Hungarian and Portuguese

Hungarian and Portuguese is one of the most unusual and rewarding language combinations available at any British university. Hungarian is a Finno-Ugric language, entirely unrelated to the Indo-European family, with a complex and distinctive grammatical structure and a rich literary tradition. Portuguese is a major world language, the official tongue of Brazil as well as Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, and several other nations, making it a language of extraordinary global reach across three continents and one of the most widely spoken languages in the world.

At University College London, this four-year full-time programme divides your time equally between the two languages. You will develop all four skills across both languages, speaking, listening, reading, and writing, alongside the study of cultural topics including literature, history, film, linguistics, and politics in Hungarian and Portuguese-speaking contexts. The wide variety of modules available allows you to tailor the degree to your particular interests.

A year abroad in the third year of the programme is spent in two countries where your languages are spoken, giving you genuine linguistic immersion in both communities and the professional and cultural experience that only living and studying internationally can provide.

You will develop proficiency in two genuinely contrasting languages, the comparative linguistic awareness that comes from working across such different linguistic systems, and the cultural depth that sustained engagement with both traditions builds.

Graduates pursue careers in translation, interpreting, international business, diplomacy, journalism, publishing, education, and international organisations. The combination of two languages as rare as Hungarian and Portuguese in the same graduate is exceptionally distinctive and opens doors that more common language combinations cannot. Postgraduate study in either language, translation studies, or area studies is a natural continuation.