What language for Huntsman?

Hi. I have a question re: Huntsman. If a student was born in the US, but speaks Japanese at home within the family, is it ok to apply for Japanese as their language? Or does Huntsman encourage another language besides Japanese?

They encourage the applicant choose another language if the student has near-native proficiency, including reading/writing. If the student is a heritage speaker with limited (or no) knowledge of hiragana/katakana/kanji, selecting Japanese is fine.

I applied to Huntsman as an Chinese-American targeting Chinese. This is what their website says:

It is possible to use your native language for admissions purposes. However, we encourage students to use this opportunity to develop professional competency in another language instead. A number of Huntsman students have chosen this path successfully.

Essentially, you are able to target your native language. I personally want to work in my target region in my future utilizing mandarin, and I think if you really are passionate about Japan, and you can express that in your essays, why not? Of course, if you are really passionate about another region and have intermediate proficiency in the language spoken there, that’s even better!

@asianfu it would seem to me that what they are getting at is if you speak Chinese already (assuming maybe at home) then they want another language? The same question for someone hispanic. If they go to school in the US and speak English, but speak Spanish at home - are they not saying that they ENCOURAGE applicant to develop professional competency in another language?? I guess to me if you indicate your are Chinese American, or Hispanic, wouldn’t the most competitive applicants be someone who is going for a completely different language altogether. I would assume that you are submitting SAT 2 subject in Chinese?I would think it is a given this would be proficient…

I do not interpret it as such. I believe they are discouraging native speakers. I do not believe that they are discouraging heritage speakers, unless they are truly proficient. From my own experience, heritage speakers run the gamut from barely being able to string together a complete sentence to being fully fluent. And scoring an 800 on the Subject Test means that one has achieved a low-intermediate level of proficiency; it’s not testing high-level proficiency.

@skieurope how in the world does Upenn know if you are heritage or native or what your fluency is?I know someone who is Hispanic in terms of family (white Hispanic - can check the box for Hispanic) and the girl speaks fluent Spanish. She also speaks English. They took Spanish in high school and I am sure did well, how could you not? In that case, are you discouraged from choosing Spanish?

@LvMyKids2 You answered your own question.

I don’t know the Spanish curriculum at this particular HS, but few high schools offer advanced foreign language courses i.e. post-AP. Basic language acquisition is the goal in HS; few schools go further.

So if she took AP Spanish Lit as a freshman, I guess that’s a clue. If she took Spanish 2 as a freshman, though, then she was either not fluent, or the school has a crappy FL department that can’t correctly place incoming students. I know my HS was unique in a lot of ways, but they strongly encouraged

But again, Huntsman is discouraging native speakers from selecting that language. The Common App asks for birthplace. But Huntsman is not saying that you can’t target that language.

@skieurope well in this case the person took Spanish 2 and then 3, 4 and AP even though they are “hispanic”. Quite frankly I think it will look weird that they identify as Hispanic, take Spanish and get all As and then want to choose that as there language. Seems the easy way out. But I am in the minority.

One can be latin@ and have limited Spanish fluency. Nobody will doubt that Jlo is Latina, but have you ever heard her Spanish? It sucks!!

But let’s not conflate language proficiency with ethnicity.

Admission officers don’t just evaluate your target language based solely off your linguistic backgrounds. It’s a holistic process and they gage your interest, passion, and ambitions in that target region and the world. I believe that if you’re applying to Huntsman, you SHOULD be passionate about your target region, and want to further your future efforts in that region (a semester of study abroad is required after all). It seems like you’re in the mindset of choosing a language just for the sake of it (perhaps for ease of admission or to get into Huntsman in general, rather than choosing it because it is truly a language you want to become natively proficient in). And I can attest that most heritage speakers do not have near native proficiency in their language, usually just listening and speaking fluency. Honestly, don’t overthink it though and apply to the language you want! If you’re not genuine about a language you want to study, that shows to the AOs.