years 2 and 4 reflect the rich research expertise of Department staff. The King’s German Department ranked joint second in the country in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, and the commitment of our staff to research excellence is matched by our enthusiasm for teaching. Our rigorous three-year language programme is tailored both to your own level of language competence, and to the internationally recognised Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Non-native speakers take core language modules covering the key skills of reading, writing, listening, spoken interaction and production, and translation. Native speakers currently take a separate module in Translation from and into German. Assessment is in a variety of forms including précis and oral presentation, work placement portfolios, longer academic essays in both English and German, and oral and written exams

Located in the heart of London, the department can draw on unparalleled print, audio-visual and online resources, including the King’s Maughan Library and Senate House Library, the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, the British Film Institute and the British Library. All are within easy walking distance of the Strand Building. The Goethe-Institut and Austrian Cultural Forum also have extensive media and library holdings, and run lively programmes of films, readings, seminars and exhibitions which complement the Department’s internal film screenings, open seminars, exhibitions, and annual departmental play. All teaching takes place at the Strand Campus.

The third year of this programme is spent in Germany, Austria or German-speaking Switzerland, normally as a student at university or as a teaching assistant in a school. We have exchange links with universities in Munich, Frankfurt (Main), Heidelberg, Berlin and Vienna (under the European Union Socrates-Erasmus scheme).