The U.S. Foreign Service Institute and America’s Renewed Era of Leadership and Diplomacy

At the George P. Shultz National Foreign Affairs Training Center, the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) provides more than 450 language learning courses, including some 70 foreign languages, to approximately 50,000 enrollees a year from the State Department and more than 40 additional government agencies and military service branches.

Designed to handle the fonts, scripts, and characters in more than 70 languages the FSI’s traditional classroom and Internet based learning management system provides training to a combination of diplomatic personnel concerned primarily with governmental relations and consular personal concerned primarily with individual and commercial matters. In addition to the responsibility of gathering information conducive to the formation of American foreign policy, the FSI safeguards U.S. citizens and their personal and commercial interests worldwide.

The personnel of the FSI is divided into two groups. The Foreign Service Officer Corps, composed of the chief U.S. diplomatic and consular personnel abroad, includes ambassadors, ministers, counselors of the embassy, economic/commercial, political, and public diplomacy officers, as well as specialists in information management, office management, security, medical practitioners and nurses. The second group includes personnel with specialized occupations such as scientists, engineers, communications specialists, security officers, and clerical staff.

The courses, designed to enhance leadership and management capabilities of the U.S. foreign affairs community—in addition to promoting successful performance in each professional assignment—range in length from a half-day to 2 years

In addition, other courses and services help family members meet the demands of living abroad through the Transition Center, an organizational unit within the Foreign Service Institute.

For a closer look at the newest generation of Foreign Service employees, see New Hires and the Foreign Service a special report by Shawn Dorman, a former FSO and editor of the AFSA (American Foreign Service Association) News

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of The Department of State has compiled approximate learning expectations for a number of languages based on the length of time it takes to achieve. Class sizes typically consist of no more than 6 students, and study schedules are comprised of 25 hours of class time per week with 3-4 hours per day of directed self-study.

The following FSI list featured at the Languages of the World site is limited to languages taught at the Foreign Service Institute.

Category I: Languages that are closely related to English and require 23-24 weeks (575-600 hours of instruction) include . . . Afrikaans, Dutch, French, Italian, Danish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, and Swedish.

Category II: Languages that contain significant linguistic and/or cultural differences from English and require 44 weeks (1100 class hours) include less widely recognized languages like . . . Amharic, Bengali, Khmer, Sinhalese, Tagalog, Urdu, Xhose, and Zula.

Category III: Languages that have proven to extraordinarily difficult for native English speakers and require 88 weeks (second year of study in-country) and (2200 class hours) include . . . Arabic, Mandarin, and Korean.

Other languages like German require 36 weeks (900 class hours), and Indonesian, Malaysian, Swahili require 30 weeks (750 class hours)

Polyglot Alexander Arguelles presents a You Tube series of video reviews and demonstrations of those foreign language learning series that he has found most useful in his own studies.

The challenges of today’s global expansion present a pressing need for the United States government to be better understood. And understanding non English languages is essential for the nature and impact of foreign affairs in American societal and business interests.

For a look at how the new administration—under the direction of President Obama and Vice President Biden—will meet America’s foreign policy challenges view their Foreign Policy Agenda, which is outlined on the following web page White House Foreign Policy