Is the year abroad compulsory for MFL degree

[1y7]

I know that might seem like a daft question but bear with me ...

DD is in 1st year of a joint honours degree. French plus a non language subject.

The university has said that they don't know what funding will be available for the year abroad.

I saw a post on here which said Pippa Middleton wasn't allowed to do her year abroad whilst at Edinburgh because her marks weren’t good enough Now I know that MN isn't the best source for info on the Middletons but it did make me wonder:

Is the year abroad compulsory?
Is it dependent upon getting to a level of language proficiency before hand?

OP you're being a bit pessimistic, my languages degree helped me land a fantastic first job, people are impressed by people who can speak other languages it's a talent not everyone possesses. I've rarely used mine but every now and then they've been very helpful indeed. You gain a lot from a year abroad besides fluency, just living in another country and having to navigate renting etc is very challenging but also amazing in helping you grow up.

@1y7 I too think you are pessimistic. Look into funding. Choose a cheaper area to go to. What sometimes looks expensive, isn’t in reality.

My DD did her French in Switzerland. They shopped in France for food. Her accommodation, because she applied early and got a choice, was cheaper than here. That was mid range! There was cheaper than hers. Not all unis will offer Switzerland but be savvy with choices. Definitely look at British Council. DD preferred uni so she could study new topics but some love the teaching.

Wherever they go they learn independence and resilience. They navigate tricky situations. They make new friends. They have something to talk about at interview. The “what are you most proud about” type ones. DD found Switzerland very organised and perfect for her. Her uni said German unis were good too. Her second experience in Italy was much more demanding. Semi organised chaos. Even in the days of Erasmus.

I too think employers look at skills in a broader sense. DD doesn’t use either MFL at work but the degree gave her a good academic skill for launching her career. Certainly resilience, ability to learn quickly, academic ability and getting on with people are needed in her work.

I think a year abroad is money well spent. Too few recognise the importance of MFLs and so many see them as hugely difficult subjects to be avoided. Constantly on mn! Doing one or two makes you up for the challenge and possessing a skill others don’t have. In DDs job, she certainly not alone in being a MFL grad. It’s always what you add to your degree that gets you where you want to go, MFL and the year abroad adds to the cv and the skills possessed. It’s worth it .

Things are different now but when I did an MFL degree twenty or so years ago it was pretty much compulsory
I think the only possible exceptions might have been a few who had been brought up fully bilingually (eg with a Spanish mum in the UK). There were a handful of them.

I worked as a language assistant in a school which was paid (a bit). I don’t recall any additional funding. Best year of my life. Is that a possibility? Others got paid jobs too but that be much harder now post brexit but I think language assistantships are still possible

@Clearinguptheclutter Yes. Via British Council. Pay isn’t that bad! Better than £0 at a uni.

When I said ‘earn money’ I was referring to the British Council teaching assistant placements in Europe which you can still do. A close relative is a languages lecturer and I know all their students do a year abroad so I don’t think I am that out of touch!

I appreciate that Brexit has made things harder. However, the internet must surely make administrative things easier to eventually overcome. When I went abroad in the late nineties we organised everything by telephone or letter (in the language we at the time barely spoke) and opened bank accounts, got mobile phones etc. The civil paperwork alone (we still needed residence permits which we obtained in person) and finding accommodation was a really challenging experience even if our placements were funded in a more straightforward way.

I agree that Brexit was incredibly unhelpful for year abroad students or those wanting to work abroad though - it was a big reason I was personally against it having done it myself.

However, the internet must surely make administrative things easier to eventually overcome. When I went abroad in the late nineties we organised everything by telephone or letter (in the language we at the time barely spoke) and opened bank accounts, got mobile phones etc.

DD has found it a mixed blessing. Last week, a website booking system for the health service didn't work, directing her to a phone number and a grumpy chap who insisted she'd need to do that via the website. Bit like the UK, but with bonus language barrier.

Bank account and health insurance done via the internet but visa required three in-person visits and the Germans are not set up to do any of it on the internet including insisting on posting the special code you need to pick the visa up - and the German postal system isn’t as reliable as we would all think. Phone contract had to be sorted in person. Bizarre Byzantine/Kafkaesque system of booking classes involved hoofing it round the German uni as that couldn’t be done online. Exams had to be booked into, oddly, but they didn’t put the booking up for the foreign students, only the German ones so they were all panicking a bit at Christmas.

My lord, it has bred resilience though, and he has made some great friends from so many countries and learned to sort and problem solve under some duress. All that is worth it, I think.

@mimbleandlittlemy Many unis abroad are not totally streamlined for exchange students. The Swiss uni was totally organised. Italian one - as I said, a comedy of errors. Yes, students really do learn to navigate their new world without much help. DD had exam issues in Italy. Took hours to sort out. After she’d taken the exam, new criteria was introduced for taking the oral exam. The uni told some exchange students they didn’t need to take a written exam at all, only the oral one. Except you cannot take the oral one unless you pass the written one……. All good experience for negotiating!

Tizer - unsurprisingly, his friend from uni here, who is at a Swiss uni this year, has had a totally different time. Visa - like clockwork. Classes - like clockwork. Ds finally got his German visa 8 days before his flight home for Christmas and without it he would have had to stay in Germany as you aren't allowed back in on the temporary visas they grant you. So applied at the end of August, visa finally achieved mid-December by which time he had long since gone out of his 90 day allowance for being in the EU as he had travelled extensively in the summer. That was nail biting.

There was one day when he totally crumbled but he picked himself up and dusted himself down and carried on. That's a life skill if nothing else is.

DS's experience of trying to get a resident's permit was total chaos (guess which country!). 'Go to the police station within three days of arriving. No, it's the post office. No, the police station. But they aren't open unless you have an appointment. Make an appointment at the post office. OK, 50 euros please. But we don't do that, ask the police...' more or less ad infinitum. He took to just hanging around outside the police station badgering people.

He did get some sort of permesso, but it expired before his year-end exams and he couldn't renew it in time so had to leave. His home university decided they were happy to credit the year anyway, but he had to repay part of his Turing funding.

He would still call it an amazing year, and he has been remarkably on top of all UK admin since his return, because it pales into insignificance by comparison.