Did you get tested with foreign language during interview?

[shinchan]

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It was stupid of me. I stated in my application that I know Spanish. But I haven't spoken it lately so I am not as fluent as I should be. How likely is it that some interviewer will try to test my Spanish? I will interview at Texas Tech in four days. Thanks.

 

[getunconcsious]

The only time that happened to me was at Texas A&M...good luck!

 

[cammy1313]

Only school I've heard of doing this is Tufts. Didn't happen to me but a fellow interviewee was forced to speak in Spanish throughout his entire interview. Did you indicate that you were fluent???

 

[futuremsfdoc]

i was worried about this a bit, as well, but it only came up a couple of times and i wasn't forced to speak it at all. if i had spoken, i would have been fine, just a bit nervous as it isn't my first language.

my guess is as long as you have the experiences/coursework to back it up, you'll be fine. besides, even if they do test you, as long as you can communicate relatively easily (no one knows every word) then they probably won't hold it against you.

 

[Dr Turninkoff]

it's happened to me twice. i did great with the native speaker, but i couldn't understand what the hell the other guy was trying to tell me bc the gringo accent was so thick. it was funny bc it made it look like i couldn't understand spanish. ha..ha....ha......

 

[efex101]

I do not understand why you put down that you are fluent in Spanish if now you are worried about talking in Spanish??? fluency means exactly what it states being fluent. I am fluent and at a couple of interviews had to speak in Spanish. I do not think that just taking courses in a language gives you the "fluent" status it usually takes more than that..Good luck though!

 

[beep]

it's too bad amcas doesn't have a category other than "fluent" for languages. i have usable conversational skills in three languages, but am not fluent. i ended up saying that i was fluent in the one in which i was able to hold my own & conduct all business as of 5 years ago, but i still felt a little sketchy because i'm rusty and not "fluent" today. i didn't mention the other 2, even though i've used one of them as a hospital volunteer.

i'd like to see amcas add a "some conversational abilty" or something like that category.

 

[futuremsfdoc]

i was talking to this girl from penn at one of my interviews, and the subject of languages came up. i told her i spoke spanish, and then she said she did as well and that penn gave her a "fluency certificate" after completing 4 semesters or something of college spanish. then she said it was a complete joke, but that she could officially prove she was fluent.

imo, fluency only comes after living abroad for a period of time, or after communicating pretty actively with native speakers. since i've lived in spain and have volunteered/tutored immigrants from mexico for 3 years, i put fluent.

also recognize that your nervousness might be more related to the interview itself than to the language. i'm sure you can speak it, but like most people whose native language is not spanish, you're afraid of stumbling over a word here or there. this is fine. look at people like george bush, who is fluent in english. you don't have to be perfectly elegant as long as you can effectively understand and be understood.

just my $0.02.

 

[UTKB]

I was asked about my Spanish-speaking skills at Texas Tech (interviewed in El Paso), but I only said a few vocabulary words and maybe a few sentences. I didn't put anything about it on my application. She asked about any coursework, I said 4 yrs in high school. She said she never took any spanish classes and didn't know a word before coming to El Paso, but she picked it up real quick and can communicate alright with hispanic patients at the hospital.

 

[liverotcod]

george bush...is fluent in english.

Debatable 🙂

I had an interviewer quiz me on Old English. Luckily I had some Beowulf quotes and miscellaneous poetry I could pull out of my hat. Fun interview, actually.

 

[Jeffy]

i'd like to see amcas add a "some conversational abilty" or something like that category.

That would be a horrible idea. All of a sudden you'd have thousands of premeds trying to get ahead by claiming that they "have some conversational ability" in Mandarin 'cause they've listened in on one of their study partner's phone covnersations with their parents once. Kids that did wannabe study abroads in Czech Republic that spent 4 months drinking would be claiming to have "some conversational ability" in Czech. All of this is pretty useless to medicine in the US anyway so why bother? Do med schools care that I have "some conversational ability" in Setswana?

 

[Psycho Doctor]

Only school I've heard of doing this is Tufts. Didn't happen to me but a fellow interviewee was forced to speak in Spanish throughout his entire interview. Did you indicate that you were fluent???

ouch!! teaches people not to stretch the truth.....

 

[lulubean]

i interviewed for the PRIME-LC program at UC Irvine and had a half-hour interview in Spanish. Like you, I had not spoken in awhile. Let me tell, practice before you go! My nervousness totally hindered my ability to speak as proficiently as I usually do. Make sure you are solid in answering the normal interview questions in Spanish (why medicine, tell me about yourself, etc...) Given that, you should be fine. Best of luck!

 

[dr_juvi]

All of this is pretty useless to medicine in the US anyway so why bother? Do med schools care that I have "some conversational ability" in Setswana?

umm..not everyone in the US speaks English..that's why it isn't useless. if its so useless why do people still study languages then? what's better...having conversational ability in Setswana (lol) and having a patient whose native language this is tell you what their symptoms are or not being able to help someone at all because of such a big language barrier?

 

[bqj]

This only happened to me at Utah, but when my interviewer saw that I spoke better spanish than he did, he quickly moved onto another subject. 🙂 I doubt that you'll be drilled on it.

 

[45408]

That would be a horrible idea. All of a sudden you'd have thousands of premeds trying to get ahead by claiming that they "have some conversational ability" in Mandarin 'cause they've listened in on one of their study partner's phone covnersations with their parents once. Kids that did wannabe study abroads in Czech Republic that spent 4 months drinking would be claiming to have "some conversational ability" in Czech. All of this is pretty useless to medicine in the US anyway so why bother? Do med schools care that I have "some conversational ability" in Setswana?

🙄 Loosen up. I could easily converse with a Hispanic patient to figure out what hurt, where, when it started, what aggravates it, etc. However, I would not describe myself as fluent (can't describe the socioeconomic issues of Latinoamerica in Spanish 😉), but I can certainly speak a lot of it. There should be something to denote that.

 

[twicetenturns]

I had to bust some zhongwen at both Stanford and Hopkins. It was really informal though, so I don't feel that I was actually being "tested" persay.

 

[sockandmittens]

i had an interviewer who was french-canadian switch to french briefly. i had troubles answering him because the topic of the conversation had moved to a very emotional and deep experience where i didn't have the depth of emotional vocabulary. he very nicely saw my trouble and said that sometimes these experiences are better expressed in one's native language.

 

[MeowMix]

A very senior adcom member at our school, who has been on adcoms across the country, says you should ALWAYS expect and be prepared to speak in an interview the language that you claim to be able to speak. She has seen a lot of students who claim all kinds of things on their applications that are at least a little exaggerated; the truth often comes out, and it's not in your favor to get caught.

Several of my MS1 classmates were interviewed in Spanish for at least part of their interview.

If you can't speak it well, be prepared to explain why you put down that you were fluent.

 

[docjolly]

Hi All,

Just a brief question about languages. I stated that I am fluent in Latin, which is true. However, Latin, partially due to the fact that it's a dead language, is never spoken by those who know it (according to my first latin professor, we cannot correctly speak it because we do not know how the original language truly sounds..we can only deduce how words sound based upon the lettering of the words....) With that being said, I'm very proficient at reading latin, but speaking it? I can do well, but not as well as interpreting Latin text.. Do you think that I may be asked to speak in latin (for instance, have a conversation in it)? Thanks!

 

[45408]

Hi All,

Just a brief question about languages. I stated that I am fluent in Latin, which is true. However, Latin, partially due to the fact that it's a dead language, is never spoken by those who know it (according to my first latin professor, we cannot correctly speak it because we do not know how the original language truly sounds..we can only deduce how words sound based upon the lettering of the words....) With that being said, I'm very proficient at reading latin, but speaking it? I can do well, but not as well as interpreting Latin text.. Do you think that I may be asked to speak in latin (for instance, have a conversation in it)? Thanks!

If the interviewer actually knows enough Latin to quiz you on it, I'd assume that they would realize that it's not a spoken language. 😉

 

[Sigma]

It was stupid of me. I stated in my application that I know Spanish. But I haven't spoken it lately so I am not as fluent as I should be. How likely is it that some interviewer will try to test my Spanish? I will interview at Texas Tech in four days. Thanks.

I had to speak Hut.

"Oota, doctoooor, jedi?"

 

[Emergency!]

I struggled with whether or not to mark Spanish as a second language on my AMCAS. I expect at some point to be asked why I didn't, as I have a degree in Spanish and taught HS Spanish for several years. However, I can't bring myself to say that I am "fluent". I have always struggled with spoken Spanish, although my reading and writing abilities are fairly decent. It is difficult to maintain a high level of conversational ability when most of your speaking and listening consists of level I and II Spanish. I struggle to hold a spoken conversation with a native speaker, especially if they have an accent that I am not familiar with. However, I can speak Spanish well enough to communicate with a patient.

In the end, I decided I would rather explain why I didn't mark Spanish on my AMCAS than have to explain why my speaking skills were subpar if an interviewer decided to question me in Spanish.

 

[wxl31]

although i didn't put it on amcas, i mentioned speaking spanish in a lot of my secondary essays. it came up in some interviews but i was never quizzed on it.

buena suerte!

 

[Arb]

Have you guys encountered many Chinese interviewers?

 

[efex101]

futuremsfdoc where in Spain did you live? I grew up in Madrid and cannot wait to go there this summer for six weeks of much needed vacation woohooo! are you coming to Mayo? I think we met at the lunch...

 

[futuremsfdoc]

futuremsfdoc where in Spain did you live? I grew up in Madrid and cannot wait to go there this summer for six weeks of much needed vacation woohooo! are you coming to Mayo? I think we met at the lunch...

i lived in sevilla....such a pretty area. i absolutely loved it and would love to go back sometime. yeah, i'm pretty sure i'm coming to mayo thanks to their generous financial support 😉 and their nice international opportunities. how's everyone coping with the winter about now?

 

[futuremsfdoc]

I had to speak Hut.

"Oota, doctoooor, jedi?"

actually i was thinking about learning elvish or something like that to put on my med school application. now THAT would impress the adcom.

 

[tank you]

has anyone had any asian interviewers? i am asian-indian and i can speak my native language (gujarati, not hindi!) pretty good, but not fluent. do you think they would bring someone who is fluent just to test me?

 

[funshine]

i was talking to this girl from penn at one of my interviews, and the subject of languages came up. i told her i spoke spanish, and then she said she did as well and that penn gave her a "fluency certificate" after completing 4 semesters or something of college spanish. then she said it was a complete joke, but that she could officially prove she was fluent. .

well, fluent means fluent. I can't believe she was talking about "officially proving it" with a stupid certificate. Just because you have a certificate does not mean anything about your actual skill w/ a language. If Penn really does give a "fluency certificate" for completing a certain # semesters, then they're pretty idiotic. My school gives a "certificate of proficiency" if you've completed 4 semesters of college spanish, which I think is more accurate/honest.

And no, I would never say I was fluent in Spanish, even though I have taken more than 6 years and have my nifty albeit useless little certificate (yeah, i def have no talent in learning new languages 🙄 )

I hesitate to even say I am fluent in Chinese even though I grew up speaking it.

 

[k-monger]

i lived in sevilla....such a pretty area. i absolutely loved it and would love to go back sometime. yeah, i'm pretty sure i'm coming to mayo thanks to their generous financial support 😉 and their nice international opportunities. how's everyone coping with the winter about now?

Sorry to break it to you guys, but Salamanca is a way better place. Just think, about 1000 bars and 200,000 residents.

Although, La Reina Sofia in Madrid is incredibly awesome...

Salud.

 

[efex101]

Yup Salamanca is the heat but no wait, my favorite and not filled with too many tourists by far is Cuenca. Most of my family is from Cuenca so I am biased but it has the most beautiful landscape. I never did visit Sevilla but maybe this summer I will head further South to Sevilla/Granada. Futuremsfdoc the winter is kind of cold but not too bad yet, let's see I think yesterday the temp was about 12...from what everyone says this is nothing ...yeah Mayo does give some nice financial aid with most students on full rides and the rest with reduced tuition...

 

[FrauBlucher]

Yeah, my Tufts interviewer kept switching back and forth between french and spanish (and english). I can speak both pretty well (didn't put either on amcas, though, he just asked me about languages), but he would switch without warning! Argh. Moral of the story: don't lie on your application! How was I to know he was from Chile and fluent in French?... 🙄