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Do I split my year abroad?

I'm currently a second year student and I'm beginning the dreaded process of planning the year abroad. However I face the problem of do I split it equally between my two languages or prioritise my weaker one?

I study Post-A Level Spanish and ab intio Russian. I am unsure whether to equally divide and spend a semester in Spain and another semester in Russia. Or should spend both the semesters in Russia to bring my beginners language up to a higher standard and then a summer intensive course in Spain just before final year. My uni also recommends to spend the academic year in the country of your beginners language as well! But then i worry my Spanish will decline as ill be spending so much time Russia!

Has anyone had to make the split between two languages? what was your experience? Did spending the academic year in one country hinder your other language?

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 1

FionaMG

Original post by harry_tb

Hi.

Russian is much more demanding than Spanish so as far as improvement is concerned it would definitely be better to spend the full year in Russia, followed by an intensive summer course in Spain.

There should be ways of keeping up with your Spanish while you are in Russia. Would you be studying at a university there? Would that university offer Spanish modules?

If not, where in Russia would you be? The Instituto Cervantes has a branch in Moscow. http://moscu.cervantes.es/

Alternatively, it may be possible to find a language school that would offer Spanish, or there may be Spanish students studying in the same place as you who would be willing to do a "language buddy" type of thing.

Worst case scenario, the Instituto Cervantes also offers online Spanish learning: http://www.cervantes.es/lengua_y_ensenanza/aprender_espanol/cursos_aula_virtual_espanol.htm

Hope this helps.
Good luck with your year abroad. :smile: