business and french vs business studies in ul??

seanjl

hi im currently doing my c.a.o and im not sure whether to but down business studies or business and french at ul. im not bad at french but i have herd that d standard in the french gets much harder in 3rd level. also im wondering if the business and french course has more work then d business studies course as you are studying french as well as the business(more classes and more work)??? if anyone has any opinions on either course i would greatly appreciate the help.
sean

123 LC

i'm also a leaving cert student looking into these courses! and also there is a new course this year, international business? there isn't too much about it on the ul website so any extra info on it would be greatly appreciated!

Gael23

Ok i've done 2 years of Business and French so I can answer this but I dont know much about International Business.
The french is very difficult, there's no point in saying otherwise. I got a B1 in LC honours and the best i've ever got in college has been a C2 so you do need to be very comfortable with french. Another thing is nearly all the teching staff are native french speakers so they take a little getting used to. And they teach through french which is very daunting at first but you get used to it quickly. They do speak slowly and clearly and usually with the more experienced lecturers they will say something in english if they feel the class doesnt understand or they want to get across something important.
Regarding the workload, we have one extra hour per week. You do 3 hours for a business subject and 4 for french so we have 17 hours instead of 16.
Theres not a huge diffrence in the workload. Theres some learning work to do like grammar etc and the odd piece of written work. Once each semester you have to give a 10 minute presentation on a topic in pairs. You are given 2 weeks to prepare that and to be honest I usually arrange to meet twice for an hour or so and that gets it done. Thats the only extra work I can think of really.
Yes it is a hard course and there are alot of people in my class who drop the language but I think it would be gret to have in terms of employment in the future.
Long post I know but just ask if theres anything I havent covered!

123 LC

ryanf1 wrote: »

Ok i've done 2 years of Business and French so I can answer this but I dont know much about International Business.
The french is very difficult, there's no point in saying otherwise. I got a B1 in LC honours and the best i've ever got in college has been a C2 so you do need to be very comfortable with french. Another thing is nearly all the teching staff are native french speakers so they take a little getting used to. And they teach through french which is very daunting at first but you get used to it quickly. They do speak slowly and clearly and usually with the more experienced lecturers they will say something in english if they feel the class doesnt understand or they want to get across something important.
Regarding the workload, we have one extra hour per week. You do 3 hours for a business subject and 4 for french so we have 17 hours instead of 16.
Theres not a huge diffrence in the workload. Theres some learning work to do like grammar etc and the odd piece of written work. Once each semester you have to give a 10 minute presentation on a topic in pairs. You are given 2 weeks to prepare that and to be honest I usually arrange to meet twice for an hour or so and that gets it done. Thats the only extra work I can think of really.
Yes it is a hard course and there are alot of people in my class who drop the language but I think it would be gret to have in terms of employment in the future.
Long post I know but just ask if theres anything I havent covered!

thanks for the reply! just 2 more questions, are you definitely able to drop the language if you are finding it too difficult, or are only a certain amount of people allowed to? Also i know that erasmus is offered, but does everybody who applies get a place? I know with the international business the 3rd year is definitely spent in a college abroad so that could be a deciding factor, thanks!

Polar Ice

Not really answering and questions here, just some additional information:
One thing which is clear on the UL website, but just to state it. If you are doing Business + a language, the language is basically the equivalent of the minor option in the general business course.

As a result, if you wish to do an FYP (Final Year Project) if doing Business+Language, you substitute a few of the core modules (non language) for the FYP (you should be able to find more about this on the UL website if you look at the business & business plus language pages with specific reference to the minor option.)

LM052 - BBS with French

ninty9er

You can take BBS and take French as an additional module on a pass/fail basis.

As far as I'm aware the subject you don't have to do if you take French is maths.

Maths is also difficult, not aided by the fact that the lecturers are more geared towards engineering maths than business maths and don't understand how a non-maths wired brain sees maths.

Business International has compulsory study abroad. Be aware that by putting this on your CAO you are signifying that you can afford to do that. There are grants available for study within Europe, but they are not adaquate for some destinations such as Scandanavia and Luxembourg.

coffeelover

ninty9er wrote: »

You can take BBS and take French as an additional module on a pass/fail basis.

As far as I'm aware the subject you don't have to do if you take French is maths.

Maths is also difficult, not aided by the fact that the lecturers are more geared towards engineering maths than business maths and don't understand how a non-maths wired brain sees maths.

Business International has compulsory study abroad. Be aware that by putting this on your CAO you are signifying that you can afford to do that. There are grants available for study within Europe, but they are not adaquate for some destinations such as Scandanavia and Luxembourg.

Where would you be going if you were to study abroad?. Also does anyone have any predictions on the points for international business?

Gael23

123 LC wrote: »

thanks for the reply! just 2 more questions, are you definitely able to drop the language if you are finding it too difficult, or are only a certain amount of people allowed to? Also i know that erasmus is offered, but does everybody who applies get a place? I know with the international business the 3rd year is definitely spent in a college abroad so that could be a deciding factor, thanks!

As fr as im aware you can drop it until the end of 2nd year and I dont think there is a limit on the numbers that can drop out because all th other modules are essentially the same. You will almost certainly get a place once you apply for erasmus by the deadline but you might not get your first choice of university because only a certain number can go to each place but i've never heard of anyone not getting somewhere. Also you have the option to do co-op in france in 3rd year

123 LC

ryanf1 wrote: »

As fr as im aware you can drop it until the end of 2nd year and I dont think there is a limit on the numbers that can drop out because all th other modules are essentially the same. You will almost certainly get a place once you apply for erasmus by the deadline but you might not get your first choice of university because only a certain number can go to each place but i've never heard of anyone not getting somewhere. Also you have the option to do co-op in france in 3rd year

ok thanks a million for that!

Polar Ice

ninty9er wrote: »

As far as I'm aware the subject you don't have to do if you take French is maths.

Just went checking. This is what the trade off is for the language

There's another thread about BBS+French here from before that might help answer questions: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055712610

Gael23

Polar Ice wrote: »

Just went checking. This is what the trade off is for the language

There's another thread about BBS+French here from before that might help answer questions: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055712610

I started that thread asking most of these questions 2 years ago and there are some good responses, in particularly post #3.
The subjects you skip in place of the language change each semester, if you read the course outline its all explained, wont get into it here but all BBS students had a maths module last semester which was horrible!

123 LC

thanks for all the the replies and links they've been really helpfull! I think it's between 2 courses for me, and i was just wondering ye're opinion, from an employers perspective would Bachelor of Business Studies with French or Bachelor of Arts in International Business (i'd be doing french as an elective here) sound/look better? would the fact that the second 1 is an arts degree make it less appealing?

Poxyshamrock

I know about 4 or 5 people who did Business and French for one semester and didnt like it. They were then able to transfer to Business (provided you have the points).

So that could be an option for you.

Polar Ice

ryanf1 wrote: »

I started that thread asking most of these questions 2 years ago and there are some good responses, in particularly post #3.
The subjects you skip in place of the language change each semester, if you read the course outline its all explained, wont get into it here but all BBS students had a maths module last semester which was horrible!

Regardless of which of the courses you do (language vs non language) you still have a maths module, business statistics, in the 4th semester.

123 LC wrote: »

from an employers perspective would Bachelor of Business Studies with French or Bachelor of Arts in International Business

That's really hard to tell at the moment since the International Business course is new.