The Secretary and the Reset Button (A case for promoting U.S. Russian language study)

[Francoise Rosset]

Rice's fluency in Russian, which was alluded to early in this thread, 
comes up in the biographical details that are typically released about 
her, along with her being a concert pianist.
Robert Gates too has a PhD. in Soviet and East European Studies.
I remember some quip a few months ago about how we had two Russian 
PhDs at State/Defense and still couldn't manage Russia. It was more 
PhD-bashing than a serious look at our foreign policy ...

The dumb mistake over the reset button (a reference to a recent 
statement by Gates, I believe) doesn't reflects on Rice nor even on 
Clinton, but on the staff at State.

I knew people preparing for the Foreign service exams in France 
(granted, they got in 20 years ago, but French bureaucracy changes 
exceedingly slowly). When you pick your area of expertise, you must 
master not one but TWO languages from that area PLUS one unrelated 
language from another part of the world. I don't know whether that 
compares to our state department. In addition, you'd expect 
translators a-plenty in those offices.

I'd say the Russians probably think the U.S. is/are 
language-illiterate anyway.
This didn't help but it is hardly transcendent.

We're on spring break, hope a lot of others are as well ...
-FR


Francoise Rosset, Associate Professor
Chair, Russian and Russian Studies
Coordinator, German and Russian
Wheaton College
Norton, Massachusetts 02766
Office: (508) 285-3696
FAX:   (508) 286-3640

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