I want to do a gap year, but will I forget all my French?

OK so I definately know that I want to do a gap year before I go to uni, and I know that I want to do some kind of French course (see other thread) but I can't help but be slightly worried that my French will suffer during this year, where it would be unlikely for me to speak any, and i feel this could disadvantage me on my course.
- Is this likely?
- Is there anything I can do to counter this?
I'm wondering this mainly because i did GCSE German, but haven't studied/used it since June of last year, and now can hardly remember any of it.
Thanks
-Airelle

Reply 1

whitepearlbaby

You won't forget all your French but it'll be hard to speak and understand it again after one year of no training at all. But why don't you just go to France and work there for a year?

Reply 2

TheCasual

You go to Franch, Enrol on a part-time French course or read French Books

Reply 3

coronita

You will forget all of your French very quickly. Unless you're really amazing at it.

Understanding will be okay after a year, but try and speak it.... it will be Hard.

Go to France. If you're thinking of doing a french course, this makes the most sense, then you'll find out if you like the culture etc. and really want to study it later on...

Reply 4

nikki

The obvious solution is to go somewhere that French is spoken.

You could try one of the Open University's French courses though - it's distance learning so you're not tied to a particular place.

Other than that, you could train yourself to do something with French every day. You don't have to be taking classes in order to continue learning! You also don't have to be doing serious studying all the time or even spend a lot of money - there are plenty of English DVDs and games out there which also have French on them and with everything that's available on the internet, I'm sure you can find something fun to do.

Reply 5

georgia

Yeah, you'll forget a lot. I'm on my second gap year (didn't plan on doing French initially so kind of let it drop during my first gap year) and although a week watching evenings of French TV helped greatly with comprehension, I know my speaking and writing will be shocking so I've got to work on that before going to Uni. I'm considering doing a month at a language school just to help bump it back up to standard, but I'm thinking I'll probably go to Lancaster and as you only need an AS to do the advanced course I hope that will make the transition less difficult (I met a fourth year when I went on the Open Day who went in with a D at A Level French and is now on course for a 2.1...so it's obviously possible)...

Reply 6

Rhona

hi, =)

I'm currently on a Gap Year and will be starting uni in September to study French and Spanish. I'll be starting Spanish from pretty much scratch so I'm not worried about that too much, but I share your worries about forgetting french! At the moment, I'm ordering a weekly french magazine, and reading that regularly, watching french news (try france2.fr) and watching french films now and again. I also go to conversation classes at Alliance Francaise (I think they have organisations across the UK, I go to the Glasgow one) Hopefully that will keep me going! I'm also planning on going over my grammar throughout the summer, just to get me up to speed!
However, universities do let you start a language from scratch so we'll at least have a bit of a head start! And remember, not everyone can afford to go off to France for a year!
Hope this longwinded reply helps! x

Reply 7

jonnythemoose

I think it's entirely individual...I did GCSE German, then didn't speak German for two years, picked it up at A level, and got back into the swing remarkably quickly, getting an A grade...