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

[Rafa]

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...what exactly does that mean? For example, presuming there are four tenets to language (speaking, listening, reading, writing), would you have to do all of them at a near-native level to be considered fluent? A pal of mine can read French well, and he can speak and write it slowly (but well enough to ask for bathrooms and names and touristy stuff), but his listening is really bad (like he can't understand native speakers unless they speak like books-on-tape readers). If you check 'fluent' when you're only semi-fluent, is there a danger of the adcom showing up and conducting the interview entirely in your second language?

 

[Messerschmitts]

I imagine that depends on the language. If you check "Spanish", there's a ton of Spanish-speaking doctors, and they just might pick one to "call your bluff", maybe not conduct the entire interview en espanol, but at least test a few phrases to make sure you weren't full of crap.

However, I minored in German and put German, and no one has ever "called me on it". 😛 The chances of a doctor at the school speaking German was such a hassle that they just didn't feel it worth it to bother trying to test me, I imagine. My German speaking is so-so, listening is okay when they speak slowly. Writing is pretty bad (I've forgotten a lot of the grammar), reading again so-so. I speak complete fluent Mandarin (it's what I speak with my parents), but I have no more than a 2nd-grade reading level in Chinese.

 

[AStudent]

It means if they stop speaking in English during your interview, like they did with me, you can carry on a conversation.

 

[Queenshawtii]

seriously? They stopped speaking english?

I understand yoruba 98% but i can barely speak it..

 

[Law2Doc]

It means if they stop speaking in English during your interview, like they did with me, you can carry on a conversation.

Then you may not want to list "the language of love" either. Could be an uncomfortable interview.

 

[MahlerROCKS]

...what exactly does that mean? For example, presuming there are four tenets to language (speaking, listening, reading, writing), would you have to do all of them at a near-native level to be considered fluent? A pal of mine can read French well, and he can speak and write it slowly (but well enough to ask for bathrooms and names and touristy stuff), but his listening is really bad (like he can't understand native speakers unless they speak like books-on-tape readers). If you check 'fluent' when you're only semi-fluent, is there a danger of the adcom showing up and conducting the interview entirely in your second language?

Can you list Latin and Greek(Attic)?

 

[DrKitty]

I think "fluent" means you can easily carry on a conversation. For me, this question was easy, as Russian is my native language, so I put Russian and English
😀

 

[Jaider]

I wouldn't claim to be fluent unless you truly are fluent. I think it would be pretty damning to your application if the adcomm tested your language skills (in your interview) and you performed poorly.

My state school actually does a "sniff test" where they discuss whether they think an applicant's listed credentials are exaggerated. If they think you exaggerated your foreign language skills and you mess-up in your interview, that will call into question skills that you truly didn't exaggerate. And you lose.

Be honest. Are you fluent?

 

[Law2Doc]

I wouldn't claim to be fluent unless you truly are fluent. I think it would be pretty damning to your application if the adcomm tested your language skills (in your interview) and you performed poorly.

My state school actually does a "sniff test" where they discuss whether they think an applicant's listed credentials are exaggerated. If they think you exaggerated your foreign language skills and you mess-up in your interview, that will call into question skills that you truly didn't exaggerate. And you lose.

Be honest. Are you fluent?

It's not unheard of for a school to pair you with an interviewer who is fluent in whatever language you claim a proficiency in, if there is such an interviewer. Especially so if you list a very common language like Spanish.

 

[DeadorAlive]

Fluent: adj.

1. Able to express oneself readily and effortlessly

If you speak as well in the language as you do your native, or if the language is your native, you're fluent. For these purposes I assume they mean conversationally fluent - you can talk and listen and carry on a conversation, but probably they aren't as worried about your reading/writing skills.

I lived in another country and speak that language well enough to live there. I can understand conversations and the "gist" of the news when I watch, but I didn't put fluent because I really can only do that with topics I know. I would not be comfortable telling a native speaker "i speak your language and can help" but more that "i know a bit of your language".... so i'm not fluent.

 

[odrade1]

If I had an interviewee who claimed to be fluent in X, and I busted him on it, you can believe I would vote against that applicant. Either he was dishonest, or he wasn't smart enough to know what "fluent" meant. Neither is acceptable.

If your skills in language X aren't very similar to your skills in your native language, don't use 'fluent' to describe your abilities.

 

[baylormed]

If I had an interviewee who claimed to be fluent in X, and I busted him on it, you can believe I would vote against that applicant. Either he was dishonest, or he wasn't smart enough to know what "fluent" meant. Neither is acceptable.

If your skills in language X aren't very similar to your skills in your native language, don't use 'fluent' to describe your abilities.

Agreed. Many of my Hispanic friends (...whose Spanish is horrible compared to many of my African-American or Caucasian friends'), list that they are fluent in Spanish, when the truth is they can barely even pronounce the words right. I think medical schools should check for true fluency (Proficiency/oral exam, maybe?) since this factor is considered in the application.

Understanding "some of it" does NOT make you fluent.

 

[CerealBox]

I put fluent in Portuguese... and one interviewer greeted me and asked me a few simple questions in Portuguese at the beginning of my interview. Her Portuguese was actually not that good (she spoke Spanish fluently), but it was a good ice breaker. I'm glad that I'm actually fluent in Portuguese... It might have been akward otherwise.

I studied Spanish for 4 years in college... but have been out of practice for the last 4 years, so I listed it in my coursework and mentioned that I would like to learn medical spanish, but not as one of my fluent languages. And I'm glad... because I wouldn't have been as comfortable answering my interviewers questions if they had been in Spanish instead of Portuguese.

P.S. I do not write in Portuguese very well at all... but no one tested my writing 😉

 

[Conqueror]

I listed Spanish on my AMCAS. I've been taking it since the third grade and majored in it during college. While that doesn't mean I speak like a native, it means I can carry on an informal conversation without trouble. I think that's what they're looking for - not necessarily that you could attend medical school in that country with no troubles, but simply that you could converse with someone.

CQ

 

[Saluki]

When people talk about fluent, they're normally talking about speaking ability. I can read Arabic, French, and German, because I've had to for history research, but I'm not fluent in any of them. The farmer in Brazil who never learned how to write is fluent in Portugese, so I don't think that literacy in the lanuage is part of the criteria....

 

[bubbleyum]

if somebody asks you if you are fluent in a language and you hesitate and have to ask "what exactly do you mean by fluent? in what way?" etc, then you are probably not fluent and should not list it as so on any of your applications.

 

[BooMed]

Thank god no white people can speak Spanish in Alabama. 😀

 

[big_smiles]

Astudent, I can't believe they did that to you! Dang! Stopped speaking English in an interview...I couldn't imagine.

 

[45408]

IIRC, my AMCAS didn't ask if I was fluent or anything - it just asked you to list any other languages you spoke. I took two years in HS and three semesters in college, so I said Spanish. I mentioned it briefly in my PS as well. It was briefly mentioned in one interview, but she didn't know any Spanish, so that was the end of that.

 

[Messerschmitts]

When people talk about fluent, they're normally talking about speaking ability. I can read Arabic, French, and German, because I've had to for history research, but I'm not fluent in any of them. The farmer in Brazil who never learned how to write is fluent in Portugese, so I don't think that literacy in the lanuage is part of the criteria....

Wow, that's impressive, but if you spent all that effort learning to read Arabic, French, and German, surely you could put some sentences together if pressed, I would imagine? Especially for French and German (which are written with the Latin alphabet), I would imagine you learned the pronounciation schemes as an aside, just to help you read in your head, no?

Btw, off topic did you get into Duke yet? I'm still waiting for you to open up that OSU spot. 😛

 

[QofQuimica]

I got tested in an interview as well. The interviewer began speaking to me in Spanish, and I answered her. (Basically I told her that it is very difficult for me to discuss my work in Spanish because I don't know the technical terms for chemistry things!). But she was satisfied because I was able to converse in general. I agree with those who said that they are primarily looking for you to be able to speak the language. I don't think you have to speak like a native where you make no pronunciation or grammatical mistakes, but you should be able to carry on a normal conversation with a native speaker. To look at this issue from the other side, my co-workers in the lab who come from Asia and India do not speak English like a native speaker (they have accents and make grammatical mistakes), but they can definitely converse facilely, and I would therefore consider them to be fluent in English. I would say that I speak Spanish at about that same level of proficiency, and so I did classify myself as "fluent."

 

[doctoresse]

Fluent definitely means that you can carry a conversation. French is my native language and I had one interview totally in French and at another one I was asked to explain in French how I would prepare a patient for a specific treatment. It's very likely that they will call you on it like one dean of adcom told us "if you tell us you can juggle, we will most likely ask you to juggle during your interview." He said that after telling us that one student wrote in his application that he was fluent in a language from Croatia and, as unlikely as it sounds, they paired him with an interviewer who spoke that language. pretty embarrassing.

 

[Jaykms]

Can we put down "dead" languages like Latin or Greek? I can read/write Latin very well but I've never really spoken it. I'd think that since no one really speaks it, writing/reading would be considered fluent.

 

[Law2Doc]

To look at this issue from the other side, my co-workers in the lab who come from Asia and India do not speak English like a native speaker (they have accents and make grammatical mistakes), but they can definitely converse facilely, and I would therefore consider them to be fluent in English. I would say that I speak Spanish at about that same level of proficiency, and so I did classify myself as "fluent."

I may be naive, but isn't english actually one of the official languages of india (and certainly the official business language)?

 

[Rafa]

Fluent definitely means that you can carry a conversation. French is my native language and I had one interview totally in French and at another one I was asked to explain in French how I would prepare a patient for a specific treatment. It's very likely that they will call you on it like one dean of adcom told us "if you tell us you can juggle, we will most likely ask you to juggle during your interview." He said that after telling us that one student wrote in his application that he was fluent in a language from Croatia and, as unlikely as it sounds, they paired him with an interviewer who spoke that language. pretty embarrassing.

Ouch :^) Did he actually know the language, or was he bluffing?

 

[QofQuimica]

I may be naive, but isn't english actually one of the official languages of india (and certainly the official business language)?

Yes. But only educated people speak it, not everyone. And since it is their second, or even third, language, they don't speak it "perfectly."

 

[Messerschmitts]

..he was fluent in a language from Croatia and, as unlikely as it sounds, they paired him with an interviewer who spoke that language. pretty embarrassing.

Uh...that would be the Croatian language, no? 😛 That's funny they found a Croat interviewer for him though. I'm actually kind of dissappointed that in 7 interviews no one tested me for German (or Mandarin, but given my ethnicity that's less unusual/impressive)

 

[Lorrayne]

I have a minor in Spanish (studied it for 3 years in high school, 3+ years in college). However, I still get a little nervous when asked to speak it. After reading on here about all the interviewers who test your fluency in foreign languages, I spent a lot of time practicing with native Spanish speakers before my interviews. Yet in 10 interviews, it never once came up -- and I live in a state with a very large Hispanic population! Oh well, it's probably for the best.

 

[Jaykms]

I have a minor in Spanish (studied it for 3 years in high school, 3+ years in college). However, I still get a little nervous when asked to speak it. After reading on here about all the interviewers who test your fluency in foreign languages, I spent a lot of time practicing with native Spanish speakers before my interviews. Yet in 10 interviews, it never once came up -- and I live in a state with a very large Hispanic population! Oh well, it's probably for the best.

Are you hispanic? If you are maybe they didn't feel the need to test it because it was believable.

 

[Saluki]

Wow, that's impressive, but if you spent all that effort learning to read Arabic, French, and German, surely you could put some sentences together if pressed, I would imagine? Especially for French and German (which are written with the Latin alphabet), I would imagine you learned the pronounciation schemes as an aside, just to help you read in your head, no?

Btw, off topic did you get into Duke yet? I'm still waiting for you to open up that OSU spot. 😛

I'm not sure if I could. When I say I can read, I mean with a dictionary sitting by- I read them the way I read Latin (actually I can read Latin a lot faster)

Answer to other question: I haven't gotten into Duke yet- they're non rolling so I won't hear till March- eek! However, if Wash U comes thru with an acceptance, I'll probably go ahead and withdraw. Good luck!

 

[Lorrayne]

Are you hispanic? If you are maybe they didn't feel the need to test it because it was believable.

No, I'm white, but as I said, I had a LONG list of spanish courses in my transcript so maybe that was why they trusted me 😉
But I glad that I was prepared... I think that anything that's in your application is fair game.

 

[doctoresse]

Unfortunately for him he barely knew the language but said he was fluent, the dean of admissions said that those kind of things are not well received by the adcom.

 

[mismd]

I may be naive, but isn't english actually one of the official languages of india (and certainly the official business language)?

English is the official language in India, but its British English. besides i have noticed that once you speak with an accent people tend to assume that you make grammatical errors. i know because I am from Nigeria where we also speak British English, I have spoken it all my life but when I first got to the states, some people actually asked me why i wasn't speaking proper English.

 

[gujuDoc]

Can you list Latin and Greek(Attic)?

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.

 

[OwnageMobile]

One of my biggest peeves is when people claim to be fluent in a language. All those who study languages in college, and think they can speak it, umm no. I tend to be snobby when it comes to languages and believe that fluency only comes from years (read: years) immeresed in that language. I studied Spanish in college, immediately went to Honduras, could barely get ideas across. I became proffecient in Spanish. I am slowly becoming proffecient in Mandarin. Maybe it's my time and experience in learning languages that makes me so mad when people claim to be "fluent." Go to that country, try and speak to any layman on the street and see just how fluent you are. It's humbling.

I would not put fluent down unless you walk the walk and talk the talk. If I were an interviewer, I would seriously deck someone's points if they claimed to be fluent because they majored in Spanish. Chistoso.

 

[gujuDoc]

One of my biggest peeves is when people claim to be fluent in a language. All those who study languages in college, and think they can speak it, umm no. I tend to be snobby when it comes to languages and believe that fluency only comes from years (read: years) immeresed in that language. I studied Spanish in college, immediately went to Honduras, could barely get ideas across. I became proffecient in Spanish. I am slowly becoming proffecient in Mandarin. Maybe it's my time and experience in learning languages that makes me so mad when people claim to be "fluent." Go to that country, try and speak to any layman on the street and see just how fluent you are. It's humbling.

I would not put fluent down unless you walk the walk and talk the talk. If I were an interviewer, I would seriously deck someone's points if they claimed to be fluent because they majored in Spanish. Chistoso.

This is exactly why some interviewers have you speak the interview in the language you claim to be fluent in; to see if you are bluffing or being honest.

Some people do acquire the ability to speak, like if they major in the language. However, even so if the language is spoken in different countries, there are often subtle differences in the way one country speaks it vs. another.

 

[tulane06]

There are some people that can become fluent (at least on a non-native level) in only a few years of learning the language, however these people are rare. You can usually take a test online to estimate your proficiency level....I think if you get a "C1" rating or higher you call yourself "fluent," or at least say that you have a very good grasp of that language.

 

[OwnageMobile]

This is exactly why some interviewers have you speak the interview in the language you claim to be fluent in; to see if you are bluffing or being honest.

Correct.

Some people do acquire the ability to speak, like if they major in the language.

This is where I will disagree. I think it is necessary to be immersed.

 

[dajimmers]

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...)

 

[tifa]

seriously? They stopped speaking english?

I understand yoruba 98% but i can barely speak it..

Hey I'm with you! Understand yoruba when people are talking to me, but can't reply.

 

[Rafa]

Hey I'm with you! Understand yoruba when people are talking to me, but can't reply.

If only this could count as semi-fluency :^)

 

[NapeSpikes]

I think you could claim fluency even if you couldn't write or read the language very well.

Definitely. I'm sure not everyone who claimes fluency in, say, Chinese, could write or read complete sentences with characters.

 

[kirexhana]

Definitely. I'm sure not everyone who claimes fluency in, say, Chinese, could write or read complete sentences with characters.

yea, def. not. i can converse extremely well, but i can barely write "I 😍 you" in Chinese. ok, maybe a lil more than that, but it's still really limited.

 

[omgwtfbbq?]

I had one "trick" question in an interview. I claimed fluency in sign language on my AMCAS, and the interviewer was talking about how important it is to speak a foreign language when you're in an area with a lot of bilingual people, or foeign speakers (i'm going to be going to school which has a large hispanic population in the surrounding cities and works with a lot of south american immigrants who've just recently come to the US). I took a few spanish classes in undergrad, so when he asked me if i think its important to speak a language fluently, then looked at me expectantly, i thought he was expecting me to bust out with the spanish! until i realized he was staring at my Amcas report in his lap. So i said, I agree with you, and i'd like to make use of my language skills in my future practice, especially because i'd like to go into ENT

So then i started signing at him. I don't think he had a clue as to what i was saying. So i said....

"Hello. my name is ___, I'm so happy to be here today. this is a lovely school and i'd like to go here. Please accept me. Do you know american sign language? or are you just testing me to see if it looks like i was telling the truth? Why is there so little trust placed in applicants? i never harmed anybody. i never stole a car. No one can prove that library book was over three years late."

he had no clue what i was saying, and then asked me to break it down. *haha* so i went back and told him word for word what i said. He had a good laugh (he had a sense of humor from the start). I ended up getting in.

So be warned, they may ask you to prove it, even if they don't know the language. but you can't make any assumptions. He did show me that he knew a few very basic conversational things and i showed him one or two more. all in all a fabulous interview. but if i couldn't give him something more than "hi, where is the bathroom?" in ASL, i think i would have had to just say "its okay, reject me" and run away.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

Since I now know that schools really do test you on languages, I have remembered that I am fluent in 3 new guinean dialects and 5 african click languages. 😀

 

[gujuDoc]

I had one "trick" question in an interview. I claimed fluency in sign language on my AMCAS, and the interviewer was talking about how important it is to speak a foreign language when you're in an area with a lot of bilingual people, or foeign speakers (i'm going to be going to school which has a large hispanic population in the surrounding cities and works with a lot of south american immigrants who've just recently come to the US). I took a few spanish classes in undergrad, so when he asked me if i think its important to speak a language fluently, then looked at me expectantly, i thought he was expecting me to bust out with the spanish! until i realized he was staring at my Amcas report in his lap. So i said, I agree with you, and i'd like to make use of my language skills in my future practice, especially because i'd like to go into ENT

So then i started signing at him. I don't think he had a clue as to what i was saying. So i said...

"Hello. my name is ___, I'm so happy to be here today. this is a lovely school and i'd like to go here. Please accept me. Do you know american sign language? or are you just testing me to see if it looks like i was telling the truth? Why is there so little trust placed in applicants? i never harmed anybody. i never stole a car. No one can prove that library book was over three years late."

he had no clue what i was saying, and then asked me to break it down. *haha* so i went back and told him word for word what i said. He had a good laugh (he had a sense of humor from the start). I ended up getting in.

So be warned, they may ask you to prove it, even if they don't know the language. but you can't make any assumptions. He did show me that he knew a few very basic conversational things and i showed him one or two more. all in all a fabulous interview. but if i couldn't give him something more than "hi, where is the bathroom?" in ASL, i think i would have had to just say "its okay, reject me" and run away.

That is the cutest thing I've ever read. My friends all have taken sign language as their primary foreign language. I took up to spanish 4 in highschool but have since forgotten most of it.

To fully learn another country's language such as Spanish, the best way to learn is to submerge yourself in the environment through study abroad or medical mission trips or trips. In other words, by going to the country of that language.

 

[gujuDoc]

Correct.


This is where I will disagree. I think it is necessary to be immersed.

Yeah but often times those who major in that language do some sort of program where they will be immersed in the language whether in this country or through study abroad programs.

I guess I should have mentioned that bit in my earlier post.

But not disagreeing with you by any means. BTW, are you spanish or of foreign descent?? Just curious and hope you don't mind my asking.

I took up to Spanish 4 in highschool but forgot most of it. At one point, my pronunciation was horrible but I would be able to read basic spanish books and tell what it was saying.

For me the biggest problem with foreign languages is a matter of learning the spoken language because if a person speaks slowly enough you can understand. However, often times the case is that they speak extremely fast so it is hard to understand.

 

[gujuDoc]

I may be naive, but isn't english actually one of the official languages of india (and certainly the official business language)?

As an Indian, I can answer this question for you. In India, there are those schools which teach in their primary language and then there are English schools which specifically teach in English. So it depends on which schools you go to. Often times it is the richer people schools that teach English. Even so, most people still learn the native languages first so the level of pronunciation is not on par with a native English speaker or even native British English speaker.

Furthermore, most people in India learn English in the sense of writing or reading it but they still mostly use their native languages when in India.

To further complicate matters, India has 18 official languages, that is almost 1 language per state. Not to mention Hindi the national language.

Not everyone knows hindi either.

One more interesting thing about Indian language is that the Indians came from 2 distinct lines: The Dravidian line and the Arayan line.

The Dravidian line made the languages of the South: Telegu, Tamil, Malayalaam, and Kanada. Meanwhile the Sanskrit based languages came from the Arayans and include the languages of the East, West, and North.

Because the southern and northern languages differ in origina many of the words are not very similar to each other. However, words of languages within the same class (i.e. tamil words and malayalaam words (2 of the dravidian languages) might be similar.

 

[OwnageMobile]

But not disagreeing with you by any means. BTW, are you spanish or of foreign descent?? Just curious and hope you don't mind my asking.

Don't mind at all. I'm Italian/German, but 3rd generation here, so let's just say caucasian.
Why do you ask?

 

[McOrn11]

I would be careful when bending the truth about languages. I mean, sure the chances are you won't get busted, but why take the chance? Is writing down that you're fluent in one more language really worth the risk of losing any chance of acceptance into a school that actually probes into your so-called "fluency?"