Would 3 languages at degree level be advantageous for teaching MFL's?

Hello!

It's probably too early for me to be thinking about university as I am only in 4th year (Scotland) and haven't even sat my Standard Grade exams yet (), but at the moment I am pretty set on doing languages at university, and then going on to teach Modern Foreign Languages in Secondary Schools. I have always loved languages and I was born and lived in Austria until I was seven. Unfortunately, even though I could speak fluent German when I lived in Austria, I have forgotten almost all of it. I am however, doing German Standard Grade now and am continuing it on to Higher, and I am also crashing French Higher which I haven't done since second year.

Anyway, I have always thought that i would just do a Joint Honours Degree in French and German at uni, but recently I've been thinking about doing ab-initio Spanish as well.

My question is, would doing three languages make me less fluent in each language rather than if I just did two? Also, would having a degree in three languages make me more employable for teaching MFL's?

Thank you in advance, and sorry it was so long!

I would say wait until you are in 5th year and see how good you are at french and german - if you think you think you can handle it go for ab inito spanish. If you want to teach languages at school level, then you don't need to be that good, but having three languages would definitely be a big advantage on your application. Also, spanish is very similar to French so it could be another easy language to pick up, and may help your french as well.

never too early, particularly when it comes to languages in which case the earlier the better.

The problem here is you are looking at Two romantics and one Germanic. If you are willing to spend enough time in each country then certainly go for it. Just expect to spend basically all your summers abroad in Either Germany, France (or Africa) and Spain (Latin America)...poor you.

Another thing you could do, which I would personally do, is do a joint degree and learn the third on the side. Most universities offer beginner classes so you shouldn't have a problem learning Spanish from scratch.

I disagree that French is very similar. Both are romantics yes, however the common pairing are usually French and Italian vs. Spanish and Portuguese. Obviously you can mix either four, but these pairings are closest.

Of all these, Spanish and Portuguese would be of most use. It is more widely spoken an will come in very useful with the rising economies of Latin America.

I'd say you should certainly go for the ab inito Spanish, gets too much, drop it and at least you've covered basics for when you start again.

Basically, I'm in the same position as you as I've always thought of doing Spanish and German at uni, and maybe picking up Italian (I did it at GCSE, but doing 3 language A-Levels seemed a bit much). I think I'll probably do Italian on the side, as doing it as a part of my degree would mean there'd be less of an opportunity to study cultural topics, which really interest me. I don't know about you, but if you love aspects of French and German other than the language, maybe doing Spanish on the side, instead of in a degree, might be a better fit. It's much easier than German so I'm sure you'll be fine whatever you do

Hello!

It's probably too early for me to be thinking about university as I am only in 4th year (Scotland) and haven't even sat my Standard Grade exams yet (), but at the moment I am pretty set on doing languages at university, and then going on to teach Modern Foreign Languages in Secondary Schools. I have always loved languages and I was born and lived in Austria until I was seven. Unfortunately, even though I could speak fluent German when I lived in Austria, I have forgotten almost all of it. I am however, doing German Standard Grade now and am continuing it on to Higher, and I am also crashing French Higher which I haven't done since second year.

Anyway, I have always thought that i would just do a Joint Honours Degree in French and German at uni, but recently I've been thinking about doing ab-initio Spanish as well.

My question is, would doing three languages make me less fluent in each language rather than if I just did two? Also, would having a degree in three languages make me more employable for teaching MFL's?

Thank you in advance, and sorry it was so long!