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Fluency from university with three European langs post-A-Level

I tried to be as concise and possible with the title! If I were to study French, German and Spanish post-A-Level to university level, what would fluency be like at the end of it? I know there are similar threads, but they focus on starting new languages, and more difficult ones.

In addition, does the university make a difference? I'm looking at ones quite high up: Durham, Southampton, St Andrews...

Thank you.

Reply 1

trm90

Honestly it's hard to say, different people learn languages faster than others. If you're good at picking up languages and make the most of your year abroad, you can very well be fluent by the time you have finished. If not, you'll just know a bunch of textbook French/German/Spanish and will know a lot of it but won't be fluent to have a comfortable conversation about anything.

Reply 2

Lizia

I think the key factor is how the university structure your Year Abroad. Most of the single language students I know are vastly more fluent in their chosen language than the joint honours students, simply because they spend a whole year in the country, compared to just a few months. So with three languages in the mix, I'd imagine it would be even harder. I spent three months (more or less the same time as Joint Honours students spend in each of their countries) in France after my A-levels and don't feel my fluency improved that much in such a short space of time, so you'd definitely need to work hard.