What is bilingual?

[Dude]

How well do I need to be able to speak another language to call myself bilingual?

I don't consider myself fluent in Spanish because I don't dream in it. Some departments have different ratings of level of proficiency in a foreign language.

I've had 8 years of formal education in Spanish, and I'm able to issue several useful commands and ask an assortment of questions in Spanish and understand the answers (most of the time.) I suspect this isn't enough to qualify for even the lowest proficiency level but figured I'd ask so I don't unwittingly sell myself short.

Thoughts? Who here has undergone a test of language proficiency and what did it consist of?

Thanks

[irishlad2nv]

How well do I need to be able to speak another language to call myself bilingual?

I don't consider myself fluent in Spanish because I don't dream in it. Some departments have different ratings of level of proficiency in a foreign language.

I've had 8 years of formal education in Spanish, and I'm able to issue several useful commands and ask an assortment of questions in Spanish and understand the answers (most of the time.) I suspect this isn't enough to qualify for even the lowest proficiency level but figured I'd ask so I don't unwittingly sell myself short.

Thoughts? Who here has undergone a test of language proficiency and what did it consist of?

Thanks

You can be fluent in another language and not understand/comprehand it what so ever. But the only way to get that recognized is to test you. As the military does, they give you a written test in the second language that you speak, but you need to be able to write it, and read it as well. Giving commands in spanish is nothing new. I do not speak spanish, but have a nifty little "command" book for calls, traffic stops, etc in case I run into non-speaking English folks. I would contact the agency you are applying with and see what their guidelines are.

[Joebob]

You said it, different dept's have different standards. Best to contact them for specifics. I read something awhile back how Dallas PD was reviewing their bi-lingual standards because the test was very gramatically correct, where as many officers who were fluent on the street with a more widely used "tex-mex" or "spanglish" could not pass the test.

[NELSON279]

Think about different levels of fluency. Your level might be ok for some basic conversation, but can you turn the Spanish News channel and understand what it is been said????? that is a high comprehension level.
For Police work the level has to be very high because of the importance, complexity, and decisions that our work requires. Search for different tests at the library and you will find out what your level is.......

[PC Plum]

I'm trying to learn Lithuanian as it is soon to become the official second language of the town I live in ;) . Until I can actually speak it I just shout a lot and ask people to read a card I am holding out (road side breath test, caution arrest etc.)

[KPD183]

Many departments in the US have a standarized test to determined the candidate's level of fluency. In 1991 I was given one of these tests and was given a certification that was part of the requierements for employment The test consisted of reading numerous newspaper articles in Spanish and English. After you were done reading these articles you were asked to again read the article outloud to an examiner. This was done to test how well you were able read and comprehend the language. Then it was the reverse where the examiner had you read an article in english while simultaneously translating it to Spanish. This test was administered by an agency subcontracted by the State Of New York. I was told back then that the test was completetly ramdom, meaning the newspaper article were recent and never used again. I was told this was done to prevent any attempts in cheating on the test. I know the information is a little outdated but I hope it gives a small idea in how it works. I guess you should be able to at leat understand the language without the assistance of a dictionary or any other form of aid. Like it was pointed out before it is extremely important for the person to understand the language well enough. God only knows how many times I avoided serious injury when I was able to understand Spanish speaking criminals planning an attack on my person. Later on I was told by them that they tough I could not understand them and that it was why they did what they did.

[kirch]

I think the Spanish-language TV channel test would be a good one to personally determine if you are proficient enough to call yourself 'fluent'. If you can understand what they're saying on TV, I'd call that acceptable.

This reminds me of a stop I was on a couple of years ago. I had a potential OWI and the driver supposedly spoke no English. I put a call out for a Spanish-speaking officer and was told a neighboring agency would be sending someone over to help me.

When the officer arrived, she came out of her squad with a booklet. I asked what was up and she said she'd just taken a 'Spanish for Law Enforcement' class and could help me out.

I appreciated her willingness to help, but it was soon very apparent she knew less than even my two years of high school Spanish. But at least I had a back-up officer on hand...

I point this out for a reason. If you go into an agency claiming to be fluent in a language, people are going to expect you to be able to use it right out of the box. If the need arises and you can't communicate, it's going to make you look very bad.

I'd say that, with 8 yrs of Spanish education, it wouldn't take much for you to get your skills up to fluence level, if you're not there already.

[RANDALL29]

[QUOTE=Dude]How well do I need to be able to speak another language to call myself bilingual?

I don't consider myself fluent in Spanish because I don't dream in it. Some departments have different ratings of level of proficiency in a foreign language.

I've had 8 years of formal education in Spanish, and I'm able to issue several useful commands and ask an assortment of questions in Spanish and understand the answers (most of the time.) I suspect this isn't enough to qualify for even the lowest proficiency level but figured I'd ask so I don't unwittingly sell myself short.

Thoughts? Who here has undergone a test of language proficiency and what did it consist of?
You can always take the CLEP test for Spanish. I took this test and they gave me 12 college credits. This test is accepted in all 50 states the cost for this test is about $75.00 just another option that you have on the table.