FLAS - Language Rec

[daykid]

Is anyone aplying for a FLAS fellowship after having been out of school for a while? I am applying for the FLAS in Quechua at Michigan and Illinois. I have been out of undergrad for 5 years and haven't taken a language class in 6 years. I spent the last 4 years living in Argentina, so I am fluent in Spanish, but I have no one to write my Langauge Recommendation for me. The best option I have come up with so far is to get a local spanish teacher at the high school where my father works to do an evaluation. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Canis]

I assume this means you don't have any experience learning Quechua yet? Otherwise, the FLAS language letter is supposed to be from an instructor of the language in which you are applying.

[monfemme]

why do you need a language recommendation for spanish when you are applying fro quechua?

[daykid]

Well yea, I don't have Quechua language experience yet. However, what I understood was that they want a letter to demonstrate your language abilities if it is a new langauge. Perhaps I misunderstood. I'll  have to call the departments tomorrow.

[NoSleepTilBreuckelen]

Hey daykid - did you get your language reference question figured out?

 

I get the impression that for languages where applicants are starting at the beginning level, they're looking for a recommender from any language you've previously taken to comment of your language learning abilities. Likewise, I have been out of undergrad for a while now (going on 6 years!) and I cannot track down the person who was my language instructor in college (they were a grad student at the time). So I've I asked one of my high school language instructors to write the recommendation. I never thought my AP test scores would matter again, but it seems they do, haha! 

[eriatarka]

This FLAS thing is killing me. Last time I took Spanish, it was 2 years ago and the grad student who taught it is no longer here (or probably wouldn't remember me anyway). I decided to continue with Spanish this term, so now I have to ask my brand-new grad student professor for a letter of rec. Fabulous!

 

And I don't really feel comfortable rating myself on my language abilities. I'm still taking language courses now through June, so how the heck do I know what my proficiency will be like then?

 

Sorry for the rant.... the FLAS frustration is real.

[sarab]

Is anyone aplying for a FLAS fellowship after having been out of school for a while? I am applying for the FLAS in Quechua at Michigan and Illinois. I have been out of undergrad for 5 years and haven't taken a language class in 6 years. I spent the last 4 years living in Argentina, so I am fluent in Spanish, but I have no one to write my Langauge Recommendation for me. The best option I have come up with so far is to get a local spanish teacher at the high school where my father works to do an evaluation. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

If you haven't figured this out, you could have someone at work who speaks Spanish write a LOR talking about your language abilities and so on.

 

My second language is English, and I don't have an instructor to confirm I'm fluent in Spanish (my first language), so I was told to just mention that in my FLAS statement of purpose.