LANGUAGE CAREER ENHANCEMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85-00024R000300450002-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 26, 2007
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: May 1, 1981
• Content Type: MEMO

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3RAN1 1 MR: Associate Deputy Director for Science and T 1ogY
Director, Foreign Broadcast Information Service
SL", '; Language Career l niianc feat
This rwzh= is a follooup to our earlier coonversation.
1. The attached outline of possible steps that could be tarn
to ezlwnce the language career track within DDS W for the A; ency
rally) su iE arizes contributions fruit FBIS., 0501 and OT'S. None of
these items has been t raugi ly staffed out at this point, but all of
then in our judgment. are both feasible and desirable. Regarding the
development ce aleent: It is worth noting that in its 19 Septa,-her 1930
report on the C`+. Language Incentive Program, NA recommended a larger
developme rxt cAnplerent for the r' ency as a vhole. This was accepted by
the DDCI the favorable recd uendation of the :UDA and the Con! ptroller;
however, tey stated that budgetary considerations would preclude action
until FY-83. Most of the other items proposed here also have money or
position implications ; hence, the Directorate would have to be prepared
to move aggressively to identify and set aside the necessary resources
for any elements adopted.
2. Although these proposals have been discussed with the
training officers of OTS and OW, they necessarily derive mair.y, fran
and are suited to the ISIS language career track. while fYI' and OSO
have no objection to any of them, they see most of Eac as having o ply
limited application to their language functions and the kind of
officer they need to perform th . 7" hey do, however, see indirect
benefit to their offices in a program which strengthens ti-A- F.BIS
language career.
3. We have also attached a relevant article frm the current
U.S. News & World Report which contains useful background inrornnation.
D. U.S. News ^i World Re-tort article
Attac1 tints:
A. Language Career Lnhar c :t
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-STAT
STAT
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Si p: Language der 1 nI r xt.
iD IT/PBIS/P1 DD
Distribution:
Origin- I - Addressee, w/atts
1 - D/FBIS (Throne, w/atts
1 - C/Prod, w/atts
1 - Prod Chrono, w/atts
I - FBIS Registry, w/atts
?
(1 May 81) STAT
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LANGUAGE CAREER ENHANCEMENT
1. Senior Linguist Positions
In consultation with OPPPM, establish within appropriate DDS&T
components a limited number of higher-graded positions to provide
promotion opportunities for specialists with rare language/substance
skills without requiring them to take on supervisory or management
responsibilities. Just as the Agency has senior analyst positions,
so should it have language specialist positions if it hopes to attract
and retain qualified people, especially in the rarer languages or
skills combinations. The full performance level for language
specialists is currently GS-12.
2. Extended Substantive Training
Since FBIS Foreign Documents Officers arenot recruited solely for their
language skills but'also for their possession of a substantive discipline
for which language is the necessary instrument, insure that each officer
is given, at an early stage in his career but also at appropriate
intervals thereafter, extended. external training in his area of expertise
at governmental and nongovernmental facilities. Examples: A 2-month
detail to NASA for the officer working in Soviet space S&T developments;
a similar detail to NIH for the officer working biomedical and
behavioral sciences; details to appropriate U.S. companies working in
cybernetics, automation and computers, and communications.
3. Sabbaticals
For linguists working in political science, electronics, economics
and military disciplines, arrange with leading universities and
technical institutions through OPPPM for one- and two-semester
sabbaticals in studies programs related to their discipline or
geographical area of concentration.
Recruitment
4. Development Complement
Establish a small (12 positions) development complement within
FBIS to enable it to provide language specialists for TDY or PCS
assignments to OSO, DDO,: and-other components. FBIS is frequently.
called upon to provide such services and can do so only at the expense
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of its primary open source collection/publication mission. It is
not cost-effective for other components to staff for sporadic ad hoc
needs. If they hire linguists for specific overseas assignments, there
is not always useful employment for them when they return to Headquarters.
If they are assigned to Headquarters jobs which do not involve use
of their languages, their skill tends to deteriorate. With adequate
positions, FBIS could recruit and train a complement of linguists to
meet other offices' needs and could provide Headquarters tours for
returnees, putting their language skills to productive use and
sharpening their use of the languages. Availability of the LIP,
especially the LUA, will be an attractive inducement to participate
in the program.
5. Recruitment Trips
Increase recruitment trips by managers of foreign language programs
in coordination with OPPPM Recruitment Division. Such visits to selected
universities and colleges afford the opportunity to address heads of
language departments and language students themselves on foreign-language
career opportunities in the Agency--particularly in the S&T Directorate.
Key promotional point in such trips is a description of the Language
Incentive Program, particularly the Language Use Award (LUA).
6. Fellowships
Institute a program to encourage academic experts in hard-to-find
languages or language/substance combinations to apply for a 1-year
fellowship in specified Directorate components requiring these skills.
Making such fellowships attractive would require appropriate salaries
and incentives, to include the LUA.
7. Co-op Program
Establish a more focused co-op program with selected universities
whereby students identified as possessing exceptional language skills
combined with other substantive or professional interests would be
encouraged to enter a work/study plan in which they would alternate
work assignments with continued language study and agree to take courses
in those disciplines most needed by the Directorate component involved.
Upon graduation, the student would ideally become a staff employee.
8. Letters to Universities
A program of annual letters, signed by the DDSFIT or preferably the
DCI or DDCI, to chairmen of language departments, area studies programs,
and professional schools within selected universities apprising them of
current and anticipated needs for language skills and language/substance
combinations: e.g., Russian with laser technology; Japanese with
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microelectronics; Arabic or Polish with political science; French
with electronics. Many foreign language departments, particularly at
state universities, have difficulty persuading their state legislatures
of the need for funding advanced programs in the less common
languages--the ones most needed by the Agency. Funding is geared to
enrollment, which has declined as job opportunities have dried up.
Department heads have told Agency recruiters they could use information
on Government job possibilities to make their case. In recent recruiting
efforts FBIS in particular has found the LIP, especially the LUA, to
be a drawing card. The Agency's annual letters would mention the LIP
to underscore the value attached by the Agency to foreign language skills.
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The BhII~~ualAmerlcan:
Eni angerei Species
A nation of immigrants is
losing its knack for foreign
languages. The result is a
crippling effect on business
and diplomacy abroad.
America's ability to talk to the rest of
the world in languages other than En-
glish is stammering to a halt.
Estimates are that only about 1 in
every 50 native-born Americans is flu-
ent in a second tongue, compared with
1 in every 5 Japanese who speaks a
second language.
So widespread has ignorance of for-
eign languages become that the U.S. is
finding it harder than ever to conduct
diplomacy, compete in business and fill
military and intelligence posts abroad.
Nearly two years after a presidential
commission labeled the nation's lin-
guistic incompetence "scandalous,"
there remains little enthusiasm in U.S.
schools for French, Spanish, German,
Russian and other modern languages.
"Today there are more teachers of
English in the Soviet Union than there
are students of Russian in the U.S.,"
says Representative Paul Simon (D-Ill.),
author of The Tongue-Tied American, a
book that advocates energetic federal
support of language training.
Adds Simon: "We are doing almost
nothing to promote fluency in the in-
creasingly critical languages of Arabic,
Chinese, Japanese, Persian, Swahili,
Urdu and Polish. Some 300 million peo-
ple speak Hindi, but fewer than 300
Americans are studying that language."
The language gap has resulted in
some embarrassing faux pas on the dip-
lomatic and trade fronts. For example:
^ Last September, the U.S. Embassy
in Kabul did not have on hand any
Russian-speaking officer able to ques-
tion a Soviet soldier occupying Afghan-
istan who had sought asylum in the
embassy. The incident was termed "in-
excusable and outrageous" in a letter
from 21 congressmen to Secretary of
State Edmund S. Muskie.
^ When General Motors advertised
its "Body by Fisher" car in Belgium,
the slogan was described in Flemish as
"Corpse by Fisher." In Spanish-speak-
ing countries, car buyers avoided the
Chevrolet Nova because "No va" in
Spanish means "It doesn't go."
^ In Taiwan, Pepsi-Cola bottlers
used their "Come alive with Pepsi" ad-
vertising campaign until they re-
alized the literal translation' read,
"Pepsi brings your ancestors
back to life."
Such gaffes result from years of
neglect of modern languages in
the nation's schools. Only 15 per-
cent of U.S. high-school students
take a second language, and just
5 percent pursue these studies
for more than two years, accord-
ing to the President's Commis-
sion on Foreign Language and
International Studies.
At the elementary level, fewer best for language instruction, teachers say.
than 1 percent of pupils get any
foreign-language instruction, even
though most educators agree that the
early grades are the best time to begin
learning a new language.
Language courses fell victim in the
late 1960s to the campaign against re-
quired courses in the curriculum.
"French, German and Russian suffered
the most because they were seen as
part of an elitist education," said Peter
A. Eddy, former director of foreign-
language education at the Center for
Applied Linguistics in Washington,
D.C. "Students felt one didn't need a
European veneer for living one's life
out in the United States."
Another indication of the status of
language studies: Eight percent of U.S.
colleges now require foreign language
for admission, compared with 34 per-
cent in 1966.
"Even though we are a nation of im-
migrants, America has long regarded
foreign-language study as expendable,"
says Richard I. Brod, director of for-
eign-language programs for the Mod-
ern Language Association. He predicts
that "college language requirements
will never come back except in the
elite schools. Enrollments will not do at
all well in the state colleges, teachers'
colleges and the community colleges."
At City University of New York, a
school that has long served sons and
daughters of immigrants, demand for
languages has dwindled to the point
that professors of Russian and other
Slavic languages now spend much of
their time teaching remedial English.
Such trends worry American officials
who agree with the presidential com-
mission's finding that language defi-
ciencies constitute a threat to national
security and American economic inter-
ests overseas.
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Representative Leon E. Panetta (D-
Calif.), a longtime proponent of intense
language training in schools, notes that
the State Department no longer re-
quires a Foreign Service candidate to
have any knowledge of a second lan-
guage. Intelligence leaders, he adds,
are concerned that their agencies will
not have enough linguists fluent in col-
loquial and idiomatic expressions to
gather adequate information.
"We use a shotgun approach when-
ever a crisis arises," says Panetta. "Ten
years ago all the services were teaching
Vietnamese. We don't anticipate our
language needs well."
Military deficiencies, too. The De-
fense Language Institute in Monterey,
Calif., recently reported an acute short-
age of manpower in language billets.
Over all, the armed forces are 2,382
persons short of the 9,933 language-
qualified officers and enlisted person-
nel required.
Just as serious, in the view of many
business and education leaders, is the
cultural isolation that results from poor
language abilities.
One recent study estimated that
there were 10,000 English-speaking
Japanese sales representatives in the
United States, while fewer than .900
American counterparts were in Japan,
and only a handful of those persons
spoke Japanese.
A Japanese trade official, speaking to
a group of business-school graduates,
made the point this way: "Our Japa-
nese business people study the lan-
guage, the customs and cultures of the
United States, Canada, Western Eu-
rope and Southeast Asia, and we have
been extremely successful in selling
our manufactured goods abroad be-
cause we understand the people and
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their needs. Our people do not operate
through interpreters. Your people
must give greater consideration to the
study of languages and customs of for-
eign lands, or you vyill lose in the com-
petitive world markets."
A few schools and colleges are begin-
ning to refocus attention on languages
eign Language Programs: Prescriptions
for Success, a project of the American
Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages. Co-author Sandra B. Ham-
mond says one key to good language
programs is to develop links with native
speakers so that students can use the
language they are studying.
At the University of Akron, for exam-
ple, students of German translate cor-
respondence for local business firms
and work as interpreters for the police
and courts. The University of Hawaii
found part-time jobs as tour guides for
language students who wanted contact
with foreign tourists.
Kansans abroad. In Topeka, Kans.,
nearly 300 high-school students have
studied abroad under the auspices of a
student-exchange program. Language
instruction begins at the elementary
level in Topeka and intensifies in the
upper grades. While the school popula-
tion in Topeka has dropped 17 percent
since 1975, foreign-language enroll-
ment has increased sharply.
College faculties are adapting their
programs and teaching styles to today's
media-oriented students. At Boston
College, Nancy Ruth Levy uses TV
soap operas without the sound to en-
courage beginning Spanish students to
make up their own dialogue.
Andrew G. Suozzo, Jr., assistant pro-
fessor of French at the University of
Texas, uses French TV commercials
and menus from Paris to bring in con-
temporary grammar and usage. "The
results aren't miraculous," says Suozzo,
"but it gives students a coherent view
of the culture whose language they
have been studying for two years."
The road back to language sufficien-
cy will be long and rigorous, educators
say, because of the isolationist attitudes
currently held by many Americans.
Representative Simon is among those
who say that such isolation is a luxury
we can no longer afford. He concludes:
"If we don't have the national will to
express ourselves in something other
than the mother tongue, then we might
as well erect a sign at each port of entry
into the country reading, `Welcome to
the United States-we cannot speak
your language.'"
Hillcrest High School in Jamaica,
N.Y., for instance, offers instruction in
eight languages-iincluding Hebrew,
Chinese and Greek-and teaches a
two-year career course to students in-
tending to enter finds of international
trade, tourism or diplomacy.
At the Harvard School in North Hol-
lywood, Calif., 85 1 ercent of the stu-
dents study foreign (languages. Students
of Russian are pail ed with newly ar-
rived emigres of their own age. Stu-
dents taking Spanish are working as
instructors for the Local chapter of the
American Red Cross. French students
tutor in a nearby elementary school
and offer French cooking classes in the
native tongue.
Such programs are described in a re-
cent book entitled A ward- Winning For-
Latin students in Bowie, Md., feast in
togas and also created bumper sticker.
cause of Latin's reputation as being
"dreary and irrelevant," reports the
National Association of Secondary
School Principals.
To promote the subject, teachers
have replaced tired military histories
with livelier readings from Ovid, Ca-
tullus and Petronius, and are using
such books as I, Claudius to spark
classroom interest.
Hundreds of elementary schools
have introduced Latin to inner-city
pupils who read English below grade
level. Philadelphia offers Latin to
16,000 students in grades four to six.
Is your English in R u i ri s S. Los Angeles started similar classes
four years ago to help Spanish-sneak-
An ancient tngue, Latin, is mak-
ing a modest comeback in the curric-
ulum as schools and colleges breathe
new life into the dead language.
Classical studies have surged, say
educators, because they help stu-
dents understand the increasingly
technical vocabularies of science,
medicine, psychology and law. More-
over, studies show that Latin stu-
dents score higher on college-en-
trance tests ani have a better grasp
of the English language.
"If kids take' Latin, they find that
ing pupils learn English. In Ohio,
Latin enrollment has jumped about
90 percent since 1978.
their English gets straightened out," Gregory ctaley, classics professor
says Kathleen Harmon, who teaches at the University of Maryland, says
170 Latin students at Bowie Senior that enrollment in classics has grown
High School in Bowie, Md. 30 percent at that school, 20 percent
Climbing enrollments have Lam':`- -t t University of Southern Califor-
ed in a nationwide shortage of Latin nia and 40 percent at the University
teachers, particularly in high schools, of Florida.
says the National Coordinating Of- "Latin is useful because it allows a
fice for Latin and Greek at Cleveland student to step outside English and
State University. acquire a linguistic instinct," says
At the turn of the century, half of Mary Ann Burns, president of the
all high-school students took classical American Classical League. "That in-
languages. That total fell to less than evitably facilitates learning of other
1 percent in the 1970s, largely be- languages."
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