AMCAS Languages

[NikoNLS8]

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how fluent do you have to be, and if you mark a language down, is there a possibility that they will try in interview you in the language? If you are just proficient, not totally fluent, do you mark it?

 

[khadija]

Where do they ask this question on AMCAS? I don't remember seeing it. But, if u list a language u should be pretty fluent in it. and who knows, ur interviewer might speak that language.

 

[NikoNLS8]

Where do they ask this question on AMCAS? I don't remember seeing it. But, if u list a language u should be pretty fluent in it. and who knows, ur interviewer might speak that language.

i mean, even if you are just proficient, you mark the language down.

 

[101441]

This thread's come up before, and I remember that last time around, a few people mentioned that they had been interviewed in Spanish. I would think that is one of the few languages where that might be a possibility. I'm fluent in Lithuanian, a language so obscure that no one even addressed it too much in my interview, much less asked me to speak it (12 interviews). So there's the key, claim some esoteric, obscure language that you're certain no one will call you on.

 

[notdeadyet]

i mean, even if you are just proficient, you mark the language down.

No, absolutely not. The checkbox says very explicitly for languages that you are FLUENT in. Do not mark it unless you are comfortable conducting the interview in that language.

If you aren't sure if you're fluent in a language, you probably aren't.

 

[NikoNLS8]

This thread's come up before, and I remember that last time around, a few people mentioned that they had been interviewed in Spanish. I would think that is one of the few languages where that might be a possibility. I'm fluent in Lithuanian, a language so obscure that no one even addressed it too much in my interview, much less asked me to speak it (12 interviews). So there's the key, claim some esoteric, obscure language that you're certain no one will call you on.

Yea, I am talking about French, which isn't that obscure. I understand most of it (I used to be fluent completely but have since forgotten it), but I have a hard time speaking and definitely cannot interview in it. If someone attempted to interview me in French, I think would get thrown off a lot and do badly on the rest of the interview. I'd be worried that they would think that I was lying or something.

 

[CavalierMD]

I had a question on this too... if you click "help" on AMCAS in the language section, it tells you to mark languages you have "speaking proficiency" in... (this was an issue for me, because I speak Arabic, but can't read or write it so well)... anway, I ended up marking Arabic and Spanish... my rule of thumb was... if I walked in and the interviewer asked "why do you want to be a doctor" in the language of interest... could I deliver my prepared answer flawlessly?... I figure if you can clearly get that answer across in another language, you could handle anything else they throw at you

 

[MossPoh]

Ok...this "fluent" word gets thrown around WAY too often...unless you were raised with it (which I am sure the Lithuanian counts since the only people I know that speak that are from there), or have pretty much studied it for 10 plus years with at least a year or two (two ideal) in the country of given language speaking it....odds are you are just proficient. You could be gifted and truly be fluent...best way to find out is take the tests and find out for sure. The government does them, as well as many of a specific country's embassy for the sake of university in that country. I never considered myself fluent in German but I thought I was pretty well off until I took the placement exams. I got frickin blasted. If it is an obscure language that won't be called on..go ahead and put it down if you feel like it (only you can question the morality of that) but if you mark fluent in a language such as french, spanish..pretty much any romance language then you best be prepared to be called out on. I think it is the language learning part of me but if someone said they were fluent and I did the interview in that language I'd expect you to be perfectly ready to return an undelayed response with little to no accent and NO grammar mistakes. I don't mean to sound like a jerk with this...so sorry.lol I have just been hearing WAY too many people that don't understand what fluency really entails....