How much proof of Spanish knowledge is required?

[sarahg]

I'm interested in this program and the French program (have a few months before the deadline to decide which to apply to).

I consider myself at an intermediate level of Spanish, but I've never taken it in an academic setting.  I took a short course at a Spanish immersion school in Costa Rica, which I got a certificate for but threw away (like everything else in Costa Rica in the rainy season, it got soaked in the rain/humidity and crumpled in my backpack).  I took a course through a summer job but didn't get academic credit.  For the rest, I'm mainly self taught (bought a ton of grammar books from Amazon, have downloaded a ton of podcasts for listening practice, live in San Diego so it's easy to find Spanish speakers to practice with).  I'm pretty sure I could handle reading the application and writing the essay, especially with a lot of studying between now and the application time, but I have no other way of proving my knowledge of Spanish.

Is this going to be a problem when it comes to being accepted?  Could I explain how I learned somewhere on the application and write my essay well and be okay, or do I need to wait to apply until I have more qualifications?  (Maybe do the French program first while studying for the DELE, then apply when I have that.)

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[jlddecker]

Hi Sarah,

I didn't study Spanish at all in college, only in high school. Most of my proficiency came from playing soccer in Mexican and Ecuadorian leagues, and so I didn't have any proof of academic study with my application either. I was still accepted without problem. I did spend a fair amount of time on the essay, and did mention in it the caveat (as it were) about my study of Spanish.

Don't sweat it too much. After all, once we get there and are around the kids, we have to pretend we don't speak any Spanish at all.

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