# Does my wife need to be certified as a language teacher or just as a teacher?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-wife-need-to-be-certified-as-a-language-teacher-or-just-as-a-teacher/485634
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 13, 2009, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-wife-need-to-be-certified-as-a-language-teacher-or-just-as-a-teacher/485634 "2009-02-13T02:07:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@gitfiddle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gitfiddle)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-wife-need-to-be-certified-as-a-language-teacher-or-just-as-a-teacher/485634/1 "2009-02-13T02:07:06Z")
My wife is a native Mandarin speaker, and she wants to be a lower school teacher. I know there’s a big push with the National Security Language Initiative to get more kids studying Mandarin, but I don’t really know what my wife needs to do to get certified. She’s working at a school here in South Carolina (as a volunteer), just to get some experience, but we’ll be moving to D.C., Boston, or NY once I find out where I’m going to grad school.
We’re just sort of lost. We don’t know where to look to find the standards for each state and whatnot. What are schools going to ask for when she interviews for positions?
---
### Author:  [@Harry1945](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harry1945)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2009, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-my-wife-need-to-be-certified-as-a-language-teacher-or-just-as-a-teacher/485634/2 "2009-02-13T02:28:25Z")
You might give [this](http://www.uky.edu/Education/TEP/usacert.html) site a try…