When the AMCAS asks you to list languages you're "fluent" in...

[Anastasis]

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The AMCAS has pretty much almost every language, except maybe Latin.

For instance, they have listed all the major 20 indian languages, all the major east asian languages, and european languages etc.

Greek is on there too. I don't think Latin is on there though because it is not a language that people speak in the modern world.

I doubt they have Attic Greek (I read that too btw, My advisor told me not to put it down since it isn't a spoken language). The Greek they have is most likely modern Greek not Attic Greek. (For the difference try to imagine knowing the language that Beowulf is written in and trying to understand modern English, not so good huh?)

 

[gujuDoc]

I doubt they have Attic Greek (I read that too btw, My advisor told me not to put it down since it isn't a spoken language). The Greek they have is most likely modern Greek not Attic Greek. (For the difference try to imagine knowing the language that Beowulf is written in and trying to understand modern English, not so good huh?)

Oh ok. Nevermind. I was confused by what they meant about Attic Greek. Yeah if it is Ancient greek, I doubt it will be on there.

They only put languages which are spoken languages used in today's world.

 

[Anastasis]

Oh ok. Nevermind. I was confused by what they meant about Attic Greek. Yeah if it is Ancient greek, I doubt it will be on there.

They only put languages which are spoken languages used in today's world.

Attic is one of the dialects of Ancient Greek, yes.
It was a fun class but doubt it will do me any good now!

 

[gujuDoc]

Attic is one of the dialects of Ancient Greek, yes.
It was a fun class but doubt it will do me any good now!

Eh if nothing else, Latin and Ancient greek help you learn a lot of etymology of where current words come from. So if you know it well enough, and you don't necessarily know the meaning of a word, you can break down the word into its roots and figure the meaning out.

For instance, several medical prefixes come from greek and latin. So knowing that may help you remember the meaning of various medical terminology.

But in the overall scheme of things, you are right, it probably won't serve major use.

I'd love to learn greek and arabic if I ever had the chance. I love Greek and arabic music and think the languages are gorgeous.

 

[MacchinaDaCaffe]

http://french.about.com/library/weekly/aa072701b.htm

The above website gives some good insight into what fluency in a language means. Of course, it's still only one person's individual opinion, but I think it's probably the most accurate description you'll find.


From the website:

Debater
(Fluent)

A fluent speaker can participate in extended conversations, understand the language when spoken normally (on TV, radio, film, etc.), figure out meaning of words within context, debate, and use/understand complicated grammatical structures with little or no difficulty. Has good accent and understands dialects with slight-to-moderate difficulty.

 

[George_Clooney]

IMO, if schools give preference to certain students based on bilingual abilities (probably common in CA, FL, TX, etc) they should be testing applicants. Like others have said here, I know a lot of hispanic URMs that don't speak spanish, but I know many white, asians, etc that do. Too bad the MCAT doesn't have subject tests available like the GRE does so that schools would have a method for quantifying language skills.

 

[lookslikerain]

I think you could claim fluency even if you couldn't write or read the language very well. If you had two semesters of Spanish, but then spent a year (or maybe just a semester, depending on your ability) in a Spanish-speaking country where you spoke only Spanish, I'm sure you could claim fluency. You could be fluent without even knowing how the words you were saying are spelled.

And if they called you on that fact, you could reply that in a medical setting, the spoken language is pretty much the only way you'll need to communicate (OK, maybe not, if you want extra instructions on scripts or what not...)

I definitely agree. I am fluent in English and another, relatively uncommon (and my native) language and I indicated so on my AMCAS. I can converse very easily and have no trouble understanding the spoken word but my written ability is sub-par, to say the least. I don't even know the entire alphabet (I did at one time but have never needed to relearn it since coming to the United States) but that has never hindered my ability to communicate. I think fluency in a medical setting is very much limited to the spoken word.