to be reluctant to allocate money for that.

[Ratatouille1977]

Dh wants to take some intensive course in French, it's almost 300 pounds for a term. It's supposed to be a investment into his professional future. He had many plans over the course of 5 years saying how he was going to increase his earning potential but nothing happened. I feel it and I don't feel it. Plus the course will be on saturday morning from 10 till 13.00. I'm working full time and I start at 8 and finish at 6 every day. What do you think ?

Hi there.

I have decided to support him and not voice my opinion on his choice. He has good intentions at heart, I know that. He has no chance to further himself at the current company where he is at the moment, its a small company, there is no promotion to obtain. What he wants to do is to improve his level in french and look for another job. He reckon he only needs to do it for one term.

Perhaps. In any case, whatever the potential salary, there's a huge amount of work required to get to that point. If you're going to spend years on something you have perhaps no interest in, for the sake of the financial results, I think there's better bets!

And no, GCSE French won't get you a job. Nothing at that level gets you a job (unless the employer is absolutely desperate).

Presumably the OP's husband is on a much higher level course, hence the cost. I do wonder whether he could simply work at home and take one of the institute's B2 exams. But if he's sure he specifically needs tuition on business French, I can see why that might not be enough. I hope he gets a nice sheet of paper at the end, saying he's attended a course at the French institute!

But Jellybeanz was rather disappointed by the OU's fee increases- GCSE French (if available to evening students locally) is much cheaper than even one OU beginners French module, and it covers much the same content. The modules are designed to follow the CERF for Languages, just like GCSE and A-level are supposed to. Except the OU is aimed more at adults, so there's less stuff on MP3 players and arguing with your parents.

If he is a project manager, he might consider doing a Prince2 qualification.

Quinte : he has the prince 2 qualification

My DH learnt French at school and was always pretty reasonable at it (although I usually found that I understood more, because I would actually listen to what people were saying .....). However, because he works for a company which has world-wide interests they decided to send him away on an intensive course where he would "live" the language (they had also previously offered after hours lessons to everyone, which he also attended). He loved the course in France and came back pretty pleased with himself. However, he ended up hardly ever using it in business because everyone wanted to speak English! Generally in Europe English is the business language as it is the common language of many nations, if you see what I mean. DH doesn't regret at all doing the course, but he rarely gets a chance to practise now.

Rat, could I just say that the Institut Francais courses are excellent, and overall, excellent value for money. I've done quite a few. The fact that he does have to put some effort of time and money into it is in itself a motivating factor. Also, he could, once he gets going, "top up" the Saturday course with online stuff as well. The I.F. has a great library stuffed full of books, DVD's, CD's and other resources, there's a cinema etc. - all of this gets you excited about the possibilities of a language.

Honestly I don't understand everyone's negativity about this. Jeez learning a language without professional prospects in mind - how dare he?

My DH wanted to learn Russian (for no particular reason except he liked the sound of it and his family background is distantly Russian) and it's been a wonderful hobby for him. Now he's reasonably fluent - and can read Cyrrilic, which frankly I find very sexy!

FWIW I think you've made the correct, and the generous decision. Please try not to laugh at his pronunciation. Anyway, good luck to both you and DH.

Thats really good.

cingolimana - Thank you so much, I didn't know about the ressources at the french institut !