Spanish and Hebrew

Spanish and Hebrew is an unusual and intellectually stimulating combination, joining one of the world's most widely spoken languages with one of its most historically significant. Spanish carries you into the cultures of Spain, Latin America, and the global diaspora of Spanish speakers, a community of hundreds of millions of people whose literary and intellectual traditions span from medieval Castilian through to contemporary Latin American fiction. Hebrew opens the ancient and modern worlds simultaneously, connecting you to one of the foundational languages of Western religious and intellectual history as well as the living language of the State of Israel.

At Oxford, one of the world's leading institutions for the study of both modern and classical languages, this four-year full-time degree is part of the European and Middle Eastern Languages programme, which allows you to combine one of the European languages taught in the Faculty of Modern Languages with Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, or Turkish. Spanish and Hebrew is a pairing with particular historical resonance: the Sephardi Jewish communities who were expelled from Spain in 1492 carried the Spanish language into the Ottoman Empire and beyond, creating a cultural and linguistic bridge between the Spanish and Hebrew worlds that offers rich material for comparative study. You will develop high-level proficiency in both languages alongside engagement with their literatures, cultures, and historical contexts, with a year abroad embedded in the programme.

The typical entry tariff of 184 points reflects Oxford's high academic expectations.

Graduates go on to careers in diplomacy, academia, journalism, translation, international cultural organisations, the legal professions, and many other fields where deep linguistic and cultural knowledge is valued. Many continue to postgraduate study in Spanish, Hebrew, Jewish studies, or comparative literature.