Thursday, November 10, 2011

Question of the Day: Studying Arabic for 4 years and not ever getting to a 2/2?

Image via Wikipedia
The language shortfall at the State Department has been well documented in various reports of the Government Accountability Office.  We understand it's hard, especially the more
challenging languages. 
But if an FSO has been studying Arabic for um, four years (about 176 weeks of class work) and does not ever get a 2/2 in speaking/reading proficiency, what happens?

The normal course of study and proficiency for super hard languages like Arabic and Chinese is 88 weeks for S-3/R-3 proficiency and 44 weeks for S-2/R-2 proficiency.

The more interesting question, of course, is how does one manage to get an extra 132 weeks to get to a 2/2 after already having 44 weeks and failing to get a 2/2?

Curious minds would like to know.






1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Can anyone say "affirmative action" or "its not what you know, but who you know?"