Please talk to me about Erasmus

[tapdancingmum]

DD has been offered a place to study in Vienna next semester. Can anybody furnish me with any useful information that I can pass onto her to make it all go quite smoothly.

[user7214743615]

I speak 5 languages fluently due to family circumstances (multinational family, have lived in 4 different countries). In my work (science) I use only English.

So, yes, while the British (and other English speakers) are under educated in languages it's quite hard to see how more resources invested into MFL would result in economic gain for the UK.

[Needmoresleep]

I am with user7214743615 here. I have learnt four languages as an adult, all well enough to use for work, or if need be for University.

I see advantage in children being exposed to a different language early, to give them experience and awareness of language acquisition. But honestly if you don't use a language, you lose it, and though two of the languages I speak (French and German) were ones I took at O level, I was really starting from scratch when I needed them.

Increasingly Independent schools are offering Mandarin as an alternative to a European language, sometimes from early primary. It is the language DS would see as the one potentially useful in his future career, and an option he would have liked to have had.

[bojorojo]

2rebecca. Can he not do an internship later in the summer? I am sure a local forge could help if he asked? Terms in some countries are longer. DD was in Italy until July. I feel a 7.15 am start is beyond the call of duty! That will look good on a cv.

I do not think economic gain is all about sciences though. There is another world of arts and commerce out there which earns money!!! China teaches English to all children. I think they have Mandarin and English sorted out with millions of English speakers. However, learning a language is always good but most children never get near a Mandarin course at school.

I have just been reading some research that suggests 75% of students going to Europe from Russell Group Universities are learning the language at university. That figure diminishes greatly for pre 92 and especially new universities. There are very few students going to the Czech Republic - full stop!

[2rebecca]

He hasn't seen any he fancies later in the summer, most of them start in June. He's also had difficulty getting to any of the intern recruitment days due to being in Prague. I've worked fairly nonstop since I qualified so I'm fairly laid back about him not working all summer, he worked the last 2 but not related to engineering. It's a 5 year course so there's always next summer.

[user7214743615]

Increasingly Independent schools are offering Mandarin as an alternative to a European language, sometimes from early primary.

My DC"s schools offer Mandarin (as well as Russian and Japanese). I would say though that even with early exposure and quite a lot of teaching time it is hard to get very far in languages such as Mandarin.

[user7214743615]

There is another world of arts and commerce out there which earns money!!!

Sure. (Although every £1 invested by a country into science returns at least £5. Consistently over generations science is the single best economic investment for a country.)

Most of my own money comes not from science but from work in finance. And again in finance the international language is English. I have never used my fluency in (desirable) languages in my work with international hedge funds.

BTW China may well teach English to all children but the level of fluency in English even amongst highly educated people is still rather poor, due to the isolation of the country, lack of exposure to English speaking media etc.