USNA App "Language Skill"

YaBoi03

Army ROTC
Joined
May 5, 2021
Messages
29
Hi. My family is Romanian so I also speak Romanian on top of English. The problem I'm having is that Romanian is not a language choice in the language list the application provides. For now, I just put Russain and specified in the remark right below it that I actually speak Romanian not Russain but I don't like it being like that.

If Romanian is not on the list, do they just not care about it? Should I contact anyone to see if they can add Romanian as a language?

Thanks.
 
If there is a blank designated “other,” then you can write in Romanian. But both checking Russian and writing Romanian makes no sense. First, as you probably know, they’re not even in the same language family. Romanian is a Romance language, more akin to Italian and Spanish. Russian is a Slavic language, along with Ukrainian and Serbian. Linguistic roots, not geographic proximity, determine a language’s family.

USNA asks this question with strategic languages in mind. Romanian is not there for a very specific reason. The USNA application is also an exercise in attention to detail. It is a test of whether you can follow directions. Checking Russian and writing Romanian does not meet the standard. Contacting them to ask if they’ll add Romanian will achieve what, exactly? The list was made deliberately and carefully. I highly doubt it will be officially modified based on a candidate’s request.

Do as you’re asked to do on the application. You are being asked about things that matter to USNA. Follow the plan. If you’re determined to highlight your Romanian language skills, you can do so via your essay and/or BGO interview. But make sure that’s actually what you want to focus on in those two venues.
 
I agree with @MidCakePa - but don’t take it as a personal slight against your culture or family roots. There is no way all the thousands of languages will be listed as choices. Don’t check something that doesn’t apply.

Your background does make you diverse. If there is a way to logically work in any related challenges into essays, interviews, etc., then do it. Whether you are a native-born citizen or naturalized, you may have a different perspective on what service means to you. I always advise answering the prompts fully, telling the story only you can relate.
 
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Hmmm … Romanian … Italian-Latin and Slavic languages mixed together.

I grew up listening to my grand parents and relatives on my Dad’s side of the family speaking Polish all the time … East Baltimore area.

Can’t imagine what Romanian sounds like though.
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If there is a blank designated “other,” then you can write in Romanian. But both checking Russian and writing Romanian makes no sense. First, as you probably know, they’re not even in the same language family. Romanian is a Romance language, more akin to Italian and Spanish. Russian is a Slavic language, along with Ukrainian and Serbian. Linguistic roots, not geographic proximity, determine a language’s family.

USNA asks this question with strategic languages in mind. Romanian is not there for a very specific reason. The USNA application is also an exercise in attention to detail. It is a test of whether you can follow directions. Checking Russian and writing Romanian does not meet the standard. Contacting them to ask if they’ll add Romanian will achieve what, exactly? The list was made deliberately and carefully. I highly doubt it will be officially modified based on a candidate’s request.

Do as you’re asked to do on the application. You are being asked about things that matter to USNA. Follow the plan. If you’re determined to highlight your Romanian language skills, you can do so via your essay and/or BGO interview. But make sure that’s actually what you want to focus on in those two venues.
Thank you for the lecture.
 
Thank you for the lecture.
@MidCakePa the advice is spot on-and is NOT a lecture. Good officers take constructive criticism and move on. The advice is a HINT at how to complete the application process throughout. The military (USNA or other Commands) process is designed to support it's mission(s)-lot's of people dont realize a SA is both a College and a Command.
 
Thank you for the lecture.
Constructively, “assume positive intent” is a good rule of thumb when you read email or anonymous posts on an Internet forum. You do not have the benefit of hearing vocal tone and inflection, making eye contact, observing facial expression or watching body language as words are spoken. Communication here can be very flat, and our own human bias often rushes in to color it the way we are conditioned to receive it. It may or may not be accurate.

Your “Thanks for the lecture” can either be a sincere thank you with a rather formal noun choice, or it might be written with an invisible irony font with a hint of snark. We really don’t know your intent, but my choice is to assume you were expressing appreciation for a candid response meant to help you navigate this process as a whole.
 
There exists that possibility, I must admit. Thanks @Capt MJ :)
 
There exists that possibility, I must admit. Thanks @Capt MJ :)
I’ve been burned - both ways - so I try for the Positive Intent High Road. I often stumble.

Many years ago, I made an obscure tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact I was DQ’ed from going to an SA/combatant ships because of a chromosomal deficiency, thinking everyone would get I was talking about having XX and not XY. A new reader who had a child with a chromosomal deficiency/developmental problems was upset with me, thinking I was being insensitive, and not knowing the context of my background. I was horrified and suitably chastened. Human bias at work, including tunnel vision on mine.
 
One of our SPED teachers occasionally says, “That extra chromosome is working overtime today.”

He thinks he’s invincible and has a crowd of followers who laugh at everything he says. He was protected by our just-retired administrator but we now have a new sheriff in town. Should be fun to watch.
 
One of our SPED teachers occasionally says, “That extra chromosome is working overtime today.”

He thinks he’s invincible and has a crowd of followers who laugh at everything he says. He was protected by our just-retired administrator but we now have a new sheriff in town. Should be fun to watch.
Must be the Hubris Chromosome.
 
Thank you for the lecture.
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Matthew 11:15 - He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Proverbs 11:14 - Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.

Proverbs 19:27 - Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.

Proverbs 27:17 - As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
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I recall an article about world class Scrabble players who dominate in multiple languages. Romanian language tournament play is one of the elite-Scrabble languages, because it has three times as many words as English. Something like 600k. I've been to Romania, nice people. Tough neighborhood throughout history.
 
If there is a blank designated “other,” then you can write in Romanian. But both checking Russian and writing Romanian makes no sense. First, as you probably know, they’re not even in the same language family. Romanian is a Romance language, more akin to Italian and Spanish. Russian is a Slavic language, along with Ukrainian and Serbian. Linguistic roots, not geographic proximity, determine a language’s family.

USNA asks this question with strategic languages in mind. Romanian is not there for a very specific reason. The USNA application is also an exercise in attention to detail. It is a test of whether you can follow directions. Checking Russian and writing Romanian does not meet the standard. Contacting them to ask if they’ll add Romanian will achieve what, exactly? The list was made deliberately and carefully. I highly doubt it will be officially modified based on a candidate’s request.

Do as you’re asked to do on the application. You are being asked about things that matter to USNA. Follow the plan. If you’re determined to highlight your Romanian language skills, you can do so via your essay and/or BGO interview. But make sure that’s actually what you want to focus on in those two venues.
My apologies. What you have said in your last two paragraphs is definitely what I needed as an answer to my question, and it is pretty much what I assumed since Romania is geographically irrelevant to the US Navy.

Explaining to me the roots of my language however is what I was a little taken aback by, and I initially chose Russain because it is the closest alphabetical choice to where Romanian would be, and relating it to its lingual roots would make less sense in my point of view.

But again, I definitely see your point and I asked the question as more of one looking for clarification. The last thing I wanted my statement to seem was hostile but at the moment I was just a little heated up.

Thank you, and sorry.
 
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