After a languages degree will I be fluent?

The short answer is no. You will not be fluent. You will probably be able to speak quite a lot of the language but "fluency" is very different. I think the term "fluent" is too overused and instead of trying to achieve "fluency" (which is pretty much impossible), you should focus on learning the language and enjoying the process of learning it. Hope this helps!

It depends on several things, such as how much work you put into it, whether or not you have a natural flair for picking up languages and, especially with regard to your year abroad, whether you spend your time mostly around locals getting tons of practice or waste the opportunity by hanging out with other English-speaking students.

From personal experience, I spent my year abroad in France many years ago as an English language assistant. I had virtually no contact with English except in the classes I taught. I lived with a French family and socialised with French people. By the time I came back my French was so good I was able to pass for a native and, having spent the year in Toulouse, spoke with a noticeable southern French accent.

Fast forward 36 years and my daughter followed in my footsteps but she shared an apartment with another English language assistant and most of her socialising was with a large group of other English-speaking language assistants. Her level of French on her return was good but not a patch on mine all those years ago.

So ask yourself how much you want to be fluent. It can be done, but doing a degree with a year abroad will not guarantee it. You have to actively decide to make it happen.

What language are you studying? And how long have you been learning it?

It depends

Wow sounds like an incredible experience!!! Thanks so much for your reply ☺️👍

My pleasure. I'm glad to have been of assistance. Good luck with your studies going forward.

With aptitude and effort you could be pretty good. A colleague of mine, admittedly very bright and already trilingual, went to work in Sweden and was fully operational in 6 months. I spent a year working in Italy with weekly lessons and pretty much every day was an exhausting adventure.

I did a GCSE in a language I speak fluently and the person who did my oral exam was a teacher of that language but not a native speaker. When she spoke, it sounded fluent, but I genuinely struggled to understand what she was saying. So Idk. I feel like you have to be fully immersed in an environment where a language is spoken in order to become fluent, and in my opinion, a year is not enough.

I think it depends on which language you’re learning . If it’s an easier language like French, Spanish, Italian, etc then it’s definitely doable, but if you wanna study a difficult language like Japanese or Chinese then probs not.