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

Mon Sep 24 20:06:33 UTC 2012

What I gather from this is that 

1) ILR 3 speakers of Azerbaijani, Bengali, Gujarati, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Nepali, Punjabi, Russian, Singhalese, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish, Turkmen, and Uzbek no longer are no longer at an advantage over ILR 3 speakers of other languages, including commonly taught languages such as Spanish, French and German in competing for placements at the State Department. 

2) Rather than give very strong bonuses in recruiting for ILR 3 in Arabic; Chinese (Mandarin); Hindi; Persian (Dari); Persian (Farsi); Pashto; Urdu; and Korean, the State Department now gives the standard bonus, but at a lower bar -- for ILR 2. 

Thus, the only preference given for these 8 most desirable languages is in the level at which they will give a bonus. 

My conclusion: this, in itself, doesn't represent so much a demotion of Russian (and Turkic, and a few other languages), but rather a change in recruitment strategy. They are simply no longer making choices on the basis of critical need if an ILR 2 or 3 Arabic speaker will now get the same bonus as ILR 3 Spanish (though of course the fact that they need to give bonuses at ILR 2 for the eight languages implies that there is an unfulfilled need for higher-level speakers of these eight languages). 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Katie Evans" <evan0280 at UMN.EDU> 
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU 
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2012 3:12:14 PM 
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] An unhappy rumor about Russian's critical language status: anyone out there know anything? 

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 (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: 

<blockquote>

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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</blockquote>

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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 

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