Bi-lingual

[WCUgirl]

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[carnation]

I'm bilingual in Spanish and English. For some jobs, employers will take your word; others might require you to take a written or oral test. Others will accept college transcripts with a certain amount of hours.

Most of the time, what they'll accept correlates with what they need you to do--i.e., an oral test for jobs where you'll need to speak with non-English speakers.

[AChiOAlumna]

I'm bilingual in ASL (American Sign Language) most of the time, my employers have to take my word for it as they don't usually have a test to verify my skills. However, I have a Bachelor's degree in Deaf Studies and usually a copy of my diploma will suffice for my employer's records.

[aephi alum]

I am very much not bilingual. High school French was miserable. But I understand that if you claim to be bilingual, some employers will interview you in your second language to see if you really are fluent in it.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by AXiD670
I didn't know if this should go under Academics or Careers & Employment.

Anyways, is anyone here bi-lingual for job purposes? I.e., work as an interpreter, or being bi-lingual was a requirement for your position?

I'm just curious how one goes about becoming "certified" (is that what it would be called?) as bi-lingual. Do you have to have a Master's degree, or does a Bachelor's degree in that language suffice? Or do you even have to have a degree? How does one prove that they're bi-lingual?

Make sense?

I've heard there are certifications and exams by different orgs. The CIA provides you with several texts and asks you to translate them. I know the UN has their own exam as well. I think one of the highest levels is real-time translation, and that pays an extremely high salary from what I heard because it's so difficult to find.

-Rudey

[AOII_LB93]

If you want to add some truth to putting bilingual on your resume, you can contact ACTFL or the American Council on Teaching of Foreign Languages. They do proficiency testing for languages for Oral proficiency. I am not too sure about written proficiency though. Here is the website for information: http://www.actfl.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3345

Being bilingual (French) is not necessarily a requirement for my position, though it should be since I am a French teacher and I am bilingual. I have two degrees in it. However I am also proficient in another language (German) as well.

[damasa]

I know German and it wasn't a requirement for my job. Although it has come in quite handy for sure.

There are a few other languages I want to learn and I'm going to start coursework on them before I go back to school for another degree.