<p>this is kinda off-topic, but what's the definition of fluency? B/c my French teacher tells me that I'm fluent in french, but I've only taken it for two years and I don't think that I am. I did get an 800 on the SAT II French when I took it, but that probably doesn't mean much. So does fluency mean that you sound like a native, or that you can speak it <em>relatively</em> well?</p>
<p>On the original topic: of course regional diversity is considered. I have a more specific question to add to that, however. Two people from my county were recruited by Harvard to play football; does that impact my chances as an academic admit, especially since I'm not in an area where many are accepted by Harvard?</p>
<p>By etymology, speaking a language "fluently" means speaking it "flowingly," that is, without a lot of hesitation and stammering. The United States government has a rating system of language proficiency on a 0 to 5 scale (with a score of 5 being reserved for persons who are indistinguishable from educated native speakers of the language). Few Americans score above 3 on that scale in any of the "hard" languages, and not a lot of Americans are really at the 4 level in French or Spanish unless they have lived abroad. My rating in Chinese speaking and listening was 4+ some years ago, when I was last officially tested. </p>
<p>The test of language proficiency is what one can do with the language. All of the trips I have ever taken to Harvard's beautiful campus and the delightful city of Boston were at United States taxpayer expense, when I worked as a Chinese-English interpreter for official visitors to the United States. Of course I had to pass a test of language proficiency (and meet some other requirements) to gain that work. A lot of people with university degrees in Chinese have never reached that level of language proficiency, which I reached after living overseas. Once in Boston's airport I met one of my counterpart Spanish interpreters, who I am sure had a much higher level of Spanish ability than most Americans who have studied Spanish before.</p>
<p>That's really interesting, tokenadult. Thanks :)</p>
<p>suburbian---
Yes. I bought tapes and books and a bunch of other stuff to help me. That was the intent of my post... BUT, I do believe that if you have only a 1400 SAT or something, but you have a 4.0 and other really, really high scores along with a bunch of ecs, and you're from some crappy state like SD and maybe even from a low income family, you may get accepted, even though you have an SAT score that is a little below average for that college. Or if some other factor of yours isn't up to par with the other applicants (like a 3.4 gpa instead of a 4.0) . You get the picture... If it were a case where a 1000 SAT, 2.5 GPA, and only 1 club, no AP's and SAT II's only about 500's or something, then I dout that person would have much of a chance, even if they're also from a crappy state and or a low income family.</p>