dmu

Even in my day, it wasn't sufficient just to "speak" several languages well. You have to specialise (business, legal, technical, ...) in order to have a more satisfying job than in the hospitality trade, for example.
My Anglo-French daughters both did German to Bac level, but didn't continue languages at Uni, except for the younger who studied Portuguese as an option while doing a second Degree in Germany. Neither live in France, where opportunities are few.
IMO, linguists with diplomas in Chinese/Arabic/Japanese are more employable than those solely with European languages, and you might do well to concentrate on Chinese while doing Business Studies (for example).
But, as stated above, your main problem would be surviving for 3 years. You mentioned the CAF - are students from abroad eligible for the ALE? In my daughters' day it depended on the parents' income....

Tweedpipe

Touraine here raises some very relevant points, and from my own and our son's experience with French university degrees etc, I'd like to reinforce some of the points already stated.
Given that you already have a good knowledge of languages, in your case I'm convinced that a language degree is hardly worth the time and investment you are planning.
I too would strongly encourage you to consider a management or business degree which could well make you more employable in France. Although bear in mind that in today's extremely difficult market place, even with the best CV and a host of qualifications, work experience is frequently one of the greatest assets. This tends to be the catch 22 situation, as so many worthwhile job positions require 3-5 years minimum experience.
I wish you good luck for the future.

Gypsy57

Wow... some very good things for me to think about some more!
But yes...as for the CAF, I had that when I was an Erasmus student in Savoie and even when I was working in Nice and it was fine.
As for Chinese- that is one of my languages...I am actually currently waiting for the exam results of the hsk4 exam. I will continue studying that. Chinese is definitely one of the best ones to work on. Anyway all, night time over here, goodnight!

Peabrain

Hi,
Doing a degree at a French university will cost you next to nothing, apart from laughably low tuition fees and health care cover. The 500 euros you quote is probably about right.
HOWEVER, doing an LEA will require a high level in French, as there is likely to be translation from one language to another and vice versa. Doing thème (translation from French into English) may look like a doddle, but doing version, from English into French, certainly isn't. You'll also need a very good grounding in grammar, both French and English or whatever language you choose to specialize in.
An LEA as such won't get you anywhere on the jobs market. If you do well enough, it might open the door to a translation school such as l'ESIT, but selection is really tough, and alas, steady jobs for professional translators are few and far between, UNLESS you can offer a 'rare' language such as Chinese, Japanese, Finnish, Polish, Hungarian or Dutch, and a qualification in a specific field such as IT or the car industry. If it's teaching you want, an LEA will only get you a job as a 'contractuel', which means low wages and no job security. To make a go of teaching in the state system you have to have either the CAPES or the agrégation.
The trouble is here, companies tend not to employ professional translators as the idea is, when it comes to English especially, that anyone can do it. Someone who is very dear to me is a graduate of l'ESIT and makes a living subtitling television programmes for the hard of hearing. A lot of this kind of work is also farmed out to North African countries on the misguided supposition that Moroccans or Tunisians have excellent mastery of French, which of course they don't, as anyone who has ever used an Orange helpline knows.
By all means do a degree here, but don't do one hoping it will help you find a well-paid job, because it won't.
Good luck,
PB

EuroTrash

This is a personal comment because I'm not career-minded, I prefer to do work that I enjoy rather than work that I have to do in order to climb a ladder (that's my spin on admitting that I'm a butterfly brain and have no staying power ) but IMHO, although being a translator may sound aspirational, working for one company can become very tedious. As a freelance translator, although you probably have your own specialism you can also have clients in other sectors and get to work on different topics and different styles, it's varied and it's good fun. If you work for one company you tend to go round and round the same vocabulary and the same bizspeak expressions and the same house style all day every day, same words in a different order and they're mostly in the translation memory already so the machine does most of the work for you, it can turn into a real grind and you start to feel like a machine yourself because you barely have to use your brain any more. I guess if you land a job in an industry that you're passionate about it would be different, but then if you have your own ideas on a subject it can get frustrating just translating what other people want to say. You can't add translator's notes just because you think that the text is talking rubbish. So there is 'job satisfaction' in feeling you're using a skill but the downside is that there are limited challenges and limited scope for exercising your brain. But I suppose the same is true of many jobs.

babyposer

Don't study LEA, it's a mickey mouse degree !

I know a lot of students and friends who did this and ended up going back to school to study something else cause they couldn't find a job.

Studying languages could be a good idea if you really know what you want to do, for instance I know a girl who became a german teacher in Switzerland (she studied LLCE) but it's quite hard these days.

Good luck to you !