<p>I was on the chances thread, and a girl who spoke 6 languages explained that she used that as her hook. </p>
<p>I am fluent in 5 languages (6 if you count Spanish. I will be taking the AP test next year and the SAT this year). However, there are no SATs for these languages. Some of them include Dari, English, Arabic, and Pashto. </p>
<p>How can I show my fluency? Or, will they just believe me? I wouldn't mind taking tests for them. </p>
<p>I'm not an international applicant, by the way.</p>
<p>I too speak 5 langauges and plan on using that as my hook (as an American). Korean and English are native and completely fluent. Spanish and sign language have been studied althorughout high and middle school (close to fluency). Japanese has proficiency. I'll be taking Spanish and Korean SAT IIs, but there's no test (that I know of) for sign algnague (and with just proficiency, I wouldn't be able to take the japanese SAT II).</p>
<p>My guidance counselor said that she would write me a good rec (and I'm confident in her ability to do so, considering she majored in the same area as I plan to) that would revolve around my passion for langauges. A good chuck of my community service and ECs are foreign langauge based as well.</p>
<p>I speak three languages and plan to learn two to three more since its gonna be a big part in my major.
I just showed in my essay of how much having different cultures in my life have helped me and how i've learned to love to learn new languages.
I also wrote about my future plans to continues "perfecting" my languages and learn new ones in college and how much it's going to help me with my career goals....<br>
so i guess just make it obvious that the different languages are a big part of your present and future life.</p>
<p>Sungchul.....why do you lie? You do not speak 5 languages. In your other posts, you clearly stated this: </p>
<p>"I would've only had 2 years of Japanese (which makes me profieicnt) -- which is no where near enough. I also have no formal education in Korean (native language), so I don't think my colloquial grammar, unsophisticated vocab, and slow reading skills could get me thorugh that."</p>
<p>And you stated you've only taken Spanish classes in high school, which doesn't make you fluent at all.....</p>
<p>yeah
i have no life has got a point</p>
<p>u could be proficient in japanese in 2 years (if ur doing provate tutoring) which i think u mentioned ur mom teaching you...</p>
<p>but
if u take spanish in highschool</p>
<p>u cant be anywhere near fluent whatsoever
unless ur highschool is in spain
or in south america (which it isnt)
u cant really obtain fluency any other way</p>
<p>Thanks, guys. I have been attending (and now teaching) at a local mosque. I think I may mention it in my essays. It hasn't really helped me in regards to culture because 4 of the 5 languages come from the same country, but it has helped my by allowing me to read books and speak to people of very different views (and, typically, tribal groups - therefore, allowing me to utilize a variety of languages). And that is something that is really important to me. It has helped me learn a lot about my own culture and history as a member of my family. So, yeah. Thanks, everyone.</p>
<p>Just indicate the fact that you speak 5 (or 6) languages in your essay. The essay is a great way for the admissions office to know you, especially for things that do not show up on your high school transcript and test scores.</p>
<p>Isn't AP level generally considered fluency? I'm not really sure how you would define fluent. </p>
<p>Anyway, in my school everyone goes on about how hard AP languages are and how you have to be basically "fluent" to take them.</p>
<p>Absolutely not, teaspoon, well, at least not in my school. Students taking an AP Foreign Language or an IB Language B course are nowhere near fluent. They work hard, and they are <em>good</em> when it comes to speaking and listening (as well as writing and reading of course), but not fluent. </p>
<p>The IB Language A2 course requires a somewhat near-native level of fluency, although it is the student's "foreign" language. My school does not offer it though.</p>
<p>Nooo, AP level is NOT fluent. It's barely proficient in some cases. We don't have a particularly strong French program at our school, and even though I'm taking AP level French - my fifth year - I can guarantee that I'm not fluent...as mr_k said, good (proficient) at writing/listening (not so much speaking, we never really get that chance), but NOT fluent! I don't know any AP students from any school who, without any outside help and just the class, are fluent...but it does depend on the school and the program. </p>
<p>It's not an accurate generalization though.</p>
<p>I think a few of you are confusing "fluently" and "natively." One can become very fluent in high school; many get to AP level and aren't even proficient, so AP doesn't validate much. But there are also many who get to an AP-level language and can speak it fluently with only having studied it for a few years. (Some of you seem to be thinking that fluency = seeming like a native speaker.)</p>
<p>Fluency standards:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ade.state.az.us/asd/lep/FluencyDefinition.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.ade.state.az.us/asd/lep/FluencyDefinition.pdf</a>
<a href="http://www.prel.org/programs/rel/fluency/Shanahan.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.prel.org/programs/rel/fluency/Shanahan.pdf</a>
<a href="http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4470%5B/url%5D">http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=4470</a>
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluency%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluency</a></p>
<p>I'm only in my third year of Spanish (AP, having skipped 3) and can speak it fluently (able to read and understand texts quickly, to have animate conversations, to write thoughtful essays in a relatively short period of time) -- and I'm not native speaker, nor do I think I'm an anomaly.</p>
<p>I speak four (3 completely fluently, 1 proficiently) and only mentioned it in passing. I keep telling myself this wasn't such a big mistake as it will only make it seem more impressive that I treat it so lightly in addition to my other accomplishments, somehow. Hopefully this wasn't a completely stupid thing to do, ugh.</p>
<p>Also, to the OP, you might look into the countries where those languages have official status; there may be a competency exam that you could take, if you really wanted to prove your skills. I would only recommend going this far if you have a passion for language and plan to pursue it or something related to it in college. If not, I would just work it into my essays and such and assume that the adcoms believe me.</p>
<p>"Isn't AP level generally considered fluency? I'm not really sure how you would define fluent. "</p>
<p>no
im pretty sure AP spanish is only like equivalent to taking one full year of a college language (like begginer spanish 1 and 2)</p>
<p>ummm
many people that finish AP languages are proficient (if spanish, italian, french or german)
but jsut proficient</p>
<p>To be fluent, you should never under any circumstance have to think and pause to remember how to say a word, and when speaking it, and thinking thoughts, you should be thinking in that language</p>
<p>ide say fluency can be obtained probably through advanced level college courses(if u extremely good. and it must be a language similar to ur native tounge), but native fluency requires lots of immersion. </p>
<p>You need immersion to be able to distinguish different phenomes, and to be able to speak them.
(phenomes are basic units of speech...sounds)(phenomes are what is responsible for Japanese people pronuoncing english L's as R's because after they reach a certain age (usually aroung one year) their sounds that they use becomes limited to their alphabet, and it becomes much harder to distinguish between their R's and our L's... or at least thats what i learned in psychology)</p>
<p>"To be fluent, you should never under any circumstance have to think and pause to remember how to say a word, and when speaking it, and thinking thoughts, you should be thinking in that language"</p>
<p>No... see links above.</p>
<p>"You need immersion to be able to distinguish different phenomes, and to be able to speak them.
(phenomes are basic units of speech...sounds)(phenomes are what is responsible for Japanese people pronuoncing english L's as R's because after they reach a certain age (usually aroung one year) their sounds that they use becomes limited to their alphabet, and it becomes much harder to distinguish between their R's and our L's... or at least thats what i learned in psychology)"</p>
<p>Erm, I think you mean 'phoneme' (phon, sound). A phenome is ... not what you want. (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenome%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenome</a>)</p>
<p>And no, you don't need immersion to distinguish phonemes. One can learn to distinguish them without immersion.</p>
<p>I agree, though, that native fluency requires complete immersion.</p>
<p>sorry
i meant phoneme</p>
<p>I consider myself totally fluent in only two languages, chinese and english, while being speaking fluent in Korean and Japanese, and beginning level for Italian and French (odd that I've taken French longer than my English)</p>
<p>woops, sorry, i messed up my post.</p>
<p>anyway, do think passing level 1 of the international Japanese Lang Proficiency is good enough to prove my abilities as a Japanese-Eng bilingual?</p>
<p>I speak Japanese, English, Spanish and French...just mentioned it on the apps which wanted them, and the rest only minorly referred to...</p>
<p>Yes I'd say the JLPT would be an indicator that you are proficient in Japanese</p>
<p>keisukey: is Japanese your native language? / Are you Japanese? If so, showing that you're proficient in Japanese probably wouldn't mean much to adcoms (many if not most of the Asians applying can speak their native tongue).</p>