<p>On some college applications, you are asked to put down any special skills you have…would being bilingual be a skill? For example, would a Mexican who was born and lived in Mexico for 11 years and is fluent in both spanish and english considered to have a special skill: being fluent in his native dialect, spanish?</p>
<p>I don’t think its a skill to know spanish if you are born to spanish speaking parents or if it was your first language but if you learned it on your own then I guess it would be considered a skill but I usually never put that down as a skill in job apps or anything of that sort</p>
<p>You definitely SHOULD put that on job apps. It wouldn’t necessarily be a “skill” but being bilingual gives you an edge for any level of job.</p>
<p>For college, you should mention it but if its due to your family living in another country or being of that nationality, typically its not that big of a deal.</p>
<p>i think its a skill no matter if your family speaks it or not. i mean, would you say someone who is exceptional at tennis or chess has no skill just b/c their whole family played? not exactly the same thing, but you catch my drift. it’s a skill, whether one acquired it easily or not.</p>
<p>but i see your guys’ points. and i agree it’s more impressive if your family/country doesn’t speak it since it’s that much harder to learn.</p>
<p>Does being “bilingual”, “trilingual”, etc. necessarily imply that one got the skill in those languages through parents/family?</p>
<p>As far as I know, one is “bilingual” even if the language was learned without any family connections.</p>
<p>Being bilingual or multilingual is definitely a marketable skill, especially here in Silicon Valley, where English is NOT the primary language of many people in the workforce.</p>
<p>Unless you are certified bilingual or multilingual, it may not be a significant hook on a college app, but if you mention in a personal essay how being so helped you get a summer job, mentor/tutor other students, or make a difference in a community service project, you just may score some extra points with adcoms.</p>
<p>What do you mean by certified bilingual/multilingual?</p>
<p>What if you’re bilingual in some random language, but you had to learn it on your own? </p>
<p>(Ex. Born in Greece, lived until age 2, didn’t learn language, came to US, learned how to speak and write?)</p>
<p>Re: Bilingual</p>
<p>Conversational ability is only a very small part of the equation. You need to have the ability to carry on a conversation, read and write with an eye towards a technical vocabulary. On a college application, it’s a good start. But, it’s after you graduate, that language skills can matter greatly.</p>
<p>Many companies want fluency in certain kinds of technical, scientific, legal or business terminology. Saying “hello” and “how’s the weather” is vastly different than asking, " Did your child receive his/her immunization shots?".</p>
<p>
You have taken some kind of exam to certify (verify) that you truly are fluent in a foreign language.</p>
<p>CAREER OPPORTUNITIES</p>
<p>Have you ever wondered why foreign-language classes are an important part of the high school curriculum? In the United States, a person can travel from coast to coast and communicate entirely in English. Why, then, are high schools and colleges placing more emphasis on the study of foreign languages? In part, it is because there is a need for people with good foreign-language skills in today’s job market. Many exciting and worthwhile foreign-language careers are available.</p>
<p>A foreign language can be either the core of a person’s job or a complement to it. Most people are familiar with the jobs that demand expertise or near-native competence in a second language. Interpreters, translators, and bilingual or foreign-language teachers must be fluent in the languages with which they work. They must have acquired accuracy, proficiency, and efficiency in both the first and second languages, which are the “core” of their work and essential to their jobs.</p>
<p>Foreign-language ability can also complement other marketable skills and be considered an additional asset in the job market. There are many jobs available for people who have language skills in addition to their technical, business, or professional talents. Take a look at some of the areas where a language can increase the chance of getting a good job:</p>
<p>Business and Commerce. Most “big business” in America has become international in scope. Some 3,200 U.S. firms have branches or representatives abroad, and over 1,500 foreign businesses have interests in the United States. A second language can be very helpful to employees of these companies.</p>
<p>Financial. With the expansion of international business operations, international banking and finance offer opportunities for success in the financial world to those with foreign-language qualifications.</p>
<p>Secretarial and Clerical. Opportunities are vast in the secretarial and clerical areas, as many executives do not have language skills and must hire and rely heavily upon assistants who do.</p>
<p>Civil Service. The federal government is the largest employer in the United States, employing more than 2½ million people. At the same time, the government is the largest employer of individuals with foreign-language skills.</p>
<p>Library Science. Almost all libraries handle books, reference works, and periodicals in a number of different languages. Reference librarians, therefore, should have a reading knowledge of at least one foreign language in order to review, order, and catalogue these materials.</p>
<p>Communications Media. Journalists often need foreign-language skills to deal with foreign-language-speaking people, both here and aboard. A foreign language is certainly an asset in interviewing foreign visitors, and in interpreting quotable items from foreign publications. Fluency in a foreign language is, of course, essential for foreign correspondents working abroad for the international press associations.</p>
<p>Publishing. Foreign-language skills are useful for editors, editorial assistants, executives, proofreaders, and secretaries of many publishing houses. These skills are particularly beneficial to those publishers that produce foreign-language textbooks and market books abroad.</p>
<p>Social Work. Most social service agencies are in cities where there are concentrations of minority groups and immigrants, so they need caseworkers that speak another language in addition to English. State and local service agencies all may need bilingual or multilingual social-work personnel, depending on the language groups present in the community.</p>
<p>Travel and Tourism. The increase in the number of foreign tourists visiting our country has made bilingualism an important skill in the travel industry. There are reception programs sponsored by the U.S. Travel Service, and bilingual receptionists are employed by the major airports. Even smaller travel agencies can use people with language skills to deal with, for example, the Mexican tourist industry.</p>
<p>Hotels and Motels. Desk clerks, hotel managers, switchboard operators, and restaurant employees can greatly improve their services to foreign visitors with knowledge of a foreign language. The foreign-language skill, then, complements the skills required for each individual job.</p>
<p>Transportation. The ever-growing tourist trade and the expansion of the international business industry involve transportation on the international airlines. Foreign-language skills are therefore necessary for flight attendants and other employees of these airlines as well as for personnel in the train, bus, and ship industries.</p>
<p>Technical and Engineering. International companies are very likely to need technical and engineering staff members with language proficiency. Included are companies with plants abroad, as well as those manufacturing machinery in the United States for use abroad.</p>
<p>Science. While English leads as the most important language of science, Russian runs a close second. German and French are next in line, producing a smaller percentage of the scientific publications. Serious research scientists learn other languages in order to keep up with the latest developments in their fields. All primary sources in the scientific world are then available to them, and because of their own proficiency they need not rely upon translations, which are often very slow to appear.</p>
<p>Law. Foreign-language skills are necessary for lawyers who represent members of ethnic and immigrant groups, those who do legal aid work, and those who specialize in international law or business.</p>
<p>Higher Education. Professors in colleges and universities doing research need to be able to deal with information sources in their fields, whether these are magazine articles, books, journals, or other people with whom researchers must interact in a language other than their native tongue. </p>
<p>(Adapted from The Spanish Teacher’s Book of Lists)</p>
<p>If you are a very high level bilingual, then put that down everywhere you need to OP. </p>
<p>If you are young, then you surely have to time make sure that you have the same amount of skills in Spanish as you do in English.</p>
<p>However, if you are just referring to University Applications, then you can put that you are a bilingual and then to be honest just do not put the level because you are still young enough to learn more with regards to doing proper academics in Spanish. </p>
<p>While you are earning your schooling, you have to try your best to become a very fluent bilingual if you would like and to try to make sure your fluency rate is very high. You can begin to work on that in a proper academic fashion by arranging a nice meeting with the head of the Spanish Department of your University. And you might have to take a test to see where you stand in Spanish and then you can take out a little minor for yourself.</p>
<p>To really try your best at becoming a true bilingual, you have to look at Spanish the way only English speaking folks look at English and English classes with regards to academics.</p>
<p>Being bilingual in Spanish and English, but also living in Utah–where bilingual is no big deal–I’ve found that employers like candidates who are bilingual but DO NOT pay extra for it. This could just be because it’s nothing to be bilingual and work in Utah. Nevertheless, I am reluctant to let my employer know that I’m bilingual, unless it is a given fact that by doing so I will 1. be paid more for it, or 2. get the nice promotion because of it.</p>
<p>That’s my perspective… oh, and I love being bilingual–helped me get 12 credit hours of language for $50!</p>