Greetings, all!
I will be applying for a Fulbright ETA (English Teaching Assistant) grant for the 2018-2019 year. I have narrowed down by country choices to the Czech Republic, Netherlands, Bulgaria, and Italy, but I’m having a difficult time narrowing it further.
I’m tempted to cross Italy off my list because it says that “Italian language proficiency is not a requirement, but is strongly recommended”, which I take to mean, it basically -is- required since there are only 7 grants, and there will likely be many students applying that are indeed proficient or even fluent in Italian. I took one semester of Italian during my sophomore year of college, but I haven’t continued study of it since.
However, I am an Italian-American myself, and the ETA in Italy are all placements in Southern Italy, where my relatives are from. I also took a course on Italian literature and film adaptation in college, which has definitely cemented my interest in learning more about the culture. I have a decent amount of teaching experience as well (three years of teaching preschool part-time, two summers of teaching elementary, middle, and high school aged kids, and will be doing more volunteer teaching this summer).
Do you guys think I realistically stand a chance at getting a grant in Italy, or should I focus on countries that don’t recommend language proficiency?