<p>I've been teaching myself phrases in a variety of foreign languages for the past year or so, but I intend to focus on becoming at least semi-fluent in two over the summer. Besides writing an essay, is there a way that I can show colleges that I have done this? If so, what is it?</p>
<p>Perhaps you could list it as one of your EC’s? I’ve been dabbling in Italian language books as well as philosophy books “just for fun” outside of my classwork lately. So maybe I could list it as an EC too? It’d be nice for somebody to clarify.</p>
<p>I would suggest that you consider writing about one of your self-studied activities for the “elaborate on one of your activities” box on the common app. If you don’t know what this is yet, you will.
IMO, writing about something other than the standard debate, volunteering, etc will make you stand out. I wrote about self-studying Oscar Wilde and my involvement with the Oscar Wilde Society. Didn’t get universal acceptances, but it seems to have worked out. (:
Good luck.</p>