The State Department encourages foreign service officer applicants to learn a foreign language, surprise, surprise! This is done in part by adding up to 0.5 points to your registry ranking. In case you are not familiar with the foreign service hiring process, after a year of tests, essays and oral exams the applicant is ranked and placed on a list of people the state department is not going to hire because their budget is about to be slashed by the Republicans.
Seriously, even though the budget outlook is not good for the expansion of the FS, it does look like they will be able to maintain their current manpower levels. That means personnel lost to retirement, attrition still have to be replaced. In my current career choice folks are getting a job offer at about the 5.5 level on a 6.0 scale. That is likely to go up and so the question is not whether to learn a language but which language to learn?
Spanish: The advantages are that I already know a lot of Spanish. I can order in a restaurant and with some difficulty can read articles in EL Pais. The finer nuances are lost on me but I can get the broad outline of a printed article. There are lots of online resources and free materials from the library, nor should conversational partners be difficult to come by. The disadvantage is that one has to pass the language assessment at the S3 level in order to earn the 0.17 bonus. That is nothing to sneeze if that 0.17 points gets you over the top but still one could do better.
Arabic: The advantage is that this language carried the highest bonus level or 0.5. On a 6 point scale that comes to an 8.3% advantage. The requirement is also lower. One only has to pass this language assessment at the S2 level. The disadvantage is that this is a hard language to learn with sounds not present in the English language. Some of these sounds are made in parts of the throat that English speakers do not use for breathing much less speaking. The distinction between saying "Cat" and hacking up a hair ball may be lost on the casual listener. Oh did I mention that the written form is right to left, looks like a really busy doctor's handwriting and commonly omits the vowels?
Hindi: The language bonus is still at 0.4 (still nothing to sneeze at) and is spoken by people with whom I might actually want to speak. The disadvantages are some of the same issues as Arabic, but at least the script is left to right, the letters are fairly distinct and there are vowels. Oh did I mention there are too many vowels?
Esperanto: OK you did not think this was a totally serious blog post, did you? Advantages include the fact that conversation is easy because there is only one subject actually discussed in Esperanto. That subject is Esperanto. In listening to an Esperanto news podcast, the founder's name was mentioned every 30 seconds or so. Disadvantages are that there is no foreign service bonus and no native language speakers who want to kill us.
In conclusion the entire discussion is moot because Karen wants to be posted in India, so Hindi it is!
posted by Y.H.N.
Seriously, even though the budget outlook is not good for the expansion of the FS, it does look like they will be able to maintain their current manpower levels. That means personnel lost to retirement, attrition still have to be replaced. In my current career choice folks are getting a job offer at about the 5.5 level on a 6.0 scale. That is likely to go up and so the question is not whether to learn a language but which language to learn?
Spanish: The advantages are that I already know a lot of Spanish. I can order in a restaurant and with some difficulty can read articles in EL Pais. The finer nuances are lost on me but I can get the broad outline of a printed article. There are lots of online resources and free materials from the library, nor should conversational partners be difficult to come by. The disadvantage is that one has to pass the language assessment at the S3 level in order to earn the 0.17 bonus. That is nothing to sneeze if that 0.17 points gets you over the top but still one could do better.
Arabic: The advantage is that this language carried the highest bonus level or 0.5. On a 6 point scale that comes to an 8.3% advantage. The requirement is also lower. One only has to pass this language assessment at the S2 level. The disadvantage is that this is a hard language to learn with sounds not present in the English language. Some of these sounds are made in parts of the throat that English speakers do not use for breathing much less speaking. The distinction between saying "Cat" and hacking up a hair ball may be lost on the casual listener. Oh did I mention that the written form is right to left, looks like a really busy doctor's handwriting and commonly omits the vowels?
Hindi: The language bonus is still at 0.4 (still nothing to sneeze at) and is spoken by people with whom I might actually want to speak. The disadvantages are some of the same issues as Arabic, but at least the script is left to right, the letters are fairly distinct and there are vowels. Oh did I mention there are too many vowels?
Esperanto: OK you did not think this was a totally serious blog post, did you? Advantages include the fact that conversation is easy because there is only one subject actually discussed in Esperanto. That subject is Esperanto. In listening to an Esperanto news podcast, the founder's name was mentioned every 30 seconds or so. Disadvantages are that there is no foreign service bonus and no native language speakers who want to kill us.
In conclusion the entire discussion is moot because Karen wants to be posted in India, so Hindi it is!
posted by Y.H.N.
I'm surprised no one has reacted so far to your comment on Esperanto, so I'll do so.
ReplyDeleteThe Esperanto news podcast you listened to probably mentioned the mname of Dr Zamenhof several times becvause December 15th was Zamenhof Day. Listen on any other day of the year and he won't get a mention!
I agree with Bill Chapman. Esperanto is a totally serious language.
ReplyDeleteCan I add that Esperanto is not only a great idea, but is now a living language.
The study course http://www.lernu.net is now receiving 120,000 hits per month.
That can't be bad :)
Bill: Thank you for the heads up on Zamenhof Day. I stand corected.
ReplyDeleteBrian: I can not comment on the seriousness of Esperanto as a language. You will however find that I am somewhat less that serious in my posts.