Italian and Beginners' Czech

Modern languages at Oxford offers both practical training in written and spoken language and an extensive introduction to the literary and intellectual traditions that these languages carry. Italian is one of the great literary languages of Europe, the tongue of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, and a tradition that stretches continuously through to contemporary fiction and poetry. Czech, with its related Slovak variant, opens a different but equally rich tradition, one that runs from medieval Bohemia through to the modernist and dissident literature of the twentieth century and the distinctive culture of Central Europe.

This four-year full-time programme at Oxford involves learning to write and speak both languages fluently while exploring a broad range of literature across periods from the medieval to the present day. You can choose to focus your studies on literary history, or take options in linguistics, philology, film, or gender studies, depending on where your intellectual interests lead. Beginning Czech from scratch alongside Italian requires considerable commitment and intellectual discipline, but the combination is structured to support you from the foundations up.

The tutorial system at Oxford means you will regularly engage in close, challenging discussion of your ideas with tutors who are specialists in these literatures, developing the ability to argue carefully, read deeply, and write precisely in demanding contexts.

Graduates from Oxford Modern Languages programmes are exceptionally well prepared for careers that require language competence, cultural knowledge, and analytical rigour. Translation and interpreting, international business, diplomacy, the European institutions, journalism, publishing, law, and cultural management are among the most direct destinations. The combination of Italian and Czech is unusual enough to be genuinely distinctive in competitive fields.

Many graduates go on to postgraduate study, whether in linguistics, comparative literature, area studies, or professional programmes in law, management, or international relations, and the close-reading and argumentation skills developed at Oxford serve well across almost every professional context.