How U.S. Diplomats Learn Languages Fast

whenever things get hairy around the world it is our diplomats that we trust to get stuck in and sort things out but effective diplomacy requires serious skills not least foreign language skills teen time woman support honda in the us diplomats are known as foreign service officers and their training is very much not for the faint-hearted there is rigorous language training an exam that is frankly terrifying and then they are shipped off to the world's most dangerous places are they completely mad i have news for you there will be more hardship coming your way life is like that it spares no one that was yuri kim a korean american diplomat when she was only 29 she was working at the u.s embassy in china when an accidental bombing led to an angry mob besieging the embassy with all the staff trapped inside you will not believe what yuri did to fix the situation but i will give you a hint it had something to do with her phenomenal language skills we will get to that later but first let's get back to basics a diplomat or foreign service officer is someone who is sent to other countries to represent their own country in very important matters they mostly work at embassies and consulates moving to new locations every two to three years mostly but the job is more than just visas and passports diplomats are specialists at talking to world leaders making negotiations and helping to make decisions about our country's futures and of course this is why languages are so important as an american diplomat your most important job of course is to protect american citizens abroad you are on the front line of america's engagement with the world so no surprise that learning to speak foreign languages is absolutely essential to the job so what happened with yuri kim well she was in china at the time of the chinese embassy bombing in belgrade serbia it was her very first assignment and the u.s embassy where she worked in china had to deal with violent demonstrations against the us we're talking everybody trapped inside the embassy rage on the streets now this is the kind of situation where your language skills suddenly have to be kicked into action because you need to know what's going to happen next right and what better way to organize a 24-hour watch and to slip in and mix with the angry crowds you see yuri had learned mandarin she understood their language now she needed to understand the sentiment of the people so she and her asian team mixed inconspicuously with the locals and reported on what they were feeling doing and saying it was dangerous but the intel she got from understanding the language was critical to the work of the us in the aftermath yuri kim now speaks six languages and what we want to know is how did she learn them and how did she get to choose we're going to check out the training school for diplomats but you should know first of all that getting in is a challenge the process of choosing foreign service officers is very very selective candidates must successfully complete a three-part exam medical exam and background checks if you pass these tests only then can you attend the training program which includes language lessons but can you choose your language absolutely not they choose for you see just like with the military guys and girls at the dli defense language institute everything is done based on the needs of the service you go where you're assigned and you learn what you are told to learn language is included of course if you already have a background in the language that you're assigned then they will assess your level and put you in a suitable class so where do they get these amazing language skills this is fsi the foreign service institute it's part of the us department of state and it's basically a mini university for diplomat students all the way out in arlington virginia 5 000 students arrive annually from the state department and 40 other government agencies as well as the military if you take into account all of the course offerings across the institution then fsi averages about 200 000 course enrolments each year our students come from all walks of life though in yuri kim's orientation class there was a former ski instructor a nuclear engineer and a musician they're training diplomats for some pretty tough roles so there are many courses that they have to take but here we're going to stay focused on the language courses there's a huge selection of languages with approximately 60 languages being taught at any given time enrolments may be anywhere between 8 to 44 weeks depending on the difficulty of the language and the students objectives now the languages range from easy to extremely difficult languages and i will tell you what counts as an easy or difficult language in just a second and languages are taught here to varying degrees from survival to advanced language skills it's perfectly fine to start off with just english but students have to become fluent in at least one foreign language within the first five years now okay i know that i used the f word there fluent but i don't use it lightly diplomats really do have to be fluent because of the way that they will actually be using the language in fact the level up to the highest ranks they must master a minimum of two languages but most of them they don't stop there and can speak three or more with at least some proficiency like yuri kim she learned japanese here at fsi but she can speak english korean mandarin japanese turkish and some albanian i have heard of diplomats who can speak 15 or more languages yuri could even use her native language when she had to develop expertise on the north korean nuclear program yes that anyway the school addresses all aspects of language training there is classroom instruction there's distance learning there's learning consultation services and then the test which is no joke but we'll get to that later it would be nice to think that the world of diplomacy was all very predictable but of course it is nothing of the sort and so the whole apparatus has a certain amount of flexibility built in for example sometimes a diplomat will be reassigned in their role and suddenly have to start operating in a different major dialect of a language that they already know moving from egypt to saudi arabia for example or lisbon to rio and this is all taken care of with special transition courses that are six to eight weeks long far shorter than the main language courses but thorough enough to orientate you to a new dialect which like the examples i just gave can be quite different from one another there is more though sometimes there is an urgent need for an officer to learn a very specific language at a time when no courses are scheduled swahili vietnamese whatever it may be in this case they will send you to a special civilian language school or a school called dls for some customized instruction but you'll still get tested back at fsi so there's no escaping that one and yes there is that scary test we will get to that but i promised you a peek into the online language courses and how even you can do them at home so let's see so as promised here is a quick look at how the fsi rates language difficulty and how long they think you will need to learn each language [Music] if you are learning another language right now it's quite fun to locate that language in this list and see just what you are up against at least according to the fsi now some of these languages really are quite hard but one thing that's not quite so hard is liking this video and subscribing to the channel even if you don't become a diplomat you can still do this and turn on notifications too if you'd like to hear about more videos just like this now in addition to languages students are also taught about the traditions and culture of the countries where they will be starting out their service and it seems like the teachers do a pretty good job i think the training here is very practical we are given hands-on exercises and role plays about how to respond to a certain issue we dive deep into the issues that we could encounter we read a lot of background information that also i think it's very comprehensive the vast majority of the teachers are native speakers and they are very supportive on your journey they're good at teaching students not only languages but also the culture of their own homeland and it's really not hard to see how important cultural literacy is to a job like diplomacy so instructors are really keen to share celebratory traditions with their students ramadan chinese new year etc if there's a national holiday it is celebrated so they're really at pains to emphasize the cultural aspect of the languages being taught and they say that the corridors of fsi can get pretty colorful at times but how much fun is it actually in a nutshell studying with fsi includes early morning classes self-study and distance learning courses you're also expected to use and develop language skills on your own after the course it begins easy enough there are 25 hours of classroom instruction a week or 24 to 44 weeks that's basically five hours a day they follow a pedagogical framework with a good balance of different skills and it goes a little bit like this roughly a quarter of their time is spent on inputs both in class and self-study so this is listening and reading where the focus is just on understanding the message then another quarter of their time is for output speaking and writing again with a focus on the message so sounds pretty good so far the next quarter is for working on fluency and this basically means reaching the point where a language task is so easy that it's done just automatically for example introducing yourself if you can do that without thinking it's a good sign and then lastly the last or the final quarter that we haven't talked about yet is on language mechanics so that's your grammar vocabulary and pronunciation now you're giving deliberate attention to the use of language at this point of constructing meaning with easier languages you can do a lot of the learning on your own as you will see but if you're doing a language with a different script which is going to be super challenging you'll probably train for a year at fsi and then spent a second year in the new country learning through immersion totaling 88 weeks of training for example they have centers in tunisia cairo and beirut where you can give your arabic full ninja training so it is pretty organized and pretty thorough yuri kim for example took her chinese classes when she was already on the job in beijing so there is an element of flexibility in the way the training is rolled out at fsi and later in the video i'm going to tell you some language resources that fsi actually makes available online for free because you might want to get into that yourself save it for a rainy day or something now are you at all envious of the training that these diplomats get i know i am too and so one of the things that i do personally to mimic this immersion experience is to have what i call a no english rule when i watch tv so it's really simple i simply stop watching all tv in english and i only watch tv in the language i'm learning instead it is really simple and improves your listening skills fast but there is a problem because if you try and watch tv from say france or spain you'll soon find out that tv from that country is blocked if you're trying to access it from outside the country so to get around this i use what is called a vpn specifically i use a company called nordvpn who are very kindly sponsoring this video right here now a vpn is a nifty piece of software that sits on your computer or on your phone and when you activate it it teleports your internet connection to any country that you choose so let's say that you choose france well you can now go to the kfr station for example and stream tv movies the news right there on your computer just as if you were in front it works perfectly because you can totally binge on tv and feel great about it because you're learning a ton in the language now nor vpn lets you connect to 60 countries and it gets you the fastest speeds of all vpns on the major platforms which means your connection doesn't slow down when you're streaming but not only that it is genuinely affordable too for example if you take out a two-year subscription it is literally pennies a day here is the link here on the screen so head over there if you'd like to sign up and give the no english rule a run for its money it really is a no-brainer if you're learning another language to have a vpn partly for the immersion that you get but also for the motivation too so me for example every sunday morning i connect to japan and i watch a couple of hours of nhk the local tv station there live and i feel like i'm in japan i absolutely love it so head over to nordvpn.com forward slash ollie richards to sign up there's a link in the description down below as well grab that two gear plan that i mentioned now where were we now there's something about fsi that is very different to the kind of training that you would get with the military or the mormons for example which i'll link to in the description by the way for those videos they're very interesting i have a whole playlist on this channel in fact where you can hear about how these different groups learn languages anyway in my research about fsi i was really left with the impression that you were expected to be quite mature and proactive in your own journey i'll explain fsi tries to meet students where they are in terms of their learning trajectory so the language instructors really work with you to make sure that you're practicing in ways that will really prepare you for your assignments based on where you already are with your languages it's very much not a kind of lockstep mass training system that they're running here everyone gets involved and has a say in their own learning part so one group might have a consistent agenda each day and another group might decide to vary activities each day depending on whatever they want to do and they don't have to argue about it either and you'll see why in just a moment basically each class has a roadmap of where they need to be at predetermined points in their language training and the instructors then create lesson plans based on what they need apparently they're very responsive to student needs every step of the way which is fantastic like having a private tutor to yourself so i'm curious what you think so far about the training here leave me a comment and let me know if this is something that you would like to do yourself one cool aspect of these classes is that they are very small they're tiny they really have more than four students per teacher five maximum so you get proper attention there is no need for the naughty corner no need to fight over teacher time in fact there's also some one-on-one time with instructors each week too that you can address anything that may be bothering you or maybe just have a chat about your progress or the weather who knows so what lessons do they actually do well it depends on any given day students will engage with their language using multiple forms of interaction it's those four quarters that we spoke about before but it's at least five hours a day working on conversation interview techniques reading and presentations and lots of other skill building activities so for example you might have a topical debate with another class or do a fun vocabulary quiz or carry out mock visa interviews sometimes a comprehension exercise it might mean that you just get to quietly read a book of your choice in the language that you're learning of course that is of course my favorite part because i know that reading works it's the reason why i write all of these books fsi seen these yet and by the way on the topic of reading here at story learning we teach languages entirely through the power of stories which is probably very different to the way you learn at fsi and how you learned at school too but it works really well for people who enjoy learning by themselves self-study that kind of thing if you're interested in seeing how my story learning method works i've put together something that is really cool for you it is a free story learning kit that shows you how you can harness the power of stories to learn a new language you've got a bunch of goodies inside masterclasses downloads things you can print out and fill in and it's all completely free too so check it out there's a link down below in the description anyway back to fsi in the classroom during the first few weeks you will likely hear some english spoken in class but after the initial instruction almost all class from time is done in the new language which is pretty standard for all of the boot camp type programs that i have looked at in this series another thing that fsi students get to access is language laboratories with some cool multimedia technology there are vocabulary programs videos you can even record yourself and compare the way you sound against native speakers with audio files which is pretty good ear and speaking training but here's a question if you're going to be posted overseas but you're not single and your family is going to come with you well how on earth are they going to learn the language i mean your spouse and kids have to survive too right well it turns out that they are taken care of as well and i will tell you how in just a little bit now i promised you a peek inside the online language courses and how even you can do this at home so let's see fast stands for familiarization and short-term training f-a-s-t and these are extremely popular and quick fsi language courses designed for when you don't have the time for the whole shebang they are in the public domain so diplomats anyway i can access them but so can you now at the moment these courses are used for what's called eligible family members that means anyone who goes with a foreign service officer to their overseas post so that could be your wife your husband your kids what you get is a bunch of downloadable mp3 files and pdfs as well and they teach very kind of practical language the stuff that you use in everyday situations including a decent introduction to the culture as well now the goal is to accomplish various tasks taking a very experiential approach so you'll learn things like how to get through customs at the airport hotel reservation ordering practical things like that and the best part is that it's quite collaborative so you can practice dialogue scenarios for example and if you do it with an instructor then you know their role is to play the native speaker then you respond let's take a listen so this is the fsi method you get a lot of phrases a lot of variations different responses you can use and those end as endless drills i mean it's very thorough i have to say it will be very different to how i personally learn and teach languages it's just relentlessly focused on practical day-to-day language which is probably what you want if you need to navigate life in a foreign country in a hurry now back to fsi itself homework oh yes very much so fsi students get grammar homework each and every day which gives them a chance to review what they've been learning in class remember you are treated like an adult here so it's up to you to put in the essential self-study hours and that's at least three hours a day of self-study by the way no mean feat teachers are usually available for questions and students well they like to sit together and chat about their courses too but something big and monstrous is still coming and you know what it is it's the exams you have to pass an exam before getting posted overseas and it is not easy this test measures your ability in some very challenging subjects to match the kind of situations you will be on on the job now as we've learned from yuri kim earlier this is serious business you probably know all about written exams you've probably survived a few yourself right but that was the easy part the speaking exam well are you ready for this you'll be asked to talk at length in your new language about an important or complex topic so it could be the environment the political system of the united states education the military and that's not all you also have to interview a native speaker in the language and then translate it into english imagine doing this with the interviewee is also your examiner you really need nerves to steal for this kind of interview but you're not done yet because there is still the reading exam and you can pretty much guess what that is all about so in the end you're going to be thoroughly tested in reading writing and speaking and translating the new language definitely a thorough exam and nowhere to hide now are you ready for this the score you have to achieve depends on the language as well as the job that you will be sent to do but it roughly equates to a c1 level of fluency which is pretty high because it's the highest you can go to before c2 which even native speakers cannot test in at from time to time because of how articulate and educated you need to be to operate at that level i mean do you have for example the english vocabulary you need to negotiate a trade deal or discuss supply chain issues during a pandemic for example probably not on the tip of your tongue but this language exam is meant to model what diplomats might have to do overseas in their target language bottom line is can you handle most formal and informal conversation can you read international news and professional reports with ease i mean it's going to be fun if you're completely mad and this is your thing of course the perception of whether the exam is challenging is highly subjective and each student does have a unique experience okay so how much time do you get all together well for easier languages spanish french dutch et cetera you get about four months german is a bit longer and for russian you get even more time languages like korean arabic and japanese well they give you a year or more all in all fsi does a lot to prepare you not only for the test but to navigate daily life in that language but they do say generally that if you take the whole thing seriously really engage in the class sessions actively participate well you will be just fine on the test and like anything i guess how much you learn is really up to you some students are even given the opportunity to take a little immersion trip which sounds very cool meeting foreigners is of course fun but let's face it being a diplomat does not just mean standing around chatting about the weather although if you live here where i do in the south of england it is pretty much essential knowledge being a diplomat means conducting negotiations and fine-tuning your skills in the art of persuasion and there is more because it's one thing passing an exam in the language you've just learned it's quite another to have the composure and wherewithal to use that language effectively when bombs are going off all around you that too yuri kim who worked in baghdad for a year when bombs going off was a regular occurrence she said when we got a warning that a mortar was coming in we would climb under the bed or go into the bathtub to maximize the chances of survival want to hear her advice i hope you choose to get back up no matter how many times life knocks you down you will get bruised along the way but every time you choose to get back up you will get back up stronger and wiser than before there is ongoing support out in the field though including a network of language field schools and regional programs in the middle east north africa and asia and it's pretty intense right but the pressure doesn't stop just because you landed a job there was also this system called tenure which is basically a status you get at some point after your first overseas tour before this you're on a sort of language probation and to get off probation we have to test in at a certain level and if you can't do it or you are out of the foreign service sounds kind of harsh but it does make sense because if you can't speak the language well you're not going to be able to do your job and no one understands this better than the recruits across the pond in the french foreign legion now these guys have to learn french they have to do it fast their discipline is legendary and you should click on this video and watch it right now

Channel: Olly Richards

Views: 120,495

Keywords: language learning, how to learn a language, foreign languages, learn a language, learn languages, polyglot, learn a new language, languages, language, stories, storylearning, olly richards, fsi, foreign service institute, diplomats, foreign service officers, immersion, mandarin chinese, korean

Id: 11FpXVRHeUg

Length: 20min 56sec (1256 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 29 2022