An unhappy rumor about Russian's critical language status: anyone out there know anything?

[Katie Evans]

The information about foreign language bonus points are on this page:
http://careers.state.gov/officer/selection-process#nogo

If you are proficient in Russian, you will still get bonus points, but not
as many as the 8 super-critical languages list. Previously, 'world
languages' got a .17 bonus point ranking and 'critical languages' got a .4.
Before June 2012, Russian was a critical language and you could get a .4
bump in your score for passing a language exam. Now it is worth a maximum
of .17.

I know this because I passed the foreign service officer exam and was
placed on the hiring list. I took the language exam in Hungarian and
passed, thus increasing my score by .17 points. I wanted to improve my
score to get higher on the list so I started studying Russian to get a .4
bump instead of .17, but then discovered in June that Russian was no longer
eligible for that point amount.

Katie

On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 1:57 PM, Goldberg, Stuart H <
stuart.goldberg at modlangs.gatech.edu> wrote:

> ...but this list actually has Russian on it.  Can you send us a link to
> the page from which the .pdf can be accessed?
>
> Regards,
> Stuart Goldberg
>
> ------------------------------
> *From: *"Katie Evans" <evan0280 at UMN.EDU>
> *To: *SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
> *Sent: *Monday, September 24, 2012 2:34:59 PM
> *Subject: *Re: [SEELANGS] An unhappy rumor about Russian's critical
> language status: anyone out there know anything?
>
>
> Dear all,
>
> I can confirm that this is true with the foreign service. Russian is no
> longer considered a critical language and therefore you don't not get any
> additional bonus points for it.
>
> Here's the updated listing of critical language information from the State
> Department website:
>
> *Beginning with the June 2012 FSOT cohort*, Generalist candidates can
> receive .17 bonus points for all languages listed here<http://careers.state.gov/media/pdfs/language-points-2012>(pdf) if they pass the telephone language test at a speaking level 3 after
> passing the Oral Assessment. Candidates testing in the eight languages
> eligible for higher bonus points need only a level 2 speaking ability (as
> measured on the telephone test) to obtain the .17 language bonus points.
> Only the following eight languages are eligible for higher bonus points:
> Arabic; Chinese (Mandarin); Hindi; Persian (Dari); Persian (Farsi); Pashto;
> Urdu; and Korean.
>
> I'm not sure about scholarships or other grant programs through the state
> department.
>
> Katie
>
> On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 12:41 PM, Monnier, Nicole M. <
> MonnierN at missouri.edu> wrote:
>
>>   Dear all,
>>
>>  I just heard an unhappy rumor that Russian may be stripped of its
>> critical language status. (My source is a student who had an internship in
>> Moscow through the State Dept this summer.)
>>
>>  I am hoping that it is groundless, but wondered whether anyone out
>> there had any information?
>>
>>  Troubled,
>>
>>  Nicole
>>
>>
>>
>> ****************************
>> Dr. Nicole Monnier
>> Associate Teaching Professor of Russian
>> Director of Undergraduate Studies (Russian)
>> German & Russian Studies
>> 428A Strickland (formerly GCB)
>> University of Missouri
>> Columbia, MO 65211
>>
>> phone: 573.882.3370
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>
>
>
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-- 
Events Coordinator

Institute for Global Studies
University of Minnesota
214 Social Sciences Building
267 19th Ave. South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: (612) 624-9710
<http://www.cges.umn.edu/>

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