Uni language course requirements (Mandarin/French)

I’m looking at doing international business/relations WITH either French or mandarin at uni.

I studied French at school (not A-level though) and lived in France for 10 months last year. As a result, my French is a more intermediate/higher level which it seems most uni’s require. However, my mandarin level is basic as I’ve been studying it myself (neither my school or college offered courses in it).

My question is whether or not it would be possible for me to get into a uni for mandarin without having much experience in it. I can’t find much information on the exact language requirements for mandarin (when it’s alongside IB/IR) so I wonder if it can be taught to beginners or not. I’m also unsure whether it would be better to just go for French. Would anyone be able to offer advice on this? Honestly, I would prefer to pick up mandarin properly rather than pursue French further, but I’m not sure if it’s possible or which would be more beneficial.

I’m looking at doing international business/relations WITH either French or mandarin at uni.

I studied French at school (not A-level though) and lived in France for 10 months last year. As a result, my French is a more intermediate/higher level which it seems most uni’s require. However, my mandarin level is basic as I’ve been studying it myself (neither my school or college offered courses in it).

My question is whether or not it would be possible for me to get into a uni for mandarin without having much experience in it. I can’t find much information on the exact language requirements for mandarin (when it’s alongside IB/IR) so I wonder if it can be taught to beginners or not. I’m also unsure whether it would be better to just go for French. Would anyone be able to offer advice on this? Honestly, I would prefer to pick up mandarin properly rather than pursue French further, but I’m not sure if it’s possible or which would be more beneficial.

I’m looking at doing international business/relations WITH either French or mandarin at uni.

I studied French at school (not A-level though) and lived in France for 10 months last year. As a result, my French is a more intermediate/higher level which it seems most uni’s require. However, my mandarin level is basic as I’ve been studying it myself (neither my school or college offered courses in it).

My question is whether or not it would be possible for me to get into a uni for mandarin without having much experience in it. I can’t find much information on the exact language requirements for mandarin (when it’s alongside IB/IR) so I wonder if it can be taught to beginners or not. I’m also unsure whether it would be better to just go for French. Would anyone be able to offer advice on this? Honestly, I would prefer to pick up mandarin properly rather than pursue French further, but I’m not sure if it’s possible or which would be more beneficial.

Slightly late reply but since this thread has been bumped since may as well add in for posterity:

Generally non-European languages at degree level are designed to be studied from scratch (ab initio) as students rarely have the opportunity to have learned the language before that point - usually where they do, it's due to being heritage speakers of the language which tends to mean some skills (speaking and listening) are a bit stronger than others (reading and writing). Not infrequently unis will have a separate track for heritage speakers.

As a result they don't normally expect you to have any specific knowledge of the target language from formal qualifications. However they normally do look for evidence of language learning aptitude (e.g. qualifications or study in other languages). They may also require you to do some self study in the summer before starting to familiarise yourself with some aspect of the language (e.g. the script or a certain number of characters for East Asian languages - often phonetic ones I think?).

Note that due to this, and because such languages are often very structurally different from European languages you may already know and/or have studied, non-European languages are often designed to be studied "intensively" at first, or at least for best outcomes in terms of language proficiency. From what I've heard from others having done those languages, my impression is that it's generally not really worth much to "only" study one of those languages as a "minor" subject (i.e. "X with Target Language") and minimally to aim for a full joint honours if not a full degree in the language - as otherwise I get the impression you won't really develop much proficiency in the language as you won't be studying it intensively. Also often courses with the language as a "minor" component don't include a year abroad, and pretty much every language student I've spoken to says that the year abroad is where their language proficiency develops the most.

Something to bear in mind in relation to the above is that you don't need to have studied business or international relations to go into roles relating to either of those areas. "Business" roles recruit graduates from literally every degree subject - having done a business degree isn't normally going to be of any particular benefit over any other degree unless it's a specific course relating to a specific area (e.g. HR management, marketing, etc). For international relations, the "jobs" in the area, such as they are, will basically be civil service positions in the diplomatic service or roles in NGOs and similar. For those again, an undergraduate degree in international relations isn't going to make much difference either way (a masters might be helpful though in the subject - and you can do an IR masters after doing most degree subjects), but having high level language proficiency and experience of staying in a country speaking the target language (both of which realistically you will only get in a language degree, for non-European languages at least) may be particularly useful for some roles.

So generally I'd probably suggest based on what I've heard that if you are aiming for studying Mandarin, you should look for either full fledged joint honours (i.e. Mandarin and X) or a single honours language degree (which will invariably cover some aspects of the international relations of the target country, and may well allow you to take external optional modules in business studies or IR). If you were aiming to do French, particularly as you have a fair background in it, that's probably more amenable to pick up as a "minor" subject in a degree and still achieve a good level of proficiency by all accounts.