Self-Reported Talents of Our 2011 First-Year Students

Making awesome paper airplanes • Fluent in Mandarin, proficient in Spanish, played piano for 10 years and trying to learn guitar • Martial arts (black belts in Kung Fu and Karate), memorizing poetry (esp. T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden), skiing, passable French • I'm an occupational therapist, classical piano, baking, crafts, American Sign Language • I am decent at basketball, can use Microsoft Excel like a beast (thank you, consulting), can speak Urdu semi-fluently and am a mediocre cook • I play the piano and I speak German. I also make delicious Swedish pancakes! • Singing (bass), rough proficiency in Spanish, writing (creative and otherwise) • I play the piano, was the keeper for my college soccer team and have dabbled in German, Danish and Latin • Acting (kind of), figuring out random puzzles etc. • Can survive in any foreign country without speaking the language, extreme willingness to be talked into any activity. I also cook various ethnic foods • Painting, fluent in Spanish and somewhat fluent in Italian • Finding four-leaf clovers, debating unimportant issues and people watching • Impersonations • Sleeping for excessive amounts of time and eating more food than I should • Speaking Mandarin, introspection, playing GM on NBA 2K11 Association Mode • Marginally fluent in Malayalam and Spanish. I am particularly good at staying awake or asleep for unusually long periods of time, quoting sitcoms, inserting random parenthetical tangents (see?) and taking full advantage of gmail • Memorizing everything except for names, piano, understanding Cantonese subconsciously • Getting people to sit next to each other at movie theaters • Photography, piano, semi-literate in Mandarin and Spanish • I'm a pretty good dog trainer • Anything pertaining to my hobbies • Writing, baking, debating • I speak Tamil • Acoustic guitar. I play an Ovation super-shallow roundback Celebrity (she's my baby). Alternative rock is my bread and butter, but experimenting with other genres keeps life interesting • Can quote Dave Chappelle endlessly. Can draw a map of the world (and point out nations/locations) from memory. Can speak Persian. Can read basic Arabic • I play the piano, guitar and harmonica. I also write poetry and songs from time to time • Piano (playing and composing), can read/speak/write Chinese and German • I can run a marathon, bake a disturbingly wide array of bar cookies, very accurately guess the number of jelly beans in a jar and solve beginner Minesweeper in six seconds • I am fluent in Spanish and I am an excellent salsa dancer (only one of those is true...) • I play the flute! • I can write in backwards cursive and I can play the trumpet • Piano, sports • Mandarin, Min-nan, Japanese, piano, er-hu, being able to fall asleep in the most uncomfortable chairs, calligraphy, large arsenal of bad jokes • Music • I can speak Tamil and Spanish and a little French. I used to play the flute, violin and piano. And I make awesome pancakes • Classical piano, also oboe and voice • Fluent in Mandarin • Tap dancing, Chinese (Mandarin), French • Jazz and Greek music, soccer, watching lots of Netflix and YouTube, eating lots of food without gaining weight, making figures in PyMOL • Playing the violin, piano and flute; singing; dancing ballet, jazz or tap • Gaming, speed reading • French • I'm a hopeful rookie at all my interests • Korean, flute • Making pies, speaking German • Can speak French decently, or at least used to be able to. ... dunno if I'd classify it as a "talent" but I can somewhat play the guitar and bass. ... spent a lot of time throwing a frisbee around so I guess that maybe qualifies? Frisbee throwing? Pretty weak • Angry Birds, swing dancing, being a BBQ master • I speak Spanish, play guitar, can play most sports at a mediocre level (so I guess that's not much of a talent) • Fluent in Spanish and competitive tennis player • Harpist, pianist, singer, let's say fluent in Spanish, know a bit of Italian, learning Japanese, the ability to survive without knowing any of the Billboard top 100, telepathy, and creative tinkering of the truth • I'm fluent in Hebrew; I'm a scuba divemaster; and I love eating really spicy food • Mandarin (speaking and some reading), conversational Taiwanese, un pequito espanol, great physical coordination, bringing people together, an exceptional radar for decadent, dark chocolate desserts • Singing (bass, a cappella), rowing • Singing (I love doing a cappella!!), bass guitar (ish. I'm good for someone who doesn't play much), working with kids (I think because I still am one at heart), know some Mandarin and French (not really fluent in either one though) • I can tell the difference between butter and I Can't Believe It's Not Butter • Speed cooking "gourmet" cuisine, tennis, drawing, teaching science and ethics, fluent conversational Chinese • Playing piano and clarinet and painting • Can speak, read, and write Chinese and Japanese; play the piano; can ride a unicycle • Piano, learning languages, dance, multitasking • Music, conversational Spanish, cooking, art and creative projects • Not really sure if it is a talent, but I am quite good at remembering movie lines. I consider myself to be an athletic person, and I also have a three-item max juggling limit • Graphics design, writing • Drawing • Speaks fluent Shanghainese, can play a mean game of cat's cradle • Art • Spanish • I am a good listener • Juggling • Second-degree black belt in Taekwondo • Baking and exceptional curiosity • Indian classical music • Cooking • I've got some work to do on my Spanish. ... • Average in a lot of things • French horn, ballet, singing • Jazz vocals, painting and drawing and graphic design • Bilingual in English and Tamil, play violin • Translating Latin, cooking • Former yoga teacher (for eight years) and firefighter (for three and one half years) • Arabic language, guitar • Singing. Fluent french. (Working on guitar) • I speak Korean fluently. ... (I grew up in Seoul) • Painting, cooking, hablando en espanol, walking on fire, fixing stuff that's broken • Salsa dancing and jazz alto saxophone • I'm fluent in Bengali and Spanish. I like to play the piano and viola • French • Speaking Spanish in secret, hoping I will one day wake up with the ability to play guitar, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, writing stories sometimes, uncontrollable notebook doodling • I just started playing the keyboard and I like to draw, faces mostly. I enjoy painting but wouldn't say I was great at it. I really enjoy teaching and mentoring • Singing, playing piano, learning languages, graphic designing, and consuming surprisingly large quantities of food • Alto saxophone, photography and cooking • Kicking really high, not messing up too badly when I decide not to follow a recipe • Spanish, piano, photography • I can speak passable Mandarin Chinese. I like to think that I am a good singer, and no one's who's heard me says I'm wrong. Now, the question is, am I loud enough for anyone to actually hear? I can also play piano • Violin, suffering through heat, finishing a 20 oz. porterhouse steak • First, I can sing, specializing in serenading. Also, I play viola and a little piano • Amateur Spanish, music (flute, piano, guitar), painting • Piano and building things • I love to cook! • Romanian, piano • Fluent in Russian. Guitar (I've always wanted to start a band; anyone interested?) • Eating a pound of candy in one sitting, fluent-ish in Chinese Mandarin and Cantonese, walking very long distances, relating to people • I play guitar, a lot, and a bit of piano/keyboard and harmonica. I also speak fluent Mandarin Chinese and I'm working on Spanish (no where near fluent yet though) • Jeopardy! and other trivia games • Mandarin Chinese, sketching, basketball • Speak Mandarin Chinese and am an expert power napper • Driving fire apparatus, Googling things