Six of 1,000 speak Arabic fluently at U.S. embassy in Iraq

[BMT (RIP)]

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/06/front2454077.074305556.html

That's five(5) more than I figured!!!

BMT

[Monsoon65]

Geez, only six???!! That's insane.

All I can say in Iranian is, "Excuse me, Sir, can you repeat that?" and I can count to five.

[Jack Moroney (RIP)]

And this surprises you? You are talking about the feckless DOS who thinks that everyone should speak English, understand our culture, and want to be just like us. Have you ever met many career diplomats that did not look down on the people in whose country he or she was stationed in a non-European country? Many of them never leave their compounds to do anything but look for bargins or go to and from the airport to pick up their commissary packages. In preparation for one of my "tours" I got to go thru one of their area study programs for Central Europe and take a little language refresher. The language refresher dealt not with in country situations or culture but with the higher level diplo-speak needed to deal with the host nations government. The area studies, while in depth, also dealt more with international interactions between the US and the target countries and not those pertinent facts and aspects of the country one would like to know to blend with the folks and the culture. So I am amazed that they even had this many and I bet 4 of them probably are in the military attache office.

[Monsoon65]

My father was a VNAF advisor during the war and he wasn't required to go thru any sort of DLI-sponsored language training at all. He was quite surprised at that. He said that most of his students were all English speakers, but sometimes he had classes that were basic, "Pencil. This is a pencil" level.

[Huey14]

And this surprises you? You are talking about the feckless DOS who thinks that everyone should speak English, understand our culture, and want to be just like us. Have you ever met many career diplomats that did not look down on the people in whose country he or she was stationed in a non-European country? Many of them never leave their compounds to do anything but look for bargins or go to and from the airport to pick up their commissary packages. In preparation for one of my "tours" I got to go thru one of their area study programs for Central Europe and take a little language refresher. The language refresher dealt not with in country situations or culture but with the higher level diplo-speak needed to deal with the host nations government. The area studies, while in depth, also dealt more with international interactions between the US and the target countries and not those pertinent facts and aspects of the country one would like to know to blend with the folks and the culture. So I am amazed that they even had this many and I bet 4 of them probably are in the military attache office.


Sir,

By Euro would you mean NZ and AUS also? I never had any problems whatsoever with the diplomats but more so from the Kiwis who worked there.

Problem workers could find their cars registering hits on the ITMS and a through search must be done. :D

[Radar Rider]

I could be a fluent Arab Linguist, but until recently the pay for proficiency sucked.

Linguists are finally being paid to a degree that is nearing reality; ya want proficient linguists? Ya might need to fork out some bucks.

I'm not proficient in Korean for the cash, but it sure helps.

[Jack Moroney (RIP)]

Sir,

By Euro would you mean NZ and AUS also? I never had any problems whatsoever with the diplomats but more so from the Kiwis who worked there.


Never had any experience with any folks from your area of this crazed planet. My focus has been primarily in Central and Eastern Europe with a little bit of Africa thrown in just to keep me off balance.

[Huey14]

Fair enough.

[x SF med]

I think the issue here is deeper than just our diplomatic services. We as a nation do not have language proficiency, even in our 'official' language, while in most other countries people will be conversant in at least 2 or 3. I grew up in an area where I had the opportunity to learn both French and German, and use them as a kid. A friend's parents were French-Swiss so to converse with his extended family French was required, and my grandmother required us to speak French at least one day a week as an adjunct to being 'educated in fact'. I also sailed with a guy from Frankfurt so, German was required. I did take 6 years of French in school, and 8 years of German.
Of course, since leaving the military, I haven't had great call to use either, and I have not bothered to learn any more Spanish than was necessary to work in construction.

Again, lack of language skills is not isolated to our Diplomatic Corps, it is an endemic problem based on the perceived superiority of our economic system - and a general lack of looking outside our borders by the general populace.

[Monsoon65]

A friend of mine in the RAF Regiment once said that if you speak three languages, you're tri-lingual. If you speak two, you're bi-lingual. If you speak one, you're an American.

Foreign languages aren't pushed enough in high school. My parents always told us that speaking another language is good, so my brother and I took German (4 years plus DLI for me, only one for him). I'm glad to hear my high school said that any kid wanting to get a Regents approved diploma must have at least a year of a foreign language.

When I got to Germany, I felt sorry for anyone that was assigned there and didn't speak a word of the language, especially since I was assigned up north and English speakers weren't too common.

[Cobra642]

When I took the FSE twenty years ago I was surprised of the weight they put on the "English" portion of it. It was all grammar, sentence structure and other mechanics of english language; nothing on the exam concerned foreign language. Evidently a lot of people flunked that section (I passed it barely, but busted another section by a whopping one question) and were never offered positions. I guess they expected to send the diplomatic corps overseas and impress the locals with command of the English language (American version).

Sometimes I'm very thankful for the jobs I never got...

[Airbornelawyer]

And this surprises you? You are talking about the feckless DOS who thinks that everyone should speak English, understand our culture, and want to be just like us. Have you ever met many career diplomats that did not look down on the people in whose country he or she was stationed in a non-European country? Many of them never leave their compounds to do anything but look for bargins or go to and from the airport to pick up their commissary packages. In preparation for one of my "tours" I got to go thru one of their area study programs for Central Europe and take a little language refresher. The language refresher dealt not with in country situations or culture but with the higher level diplo-speak needed to deal with the host nations government. The area studies, while in depth, also dealt more with international interactions between the US and the target countries and not those pertinent facts and aspects of the country one would like to know to blend with the folks and the culture. So I am amazed that they even had this many and I bet 4 of them probably are in the military attache office.
The only part of this I would disagree with is that the Foreign Service wants foreigners to understand American culture and want to be just like Americans. The Foreign Service is an elite institution and its ranks are filled with people more at home in Davos, Switzerland and Turtle Bay (the neighborhood where the UN is located in NYC) with fellow international elites than they would be at home with average Americans. FSOs too often seem to view their job as (i) explaining the rest of the world to us ignorant Joe Sixpacks and (ii) apologizing to the rest of the world for the boobs we keep electing. To the extent they "look down on the people in whose country" they're stationed, as the Colonel observes, it is not much different that how they look down on most people, especially back home.

There also may be a systemic bias. Excellent language proficiency in an FSO makes one especially well-suited for consular affairs, which is considered the worst job in an embassy and definitely not the route for advancement to the ambassadorial ranks. FSOs view their consular affairs time as a ticket they have to punch (and hundreds of visas they have to stamp) before moving on to more interesting work.

[Airbornelawyer]

A friend of mine in the RAF Regiment once said that if you speak three languages, you're tri-lingual. If you speak two, you're bi-lingual. If you speak one, you're an American.
This all-too typical European mantra is really just making a virtue of necessity.

We live in a country of 300 million people and for the 2700 miles or so from Augusta, Maine to San Diego, California, English is the working language. Even where there are pockets of non-English speakers - lots of part of San Diego, a Chinatown here and there, some French villages on the Quebec border, etc. - English is still to be found.

If you lived in Luxembourg, you'd get up in the morning and turn on the radio, which might be broadcasting in Lezteburgesch, and then pick up the newspaper, which is in French. You'd go to work, where the employees mostly spoke Lezteburgesch among themselves, but were expected to speak French or German to clients. On Saturday, you hop in the car and drive up to Brussels, where the people on the streets are speaking either French or Flemish. For holidays, you travel down to Spain or Portugal or Italy, where the people are speaking Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan or Basque, or other local dialects.

And that 2700 mile trip from Maine to San Diego? Luxembourg is less than 2500 miles from Tehran, Iran.

[vsvo]

Uh oh, they let the consultants in the door, this cannot be good...:rolleyes:

Link to article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/11/AR2006121101415_pf.html)

Foreign Service Hiring Gets A Re-Exam
Shorter Test, Résumé Could Speed Process

By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 12, 2006; A01

For generations, the United States has selected its diplomats through a two-stage test seen as a model of merit-based rigor. Pass hundreds of questions in a dozen subject areas and a day-long oral grilling by Foreign Service officers, and join the ranks. Fail, and find a different line of work.

No more. In a proposed overhaul of its hiring process slated for next year and to be announced to employees in coming days, the State Department would weigh resumes, references and intangibles such as "team-building skills" in choosing who represents the United States abroad, according to three people involved in the process. The written test would survive, but in a shortened form that would not be treated as the key first hurdle it has been for more than 70 years.

State Department Director General George M. Staples said the goal of the new "Total Candidate" approach -- which has the support of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice -- is to "improve our ability to find the best . . . compete more effectively with the private sector to attract the best, and . . . make our process faster in hiring the best," according to a draft cable to employees.

But some career officers and foreign policy types worry that the new hiring process could dumb down or politicize the Foreign Service, whose reputation for selectivity helps make it one of government's most desirable career paths.

"As long as these changes are done fairly, we have no problem," said Steve Kashkett, State Department vice president for the American Foreign Service Association, the department's labor union and professional association. "We would vigorously oppose any aspect of changes to the Foreign Service entry process that would allow for any politicization of the selection."

The revamp is slated for next year, if the department secures the money needed to pursue it. The decision comes as official Washington grapples with its biggest hiring challenge in decades: finding fresh faces to replace a tsunami of retiring baby boomers. Over the next decade, 60 percent of federal workers will reach retirement age, according to the Washington-based Partnership for Public Service. Yet most people between the ages of 18 and 29 think the private sector offers more creativity and attracts the best minds, according to a new Gallup survey.

"The truth is, there is a war for talent," said one of those people planning the overhaul. Yet the State Department suffers less in that talent war than do many other government agencies. State consistently is rated by civil servants as one of the best places to work in the federal government, according to the Partnership for Public Service. In a survey this year by Business Week magazine, college undergraduates and career recruiters placed the State Department among the nation's top 10 employers for new graduates. The nine others on the list were private-sector companies, including Walt Disney, General Electric and Goldman Sachs.

Once every year, nearly 20,000 diplomatic hopefuls walk into a meeting room somewhere in the United States or abroad; they are handed a blue essay book and a shot at a Foreign Service career. Over half a day, these applicants are tested on their knowledge of such topics as democratic philosophy, international law, world history and geography, along with math and English skills. The State Department warns that the only way to prepare is to "read widely," offering a study list of hundreds of texts.

Those who make the cut endure a half-day grilling by Foreign Service officers, meant to test qualities such as judgment and management skills. Each year, only a few hundred clear both hurdles and embark on a career abroad.

The proposed Total Candidate approach, born of a study by consultants McKinsey and Co., envisions a shorter, automated written test, offered several times a year at a commercial testing facility. It would be weighed along with a "structured" resume, submitted online, that State Department examiners would use to gauge work experience and references, along with less traditional qualities of leadership and people skills. The oral exam would remain the final test for entry.

"Instead of just looking at how well somebody does on the test, there's an opportunity to look at all these factors," said the person involved in the plan. "It may be that we look at resumes first and then at test scores. Both factors are going to be important."

The new approach would cut the hiring process roughly in half, to about six months, to better compete with companies that can offer promising candidates a job on the spot. The number of applicants is expected to decline, but to attract a greater range of experience and skills.

McKinsey acknowledged that the current hiring process is a proven predictor of candidate success. And for Foreign Service officers, the written test is a rite of passage, and source of pride.

"The sense that everybody passed this exam is important," said Richard C. Holbrooke, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who brokered the Dayton peace accords, which ended the Bosnian war in 1995. Holbrooke entered the Foreign Service fresh out of Brown University, in 1962.

Holbrooke recalled that in addressing his Foreign Service class, then-Secretary of State Dean Rusk "made a big point of telling us that we had come in on our merit, and neither he nor anyone else could influence the process."

Set against that backdrop, "this looks like a lowering of the standards for entry . . . at a time when their focus ought to be on training diplomats for the real challenges of the 21st century," Holbrooke said.

[Books]

I say the Foriegn Service should keep the exam. The State Department never runs out of talented applicants (so no real need to accomodate an applicant's schedule) and the shin kicking hurdles required of future FSOs ensures a democratic meritocracy.

Books