Agoston Horanyi

Agoston took the BA in Chinese Studies and now works as a researcher and sustainability advisor.

What was your favourite module and why?

My favourite module was probably classical Chinese. It was a great mixture of history, philosophy, poetics, and language learning. Studying millenia-old texts gave me a new way to conceptualise modern Chinese; I was surprised to see how much learning the traditional script helped with the simplified, and how classical grammar came to be useful in understanding modern Chinese. I think it was then that I really started appreciating the beauty of Chinese.

What did you do on your year abroad?

Since I could not go to China, due their Covid-related visa restrictions, I organised an alternative year abroad programme in Taiwan. Alongside attending online classes at Tsinghua, I travelled extensively throughout the island, worked on several organic farms, and continued my Laidlaw research project on contemporary tea culture.

What did you do after leaving Durham?

Upon graduating, I completed an MSc in Sustainable Development at the University of St Andrews. Afterwards, I moved to Berlin to work as a researcher and sustainability advisor at the studio of Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson.

How did your studies prepare you for what you do now?

The wide range of modules, projects, scholarships and my college-, sport- and society-related activities taught me to look for links between seemingly unrelated areas. Thinking in connections and analysing phenomena through various lenses have been crucial to both my postgraduate studies and my current job.

What is the most important piece of advice you'd like to give to students of Modern Languages?

Whatever happens, go abroad and spend as much time immersed in the culture of your language(s) as you possibly can. Make sure to attend the classes because they’ll give you structure and teach the standard language, but, in my experience, the greatest learning comes from making local friends and talking to them in their native language, which gives access to registers beyond classroom learning.

What is your favourite memory of Durham?

Chad’s Day 2020. Only a few of weeks before the uni closed, we were all oblivious to what is to come and went on enjoying day of unrestrained festivities with our friends in college. As gradually more and more things got cancelled over the following months, ensued by lockdowns and all kinds of restrictions, this memory of togetherness, and the hope that we’d soon be able to return to our usual uni days, became a little mental refuge — and has stayed with me beyond my time at Durham.