It is something MFL students look forward to the minute they fill in their degree choice on UCAS. We click that little ‘submit’ box and immediately we’re dreaming of eating tapas on the tiny streets of Spain, exploring the art galleries littered around Paris or experiencing the techno music scene in Berlin. We work hard for our A levels and then 2 years of university go by where we slave over grammar, translations, listening and reading exercises – motivated by the thought of our third year spent absorbing it all without having to worry about deadlines or the added demands of university life. So, what happens when that year is cut short or even worse cancelled completely?
Over the last couple of months, we’ve become accustomed to hearing of things, often taken for granted, being ruined by the coronavirus pandemic – funerals, weddings, christenings, holidays, birthdays, haircuts… the list goes on. Now, it is the turn of the year abroad. A number of universities are making the decision to cancel this highlight of a modern language student’s education and replacing it with a ‘virtual’ year where those hoping to study or work in the foreign country of their choosing may have to do so from their home in the UK.
It is unquestionable that a year abroad provides a student with irreplaceable experiences and knowledge that they can use across their lifetime. Not only is it an opportunity for us to improve our fluency in our chosen language(s), but it is also a chance for us to completely submerge ourselves in another country’s culture.
“These experiences and so many more, provide priceless life lessons that students simply cannot get from the four walls of their bedroom,”
For me in Barcelona, this meant experiencing real political unrest for the first time in my life during the (sometimes violent) Catalonian independence protests. As someone immersed in the culture and living my life in Spain, I was able to join in and celebrate religious and cultural festivals such as La Mercé, La Día de los Reyes or the very, very niche Calçot Festival. I began to understand the Spanish love of food and, as a fussy eater, I learned to love seafood paella, patatas bravas and vermouth. I even found myself becoming a little bit Spanish and was able to embrace the complete lack of personal space that’s given to you in Spain and accept the fact that going to bed before midnight is a sign of weakness!
These experiences and so many more, provide priceless life lessons that students simply cannot get from the four walls of their bedroom whilst someone is making dinner in the kitchen downstairs. A computer is not a substitute for everything. You can sit and look at pictures of La Sagrada Familia and read El País online as much as you like (and you definitely should, anyway) but that is far from providing yourself with a real grasp of the Spanish language and culture. It is impossible to measure exactly what you learn from a year immersed in another country’s culture. It’s not simply language, it’s more something to do with age, willingness to learn and an ability to accept people and cultures for what they are. A new culture influences your own opinions and it wouldn’t be dramatic to say, as a young adult, that it’s a life altering experience, truly shaping your character. The evidence for this is clearly shown in a study published by Universities UK. The study found that whilst going abroad obviously does not make you cleverer than any of your peers, it does mean you are both 19% more likely to gain a first and 20% less likely to be unemployed.
Many in the UK do not think it necessary to learn another language. This is clear from research which has found that the percentage of 15-30-year-olds in the UK that can read and write in two languages (one of those being English) is only 32%; the next lowest figure in Europe being Hungary with 71%. Tragically, we are a long way behind the rest of Europe in our hunger for language, and with Brexit and travel restrictions introduced due to COVID-19 (and who knows how long these will last) this already massive gap is, in my opinion, unhappily set to widen.
The year abroad, therefore, has a greater importance for British students than it does for Europeans as it serves as a way to allow them to compete with their European counterparts on a level playing field. Otherwise, a student from the UK is always going to be playing catch up. This fact was made obvious to me upon meeting other Erasmus students in Barcelona. Some were native Italian and, at the age of 16 having spent just a year studying in the USA, were fluent in English and also had a pretty good understanding of both Spanish and Portuguese – all whilst studying Engineering at university (with no language). Another was German, studying psychology in the Netherlands with 90% of her lectures in English and the other 10% in Dutch. When discussing our own degrees, my English friends and I were often met with ‘but what else do you study?’ It baffled them that we would be solely studying languages at university, as they viewed language to be something you learnt at school and then picked up and understood via travelling and learning about different cultures. It never occurred to them that, for the majority of British students, if we want to emulate their language skills, we have to actively choose to study it at degree level.
“We simply cannot afford to be on the back foot.”
My time in Barcelona was incredible and not nearly long enough. I’m absolutely gutted it was cut short and I’m worried about the effect that this will have on my final year of university. I’m even more concerned for next year’s cohort and the possibility of them never having such a unique experience. Brexit is already threatening the UK’s continued participation in the ERASMUS scheme and the cancelling of next year’s year abroad puts us on a worrying trajectory. With an increased knowledge of different cultures comes better understanding. As we live in a world that is progressively becoming smaller and one where we meet more and more people from diverse backgrounds, the ability to understand language and culture is going to be key to the future success of the UK as a diplomatic and economic power. We simply cannot afford to be on the back foot.
Emelia Browning
Image courtesy of Global Graduates .