The Foreign Service Journal, June 2005

Whatever the outcome of the 2005 conference, the policy issues centered on the NPT will define the interna- tional security debate into the foresee- able future. For an assessment of the 2005 conference, comprehensive links to official as well as nongovernmental resources and an education on the issues, go to www.npt2005.org , the Web site of the “Campaign to Strengthen the NPT,” a joint project of the Arms Control Association and the Carnegie Endowment for Inter- national Peace. Seoul English Village: Learning by Living The Seoul English Village, an effort to transform the way English is taught and learned in Korea, opened last December with involvement of ambassadors wives and other repre- sentatives from Australia, Britain, America, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa ( http://www.korea herald.co.kr/special/english village/index.asp ). Built and operated by Herald Media Inc. for the city of Seoul, the Village is a residential school for Koreans to learn English in 34 differ- ent real-life scenarios, including a hotel, a police station and a hospital. Students live there for one week, dur- ing which time only English is spo- ken. When Mary Heseltine, the wife of Australian Ambassador Colin Hesel- tine, was off e red the mayor’s post, the experienced teacher of English to non-native speakers in China and Taiwan, grabbed it. “I thought, ‘What a fantastic concept!’” Heseltine told the Korea Herald. Heseltine and honorary chairwoman Kim Yoon-ok, wife of Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak, run a committee of embassy repre- sentatives and foreign educators that regularly brainstorm on ways to improve the teaching and learning at the Village. Heseltine envisions special guests visiting the campus, such as artists, musicians and representatives from embassies of English-speaking and non-English–speaking countries. Committee member Patti Hill, the wife of then-U.S. Ambassador Chris- topher Hill (now assistant secre t a ry for East Asia and the Pacific), pro- posed setting up an online conference with students from the United States. “A lot of Koreans don’t have direct experience with American culture,” she said. “The more we can create opportunities for interaction, the more understanding people will have.” ■ C Y B E R N O T E S u 14 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U N E 2 0 0 5 T he term “occupation” cannot be used for a legal assessment of the situation in the Baltics in the late 1930s because there was no state of war between the USSR and the Baltic states and no military actions were being conducted, and the troops were introduced on the basis of an agreement and with the express consent of the authorities that existed in these republics at the time — whatever one may think of them. … So, if one were to question the legitimacy of the power bodies of the Soviet period, the question arises of the legitimacy of the promulgation of independence by the Baltic republics. — “Comments by the Russian Foreign Ministry Information and Press Department regarding the ‘Occupation’ of the Baltic Countries by the Soviet Union,” http://www.In. ru/brp_4.nsf/english, May 4.