Year abroad for MFL - work or university?

[Sofasurfing]

Does anyone have DC doing MFL who would be able to advise? Many unis give the option of spending your third year abroad either working or attending a partner university in the country/countries concerned. Which is preferable do you think? I'd have thought work experience rather than uni study but that's just my gut instinct.

OP, as others have said, unless your DC has an EU passport, post-Brexit the opportunities for British students to work abroad are now sadly very limited. That being said, the British Council is still sending British students abroad as language assistants, and DS did manage to get an internship in France post-Brexit which involved a mixture of office work and teaching English in French schools. I don't think you've said which country? I think it would be helpful to mention that because it may make a difference to the answers that you get. By all accounts, trying to get a visa for Spain is a bit of a nightmare, but from what I've read, getting a student visa for Spain (though still a tortuous and expensive process) is not as difficult as getting a visa that will allow you to work. NB If your DC has an EU passport, it would be worth mentioning this so that you don't get responses that are coloured by visa issues that are irrelevant to your DC.

@Juja
Surely your DD must go to both countries? How would she submit work of the required level if she’s not there? DD had to discuss her ideas with tutors and being an au pair would not have been good enough academically. There seems to be big discrepancies in what uk universities expect. For DD it was more than language practice. Academics mattered.

Thank you for replies - very kind to bother. DC does NOT have a Euro passport - sadly a new UK Blue one. Work placement looks well nigh impossible according to all your replies. DC’s languages are Spanish and French

That's interesting as when i did my Russian Year Abroad (quite a few years ago), there wasn't a working option. Maybe because so many are doing Russian ab initio so the immersive study is more helpfuul? I did the whole year at uni but then got a part time job in the evenings for the working environment experience.

@Sofasurfing
With French, DD went to Switzerland. She found the university there was inclusive towards exchange students: she got fantastic university accommodation and their welcome events were good. If a Swiss university is on the list it’s worth applying. DD was actually glad she didn’t apply for the Sorbonne - a bit chaotic friends said.

Don’t forget Dd has every vacation on a 4 year course for work experience. Check out the British Council but I really would be very happy with a highly ranked university abroad. DDs friend went to a university in Madrid. (Not sure which one). She had a great experience too. No one had problems getting grad jobs after graduating because they built up a cv in other ways. So take the opportunity to learn a different subject or two! Expend knowledge and travel a bit.

I think the level of work experience you'd get in uni holidays is completely different to a year in industry as a placement student.

Not really. What internships are available now? It’s all very well looking at 25 years ago but Brexit really has changed the landscape! Who is getting internships now? Also you can get brilliant experience in vacations. You just need to get organised and apply!!

@TizerorFizz Maybe different unis have different requirements. It seems there is lots of flexibility at my DD's Uni e.g. whether you teach English for the British Council, voluntary work, work, intern or study at a University. The purpose is to be proficient in both languages not to do an academic course as the year doesn't contribute to her degree result. My DD passed her DALF C1 in French (classed as fluent) last December so believes that will tick that box but I'm sure she will find out more once she starts her degree. Also she will have very long uni vacations where she can go to France. She isn't proposing to be an au pair in her Year Abroad.

I did a 4 year MFL/Business degree and obtained a dual qualification, as spent half the time (so 2 years) abroad. As well as that, it was a sandwich degree, so 6 months work experience in the UK whilst at the home uni and 6 months work experience abroad whilst at the partner uni.

Honestly, it really was the best of both worlds. Also, it was pre-Brexit and I was given a Erasmus grant which paid for pretty much everything when I was abroad.

Have you looked at the new Turing Scheme OP? That is supposed to be replacing the old Erasmus/Comenius EU grants and funding.

www.turing-scheme.org.uk/

@Juja
She has got an easy ride then. Most students I know have done both and no
opting out. It’s academic work that’s required, not purely language acquisition. I am amazed a British university will count pre university study that they set and didn’t mark. It’s odd anywhere decent accepts this.

@Meredusoleil The universities tell you what is on offer. They have partner universities and tell you about funding in place.

@TizerorFizz the uni in question is Oxford so I guess at No 1 in the world for modern languages knows what it is doing. Their website, which I checked again yesterday, said the year abroad is about language acquisition. Their interest is students becoming fluent in both languages and as her second language is ab initio she will have to work much harder at that and so it makes sense to spend longer in that country. She may have to write an extended essay in her year abroad to demonstrate language acquisition but it doesn’t ‘count’ for her degree, more like Collections, their termly college exams to keep you on your toes:

What DD actually does in 2 years time will depend on her developing interests and opportunities that arise in this wretched post Brexit environment where visas are tricky and options more limited. I also imagine her tutors will assess her primary language and advise on how to use her combination of vacations and year abroad to best effect to become fluent in both languages. Nothing set in stone yet.

The department’s policy towards year abroad will be shaped by the oddity that at Oxford your degree class is determined by your exam results in the Iast few weeks of your last year (not even sure a dissertation is required for MFL, I believe it may be optional). I’m not saying this way of assessment is good just the way it is.

Some Scottish unis I’m aware differ for MFL as your year abroad is an integral part of your degree being 4 year degrees you need to get academic credits while overseas.

Lots of good unis out there even if they have different approaches to assessment and year abroad. Enables students to choose a course that suits their learning style.

This is what Oxford actually say.

My husband did MFL and worked. He saw that his course mates that went to university just hung around with other Brits or Americans. Their language hadn't developed as much as those who worked.

He did 9 months as an assistant in a German high school and then the summer working for a translation firm in France.

Yes as I had read and understood; we are on the same page 🙂I also think working is great but sadly no longer the easy option it was.

Students are not required to do formal academic studies overseas - students consolidate their years 1 & 2 work whether working, teaching English, volunteering or at Uni. Doesn't state any requirement to split the year equally between your two languages so that can be negotiated.

If you do go to Uni overseas and get credits that is great but doesn't count towards your degree. And the Oxford extended essay aka dissertation is optional. They, as many other Unis, provide huge flexibility which is fantastic.

[NB Oxford always say you should spend vacations studying, some students are diligent and spend lots of time doing that, others are busy doing other activities and have a big cram the few days before collections - my DC1. That Sid I can't remember studying in many vacations except pre Prelims and Easter in the third year]

I did French uni on my year abroad and wished I'd worked as the uni spent a lot of time on strike so there was bugger all to do.
Top tip if you're going to France is French students don't make friends in lectures anymore than English people make friends on the bus, it's weird. Join some association sportive, cafe de langue and social things like that so you meet peers when they're in the right headspace to socialise. I wish someone had told me that.

@thankyouforthesun
That's what DDs friends said. Switzerland is the total opposite, DD found. If students live at home and have their school friends handy, they don’t need anyone else.

I spent most of my evenings at the local fencing club tbh. Did a bit of assistant coaching, refereeing etc.

But just needing to understand (and take notes from) a lecturer who was trying to break the French students' habits of taking dictation rather than notes so speaking fast did the most for my French. Took a couple of weeks to dial in to the speed plus regional accent but we all got there and it was so useful!

He saw that his course mates that went to university just hung around with other Brits or Americans.

@Twizbe

Although native English speakers are known for this, not all of us did that. I kept quite quiet in the first few days of Uni life, making sure that not one word of English crossed my lips.

Joined lots of intros for clubs and societies, volunteered for the steering committee for the bar, so I had lots to talk about. By the time my fellow students clocked that I spoke other languages, they were used to speaking the local language and made no attempt to score free English lessons of me.

To your husband, who saw all native English speakers sticking with English , I hope I would have looked like a native 'local language speaker'.

I grew up in an English speaking international community where most English people were happy to not make the effort with other languages, so knew exactly what it takes to not get stuck ...

Just speak the language you want to speak, regardless how people reply. They soon give up. 😀

That approach will be as valid at Uni as in a work place, where there will often also be temptation to still with your own language. It's really not an argument between Uni and work.

I agree totally with FinallyHere. Not all work placements are equal, nor will all uni abroad experiences be. Much will be driven by the personality of a DC, what they want to get out of their language exposure experiences. Both have merits, and will depend on what the uni has connections with to support the student with their learning, commensurate with what they are comfortable with away from 'base'.

Mine attends a uni that is part of the CASA programme. Whilst most of the partner unis are from the US, the application to experience a semester that gives exposure to 3 x unis in a Spanish speaking city (Chile or Santiago in her case as one of her 2 language semesters), developing an integrated immersion programme with like-minded students. Hopefully. And if they're not like-minded, then she'd seek out communities (via whatever, sport, music, societies etc) that are, to maintain and improve her skills.

Language degrees vary so much by institution. The language part is just one aspect of the course in most of them, depending on how wide the multi-disciplinary options are that are available to them.

@ealingwestmum sounds like a great opportunity in Chile or Santiago. Is it competitive to get a place. Totally agree these experiences are very much what you make of them whether work or uni.

@Meredusoleil I'm also interested in the Turing Scheme, do you have any experience of it? What I've heard is that Unis have to apply each spring for the Turing funding so often don't know until the summer what funding they have making everything rather last minute for students. Conversely Erasmus was a 7 year programme. I've found it hard to work out if Turing pay your tuition fees for the overseas Uni as well as the living allowance.

I believe it will be very competitive @Juja so no guarantees she'll get on it with a strong cohort. But the fall backs are the usual mix of unis of Seville, Madrid, Barcelona, Grenada, Salamanca, Leon etc so not the end of the world. And then one semester in Beirut (at the moment).

A student needs to have studied at least 5 semesters at uni level for CASA consideration, is open to native/non-native, basically be near 100% fluency to stand a chance, so she has her work cut out!

Apologies, should have read Santiago or Havana.

@ealingwestmum sounds like it's definitely worth a shot - good luck to your DD.

DD could have applied to Reunion Island. She had to compete with others for both the universities abroad by a written submission. Also few employers will really care where you have been. Only academics seem to be that bothered.