In the case of the State Department, the GAO said the percentage of linguists not meeting language requirements went up from 2005 to 2009, from 29% to 31%. A spokesperson defended the department by arguing the total number of language jobs had risen significantly since 9/11 and that they were still “playing catch-up” to fill positions.

 

The Defense Department had promised to develop a strategic plan for language services by September 2009, but apparently failed to do so. An even bigger strike against the Pentagon was the failure to meet General Stanley McChrystal’s goal of supplying every platoon in Afghanistan with at least one soldier who can speak basic Dari, one of the country’s two national languages. The problem with the department’s approach was its decision to give certain soldiers only two weeks of language training—for a dialect that can require at least a year to develop even just a basic understanding. In addition, Dari is spoken mostly by Afghanistan’s educated classes, not by rural farmers or shopkeepers and not in the Helmand and Kandahar Provinces, where most U.S. soldiers are fighting.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Soldiers and Diplomats Still Lack Language Skills (by Jeff Stein, Washington Post)

Key Challenges and Solutions to Strengthen Interagency Collaboration (Government Accountability Office) (pdf)