Have you considered starting a new language from scratch?

Not really...

We could make you a lower offer...

Oh...

I was 17 years old and at interview for my first choice university. I’d applied to do French and German, two of my A-level subjects. Now I was being asked if I wanted to give up one of the languages I’d already invested several years in learning, to take a brand new one! Still, a lower grade offer would be good...

You can choose between Russian, Italian and Spanish.

OK, I’ll think about it and let you know...

Oh no you won’t! – You have to decide here and now, otherwise we won’t make you an offer at all.

(Blimey, I thought.)

What a choice I had to make on the basis of very little information!  Mum! Where are you...?

Errr! OK, Spanish, then...

Why? No idea! But one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, because I was given a lower offer, got the grades the following summer and off I went, aged 18, to the big city to do a joint honours degree in German and my new language choice – el español!

© Paul Whitelock