12 NOVEMBER 2024 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL In both cases, language learning programs and community-maintained linguistic and cultural identities have no instrumentality vis-à-vis the U.S. government. Only the most committed ethnic communities overcome the U.S. trend of cultural assimilation, including abandonment of bilingualism in favor of English monolingualism. Government-funded education projects become ends unto themselves, which often prove difficult to maintain within government agencies’ budgets. Diplomats’ linguistic needs are in part determined by the structure of the Foreign Service itself, its posting and rotation of diplomats, and so on. While it is crucial to build diplomats’ portfolio of skills, wouldn’t the ideal FSO have advanced proficiencies in a local language? Moreover, the ideal bilingual FS would quickly banish the ancient myth of “clientitis”—or “going native”—that brings into question the patriotism of bilingual U.S. diplomats serving abroad. Ten years ago, the Peace Corps overhauled its application process, allowing applicants to apply for specific positions within specific countries, rather than demand an applicant’s fealty and willingness to accept a worldwide placement. This way, a French major could avoid being sent to Ukraine, and a Russian major to Bolivia. Interagency data sharing could yield insights into how applicants’ preparedness, or even the quality of their service, changed because of this reform. With monumental challenges facing the world, it seems imperative that U.S. diplomats be able to communicate with precision, fluency, and cultural appropriateness in non-English languages. For this reason, the ideal FS and its hiring process should prioritize strong, extant bilingualism over diplomatic skills. Bilingualism is a critical tool for national defense that the Foreign Service has locked away in a drawer that it has lost the key to. I encourage the State Department to maintain the momentum of its recent reforms, which included reducing the dimensions from 13 to 11 (2023), increasing accessibility to the FSOA (2024), and making long-overdue changes to language testing (2022). I encourage it to go even further toward realizing “the ideal, bilingual Foreign Service.” n
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