Insider Quote: Big Language Hullabaloo Not New

“So I was then assigned as consul to Liverpool. By this time I had already spent sixteen weeks very assiduously studying German. Anyway, while I was at the Foreign Service Institute I insisted on taking an examination in Chinese. There was a big hullabaloo at this time in the Department about language abilities and qualifications. There had been a lot of stuff in the press about people being sent to posts when they didn't have any knowledge of the language.”

Interview with John S. Service Foreign Service Officer 1977 Oral History, ADST