Bulgarian

During the spring of 2009, while my wife was teaching as a Fulbright senior lecturer in Sofia, I studied the Bulgarian language at Sofia University's Department of Language Learning, which is a branch of the Institute for Foreign Students. (My wife also studied Bulgarian there.) We each took approximately seven weeks of intensive courses.

If you click here, you will see a copy of my certificate. As the certificate indicates, I received a grade of five out of six, which corresponds to "very good."

I am showing below two views of the interior of the building that houses the Institute for Foreign Students. The photograph on the left shows a typical language classroom, and the one on the right provides a look at the hallway. My wife took both of these pictures.

My knowledge of Bulgarian remains rudimentary. However, I have developed excellent proficiency at reading and writing the Cyrillic alphabet.

Croatian

I am currently engaged in self-study of the Croatian language.

Concurrently with my study of the Croatian language, I have been learning the Glagolitic alphabet. Click here for further information on my work with Glagolitic.

French

In the summer of 1984, I took the French-language immersion course in Quebec city's Laval University. This was an excellent and rigorous study of French. You may click here to see a transcript of my grades, which shows the following grades: 'B' in "Grammaire et explication de textes" (3 credits) ; 'A' in "Exercises stucturaux I" (1 credit); 'A' in "Phonetique corrective I" (1 credit); and 'C' in "Conversation dirigee I" (1 credit).

During the academic year 2007/2008, I also took Intermediate French 1 and 2 at the University of Southern Maine, where I earned an 'A' in both courses.

German

I took two years of German in high school and one year of German as a freshman in college. In August 1982, I also took a German-language summer program held at the University of Wuerzbürg.

Latin

I took three years of Latin in high school.

Praxis II exam
(Test code: 0361; Test name: "English to Speakers of Other Languages" [ESOL])

On 30 April 2011, I took the Praxis II exam, administered at the University of Southern Maine. The possible score range was 100-200, and I received a score of 168. The Maine State Department of Education requires a score of 144, and therefore I passed this exam in Maine. The Maryland State Depatment of Education requires a score of 149 on this exam, and therefore in Maryland as well I would be deemed to have passed this exam .

For detailed information regarding my Praxis II exam score, click here.