Council on Foreign Relations Discussion - "Link Between Foreign Languages and U.S. National Security"

On Wednesday, June 14, 2017, the Council on Foreign Relations streamed live a very important and informative discussion entitled Link Between Foreign Languages and U.S. National Security.  The Council on Foreign Relations has made the video recording of that discussion available on their YouTube channel and it is embedded below.

The discussion panel was made up of the following individuals:

Martha "Marty" Abbott
Executive Director, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages; Executive Director, Lead With Languages

Esther Brimmer
Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, NAFSA: Association of International Educators; Former Adjunct Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

Michael Nugent
Director, Defense Language and National Security Education Office, U.S. Department of Defense

Presider

Sanford J. Ungar
Director, The Free Speech Project, Georgetown University

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Thanks NAFSA Members and International Educators (video)

All signs pointing me to Duolingo!

Since last Wednesday, I have had 3 separate people mention Duolingo to me. Actually, I heard about Duolingo from an MBA student planning to study abroad this summer when we talked last Wednesday evening and then by Friday afternoon I had two colleagues in my office suite tell me about Duolingo so we are talking only 36 hours or so!  I was prompted to post this after reading over lunch an article about them today on Business Insider.  Duolingo was released at the end of 2012 and Apple named Duolingo 2013 App of the year.

Anyways, given all of the above I began to wonder if Rosetta Stone (RST) should be worried? On October 24, 2013 the share price for RST was 16.24 and on January 24, 2014 the share price for RST was 11.18...

I will certainly check out Duolingo to brush up on my Spanish and will introduce Duolingo to my 12 year old daughter who is also learning Spanish and my 8 year old son who is learning French!  Who knows what language learning tools will be around when my 5 year old son starts to learn a language in 3rd grade (either Spanish, French, German, Chinese).

Notes:  1.  I received no compensation and have no motive to post about Duolingo other than to provide brief information and thoughts on an interesting and (relatively) new language learning tool that may be of interest to IHEC Blog readers; and, 2. duoLingo logo Image is made available for press articles and was obtained from http://www.duolingo.com/info.

National Football League (NFL) Player Chad Lewis Highlights the Importance of Studying a Second Language

Chad Lewis is currently a player with the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League in the United States.  I came across this interesting video (below) on YouTube of Chad Lewis promoting the value of learning a second language, in his case the Chinese language, at BYU.  Lewis has been to China multiple times to represent the NFL and in 2002 took a three nation trip to Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand.  You can learn more about his travels here.  Nice to see such support for foreign language study and international education from an NFL player!

Secretary Clinton's remarks to Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants

You can also view the video online as well as read the transcript of Secretary Clinton's [December 9, 2010] remarks here.

Rep. Dan Boren [D. OK] on the House Floor Speaking on the New NSEP African Language Initiative

While I was doing some research for my dissertation last night I came across a video on C-Span of Representative Dan Boren [D. OK] speaking on the House floor in support of H.S. 2701 Intelligence Authorization Act of 2010.  The primary focus of Mr. Boren's time on the floor focused on the new NSEP African Languages Intitiative which was very recently announced to the international education community here in the U.S. and to prospective Boren Fellowship applicants (Boren Scholarship applicants are not eligible for this new program).  I have embedded the video below:

In case you have difficulty viewing the video you can view it here.  Additionally, you can read about this new development from Representative Boren's press release last Friday, October 1, 2010.  You can read more about the new NSEP African Language Initiative here.  In case you have difficulty accessing the video I have copied and pasted the transcript of Mr. Boren below:

"Mr. BOREN. Mr. Chairman, I thank you for all the hard work you and the entire staff have done on this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2701, the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2010. This bill is an excellent product and addresses many critical areas, including those that have previously received little attention. One of the most important provisions in the bill is the commitment to developing foreign language capability, specifically in African languages that have historically been underrepresented in the intelligence community.

The bill creates a pilot program under the National Security Education Program, or the NSEP. It expands the David L. Boren Scholars by requiring the Director of National Intelligence to identify five high-priority African languages for which language education programs do not currently exist. The NSEP would then develop intensive training programs for implementation in both the United States and in countries where the languages are spoken.

Let's not forget that 10 years ago, we didn't anticipate conflicts along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and the need for Dari, Pashto, and Urdu speakers. When the need arose, we didn't have the capabilities to meet immediate demands, and to this day, we are still playing catch-up. Similarly, we cannot predict from where the next crisis will emerge. But by recognizing the current instability in the Horn of Africa, Sudan, and Congo, we can anticipate crises that may impact U.S. national security interests in the near future. We should be training the linguists and translators in the relevant languages now so that, once again, we are not reactive in our efforts but proactive in our actions. I urge my colleagues to support this bill."


December 7, 2010 Update:  Information about the new pilot African Language Initiative Program now available at http://apps.americancouncils.org/africanlanguages/. Funding is provided by the National Security Education Program (NSEP) and is administered by American Councils for International Education in partnership with participating U.S. domestic and overseas institutions.

A Language for Everyone to Study

With the start of the academic year comes the annual ritual of promoting the study or languages and recruiting students.  The College at the University of Chicago requires students to demonstrate competency in a second language.  This is not an uncommon graduation requirement for most institutions of higher education in the U.S.  What is unique about the University of Chicago is the number of languages one can study to meet this requirement.  The following is a list of languages one can study at the University of Chicago to meet the second language competency requirement:

Akkadian

Albanian

American Sign Language

Arabic

Arabic, Colloquial Egyptian

Arabic, Modern Standard

Aramaic/Elementary Syriac

Armenian

Assyrian

Aymara

Old Babylonian

Ne-Babylonian

Balochi

Bangla/Bengali

Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian

Bulgarian

Catalan

Chinese

Coptic

Czech

Demotic Egyptian (Hieroglyphs)

Middle/Late Egyptian

Elamite

English, Old

Frence

Ge`ez

Georgian

German

Greek, Attic

Greek, Modern

Gujarati

Hebrew, Classical

Hebrew, Modern

Hieratic

Hieroglyphic Luwian

Hindi

Hittite

Italian

Japanese

Kazak

Korean

Latin

Lycian

Lydian

Macedonian

Malayalam

Marathi

Maya, K`iche’

Maya, Yucatec

Nahuatl

Norwegian

Old Norse

Pali

Persian (Farsi)

Phoenician

Polish

Portuguese

Russian

Sanskrit

Slavonic, Old Church

Slovakian

Spanish

Sumerian

Swahili

Tamil

Targum

Telegu

Tibetan

Old Turkic

Turkish

Turkish, Ottoman

Ubaritic

Ukranian

Urdu

Uzbek

Yiddish

Video of the Week - Breaking the Language Barrier

For this video of the week I have selected this video from the National Security Education Program (NSEP) which has become a new research interest of mine (more on this in a future post).  What I like about this video is that it starts and ends with an interview with David L. Boren who is a former Senator from Oklahoma and author of the National Security Education Act of 1991 (which created the NSEP) followed by interviews with three former NSEP recipients who describe their studies abroad as well as their career paths in the U.S. Federal Government as part of their service requirement.

You can learn more about the National Security Education Program here and the Boren Awards for International Study here.

Social Learning Sites and Online Communities for Language Learners

The following IHEC Blog guest post is by Karen Schweitzer who previously wrote “Making the Most of Your Study Abroad Experience” on IHEC Blog back in May. I think her current post fits very nice with the focus of IHEC Blog:

Social learning sites and online communities are great places for language learners to learn a new language while connecting with others around the globe. Many of these social sites feature user-generated lessons, language partners, and other learning tools. Here is a list of some of the best social learning sites and online communities for language learners:

Livemocha - With over two million members speaking over 25 different languages, Livemocha provides an excellent community for self-paced language learners. Within this site, users will find over 160 hours of self-paced lessons for each language, native speaking language partners, and tools to build conversational skills.

iTalki - This all inclusive social language learning site features resources for learning over 90 different languages. iTalki allows file sharing, knowledge-based wikis, Q & A, and multimedia chat.

Babbel - Babbel is a fun, interactive way to learn Spanish, German, English, Italian, and French. This site allows users to learn by themselves or practice with one of the 400,000 other members worldwide through online chat and courses. The courses help users to learn effectively by incorporating interactive elements, video, sound, and pictures.

Busuu - This web-based language learning community offers the opportunity to learn from native speakers and online material. The image and sound based courses cover over 150 learning units of diverse topics and grammar.

MyHappyPlanet - MyHappyPlanet is an online language community for learning a wide range of languages. The site uses social learning to connect people around the world with one common goal. On this site, users will learn through live chat, language videos, messaging, and user-generated lessons.

Palabea - Palabea is an online social language learning site that features tools for talking to native speakers, improving writing, and learning new languages. Simply sign up for a free account to start learning your choice of over 100 new languages.

Ling - This social community makes learning a new language fun and easy for beginners and advanced learners alike. Signing up for a free account gives you access to unlimited lessons, 300 LingQs, live conversations, writing help, and the ability to make friends worldwide.

MyLanguageExchange.com - The MyLanguageExchange.com community gives language learners a way to learn and practice language with over one million members speaking over 100 different languages.

SharedTalk - SharedTalk gives language learners access to a global community of people dedicated to learning and exchanging languages. Throughout this site, learners will find the opportunity to connect with a language partner, practice skills with voice chat, and improve writing skills with text chat.

PhraseBase - The PhraseBase social language network has over 119,000 members that provide and benefit from language learning. Through this network, users can memorize phrase translations and practice phrases with native speakers. This site also features video lessons and flashcards for English learners.

Huitalk.com - This award winning online community operates on the principle of connecting people around the world with one goal: language learning. With this concept, Huitalk offers you the opportunity to learn and practice through chat, forums, activities, vocab lists, and articles.

xLingo - xLingo is an online language exchange community for discovering, connecting, and sharing languages from around the world. This exchange community is a great place for practicing your skills, making new friends, and sharing your language with others through blogs, flashcards, chatrooms, and forums.

LearnHub - LearnHub provides an online language community for learning and teaching languages. Within this language community, learners will find video and audio lessons, tests, discussions, and a large community of learners to connect with.

AddLang - AddLang offers a place for intermediate language learners to practice the skills they already know through various instant messengers. Members of this online community can practice or learn languages, discuss translations, work on grammar, and improve vocabulary.

Unilang - Unilang is an online language community that connects language lovers around the globe through online foreign language resources, forums, and live chats. The member-generated resources consist of courses, videos, podcasts, grammar tips, dictionaries, vocabulary lists, pronunciation guides, and exercises.

Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about top online colleges for OnlineCollege.org.