2014 Language Grant Applications
We award fellowships to individuals who want to spend a year abroad in an intensive language program to improve their Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Burmese or Khmer language skills.
Grants are only available for study at specific language schools in East and SE Asia (see list of eligible programs).
Who are we looking for? Superior candidates pursuing careers in fields such as business, STEM (science, technology, engineering, math), accounting, law, medicine, journalism, architecture, teaching, social or NGO work, government service, and academia are encouraged to apply.
An applicant must have (at minimum) a bachelor's degree and at least three years of study of the language at the college level.
Materials are available on our language grant page, where you can download application forms, grant guidelines and eligibility requirements. Our FAQ page has answers to many common questions. You may also contact Cathy Scheibner at the Foundation by phone at (206) 359-3684 or email.
The next deadline for grant applications is December 30, 2013.
It’s
not just a matter of improvement, but rather more like having
blinders lifted. I was a Chinese History Ph.D. student before I
received the Blakemore grant and thought I had pretty much reached
the level of Chinese I needed for research.
I passively accepted the fact that Chinese
was a confoundedly difficult language and there wasn’t much I could
do about it. Now I walk down the aisles of books in the East Asian
Reading Room and everything seems clear – I look at sources I
struggled with a year ago, and the characters melt and give up their
meanings. Inscrutable tomes are now full of stories. I no longer sit
at a desk under the suspicious gaze of the librarian, pretending I
understand what I’m looking at. Now I do understand. I read the
papers. I seize random books from the shelves and pore through them.
It is wonderful.
--from final report of Blakemore Freeman Fellow
