NYTimes on Critical Languages

[Benjamin Rifkin]

I agree that advertising Russian in the context of US embassy
bombings and nuclear briefcases is not a wise long-term recruitment
strategy.  My point in citing the article was simply that the author
notes that the US government cites a critical shortage of experts
with language expertise (called "linguists" in government lingo),
including those with expertise in Russian.  The government hires
"Russian linguists" to work not only in intelligence agencies, but
also in the Commerce Department, State Department, Energy Department,
Environmental Agencies, and in law enforcement, not to mention NASA.
(The reference to US embassy bombings and such was about Arabic.)
Many of our students have instrumental motivation: they want to study
a language that will help them get a job.  They understand how
Spanish might help them with a job, but they don't necessarily always
know how Russian will help them get a job.  This article provides us
with some evidence that Russian can help our students get certain
kinds of jobs, not all of which are founded on a "Cold War Mentality."

With best wishes to all,

Ben Rifkin



>Evgeny Pavlov wrote:
>
>>  Colleagues, the NYT article Prof. Rifkin has kindly recommended
>>  describes our current situation quite accurately: Russian is again in
>>  "critical" demand as the language of the enemy. The quesion is
>>  whether we really want to promote ourselves that way. I, for one,
>>  doubt that our advertising Russian in the context of US embassy
>>  bombings and nuclear briefcases is a wise long-term recruitment
>  > strategy.
>
--
____________________________
Benjamin Rifkin

Associate Prof., Slavic Dept., UW-Madison
1432 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Dr.
Madison, WI  53706
voice: 608/262-1623; fax: 608/265-2814
http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/slavic/rifkin/

Director of the Russian School
Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT  05753
voice:  802/443-5533; fax: 802/443-5394
http://www.middlebury.edu/~ls/Russian/

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