CIA seeks to broaden foreign language skills

[BlueJessamine]

Source: The Miami Herald

WASHINGTON -- The CIA is undertaking a five-year plan to boost the agency's fluency in foreign languages, Director Leon Panetta said Friday.

Less than a third of CIA analysts and overseas spies are proficient in a foreign language and Panetta said he aims to raise foreign language proficiency inside the CIA to at least half of all analysts and intelligence operatives within the next five years.

"Whether an officer is conducting a meeting in a foreign capital, analyzing plans of a foreign government, or translating a foreign broadcast, language capability is critical to every aspect of our mission," Panetta said.

CIA spokesman George Little said less than 30 percent of analysts and intelligence collectors are currently proficient in a foreign language, but would not say how many officers speak which languages.


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1072266.html

[katty]

1. why start NOW?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

2. Is Old Paranoid White Guy being lost as a language?

:cry:

[katty]

3. haha-goodone!

[MrBig]

4. Wait a second

I thought English was the official language of Earth??? Why should WE have to learn THEIR languages. THEY should learn OUR languages. After all, we were on Earth first. If THEY want to live on OUR planet, THEY should adjust to US. ENGLISH TODAY, ENGLISH TOMORROW, ENGLISH FOREVER!!!

(sarcasm for those hard of reading)

[ConcernedCanuk]

10. Actually, I think English is first on their list

.
.
.

From reading USAmerican news outlets lately,

English IS a foreign language to them

some of the typo/spelling/grammar errors are hilarious/disgusting

[moggie]

5. They could recruit some of the gay translators fired by the army

Less than a third proficient in a foreign language? And I'm betting that relatively few of those are fluent in Arabic or Pashto. Pathetic.

[keepCAblue]

6. Here are a couple recommendations for hire...

Sibel Edmonds, Lt. Dan Choi and the 58 other linguists fired by the military since 9/11 just because they were gay. :grr:

[izquierdista]

8. Then we could rename them

As the see-I'm-gay :rofl:

[No Elephants]

12. Good one!

[shadowknows69]

7. Central INTELIGENCE Agency?

Clearly not the Central Common Sense Agency in recent years.

[RedCloud]

11. And torture is not spelled "A-O-K".

[matt819]

9. Do a Google search

The CIA has been saying this for at least 25 years. Sadly, they're not serious. It takes a long time to achieve that sort of fluency, and they just haven't been able to sustain the commitment. Intelligence officers don't make a name for themselves by learning a language - they make it in the field (this is not a post about how well or badly they do the work, so you can skip commenting on that issue). Or, if they do invest the time and money to get some to a level of fluency in one of the so-called hard languages, there's the risk of that person leaving for a better paying job in the private sector.

Also, think about it, apart from the apparent needs for such languages as Arabic and Chinese (which have various dialects), Pushto, Dari, Farsi, there are dozens of other demands. And then an intelligence officer might serve only one or two tours in a place using that language before career demands compel him/her to seek assignments in other areas. In short, it's a massive undertaking, and the commitment and incentives are not there.

Check in again in four years - when there's a new CIA director, and you'll see the same assertions. And don't forget the google search for years past. This is a "the more things change the more they remain the same" issue.

[No Elephants]

14. And, by the time a President catches on to the game, he's leaving office.

[No Elephants]

13. They don't trust people of Arab heritage. So, they have years of untranslated Arabic stuff.

[EFerrari]

15. They should brush up their English first so they can read the Constitution.