Would you pass MI6's language test to become the next James Bond?

James Bond may be the most glamorous spy in the world - but he is hampering Britain's intelligence service, MI6's recruitment chiefs have said.

Bond has distorted the reality about the secret organisation and led to "thrill seekers and fantasists" seeking to join MI6.

MI6's chief has firmly dismissed the notion that British spies have a "licence to kill".

''This is the biggest myth about the service - we do not have a licence to kill - we do not carry Berettas - that's simply not true," MI6's chief told BBC Radio 1's Newsbeat programme


In reality, one of the key skills MI6 is looking for is fluency in one or more 'key' languages. These are listed as Arabic, Persian, Pashto, Urdu, Korean, French, German, Spanish, Chinese and Russian on the service's website. The fact that MI6 is recruiting spies who speak German may raise a few eyebrows in Berlin and Vienna, but given Britain's military deployments, it is hardly surprising that MI6 is asking its future spies to be fluent in Arabic or Pashto.

Interestingly, the MI6 website now has a section where you can test if your language skills are good enough to apply as a spy. Links to the relevant language tests are attached below.

Chinese Test French Test German Test Korean Test Russian Test Spanish Test Swahili Test

No longer coming in from the cold....

The new look James Bond now speaks more 'tropical' languages such as Spanish, Arabic and Swahili