If I work abroad/become a Language Assistant will I fall behind in my 4th year?

Hello - in my opinion you absolutely WON'T fall behind in your 4th year if you decide to work abroad or become a language assistant. You'll find that if you put the effort in, your language skills will improve hugely (perhaps you could spend some time in each of your chosen countries??!) and you needn't fall behind with your Business studies either - you could enrol in evening classes in the subject to keep your brain in gear for when you go back for 4th year. In life, yes you will spend an extra year as an Undergraduate, but you will gain an invaluable experience which will be great on a personal level as well as looking brilliant on a CV!

Hi there,

I worked as a language assistant last year, and since returning to university last September for my final year have found that I have not been in a bad position because of this. I've noticed that, generally speaking, those who did a work placement (or assistantship) have come back with a better level of French as they were speaking it all the time and were less likely to fall into the trap of making lots of English-speaking friends. Possibly this is also due to the fact they were interacting with native speakers more and thus learnt more idiomatic expressions. If you're worried about falling out of sync with academic work (e.g. essays), then have a think about finding ways to keep this up whilst abroad - I kept a vocab book, watched lots of French films/tv programmes to keep up my aural comprehension, read more French books and had some work to complete for my home university while I was abroad too. You quickly fall back into the university routine when you return for fourth year :)