I speak 4 languages and 1 dialect. English, Tagalog, Japanese, French and HIligaynon(a dialect of tagalog). I am fluent in English and Tagalog and Intermediate in French and Japanese. I plan to continue studying both languages up until I reach conversational levels(where I can read a newspaper or info about a certain topic in both languages). I am planning to take AP French exam and AP Japanese (If only they offered AP Filipino language =C) w/o taking the AP class. Quite frankly, I am much more concerned with AP French than in AP Japanese because I studied Japanese with a solid foundation while in French, I never had a formal teacher. My question is, if I get a PASSING score, much more a 5 on the AP exam in both aforementioned languages. Will that be considered something that is rare in college admissions. I also took the AP Eng. Lang. Still waiting for my score. I am an up-coming senior. Thanks for your replies
Unfortunately, this is a very common phenomenon, although I’m pretty impressed by it like most Americans would be. Most immigrants and international applicants are polyglots. I wouldn’t assume that it is a hook.
@Studious99 I moved here from the Philippines 2 years ago. Taught myself Japanese w/o a teacher and learned fundamentals of French and then moved on to a classroom setting. I feel like this is ok. =D
It will be viewed positively, especially at colleges that have strong FL departments. I personally don’t know how spikey it will be viewed as. You have no formal education in French, and you are clearly bilingual in English and Tagalog. Your other dialectical language is a bonus, but I don’t think it’s going to be a spike, because it all reads as more of a hobby or EC to me. The rest of your application still needs to be strong.
oohh. Ok Thank you
I think it could help more if you manage to convey why you learned these languages, and if you plan on doing something further with your language skills, possibly in your career. In that case, learning them could show how committed you are to that.
Otherwise, it does seem like it could be regarded as though you were bilingual as a recent immigrant, you learned a foreign language in school (as everyone does), and you were motivated to study a fourth language. Which is certainly a good thing to do and not very common, but, as others have said, not necessarily that different from other things students learn to do outside of school.
How you are USING your skills in these languages is far more critical than merely learning them. What benefit have you brought to society by virtue of your multi-lingual status? (It could be a great essay topic if you’ve actually put your skills to good use).