Special edition: make hard languages easier
3 principles to reach fluency from zero
Several subscribers have asked me about personal experiences form inside diplomatic life.
I’ll get deeper into that in future editions, along with more skills, guides, insider knowledge, Diplomatic Incidents, Jobs at Large and Protocol for Professionals.
In today’s edition, the skill I was writing on last week, until US/Israel attacks on Iran diverted me:
Language learning
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For diplomacy skill in any profession, language learning opens up 2 channels of expertise:
Understanding, communicating, negotiating and persuading with greater nuance, empathy and sophistication
Deeper insight into culture, societal dynamics, and different ways of thinking
AI hasn’t replaced that opportunity, it’s enhanced it. More than ever, multilingualism is a powerful human diplomacy skill in almost every profession.
Remarkably for many jobs in the UK Diplomatic Service it’s not a requirement. Rightly or wrongly, rather than specifying a level of language as a requirement (or one criterion) to get a particular posting, training may be offered to successful candidates after recruitment.
That system puts no weight on the time and financial cost of the training. And if the training is cut (it usually was for me), it leaves you aiming for fluency on your own, or getting by without it.
My solution was to learn languages in my own time: French, Russian, Thai, Korean and Vietnamese, until for a posting in Havana I landed full-time Foreign Ministry training in Spanish.
The basement of Whitehall’s Foreign Ministry (FCDO) used to be the home of “ComCen”. The massive, humming computer servers running global secure/secret comms. Tech guys working underground for decades who you had to “persuade” to send your telegram on schedule.
In that cavern the UK Foreign Ministry rebuilt a language centre (having closed an off-site version a few years before to save money).
To be paid to spend all day studying, to enjoy lessons there with 2 expert teachers (in my case one Spanish, one Argentinian), to watch Cuban YT videos and to make Latino/Latina friends in London: I could hardly believe my good fortune.
But some diplomat students in the self-study areas called it purgatory. One pinned “You know you’re a language student when…” to the kitchen noticeboard.
Replies:
sometimes you just want to breathe the air outside
you swear you’ll never complain about your day job again
your head aches with a numbness you’ve never experienced
everyone else’s language seems easier and more useful than yours
you spend more time with your teachers than your husband/wife (“and you like it”, someone added)
Full-time language training (“FTLT”) typically includes a final month of in-coutry immersion. I spent 4 weeks living with a Colombian family in Medellín.
Experience of 7 languages taught me what makes learning one easier and faster.
There are many techniques. I want to pass 3 fundamental principles to you today.
What’s a “hard language”?
It depends, not least on your mother tongue. Most English-speaking diplomatic bodies use a scale from Category 1, the easiest (closest to English) to Category 4 or 5, the most difficult.
The ranking is based on time to learn. That’s affected for example by orthography (in writing), tonality (in speaking) and cultural distance. Spanish and French rank 1; Russian 3, Thai and Vietnamese are 3 or 4; Korean is 4 or 5.
“Hard languages” challenge your thinking. FTLT is around 88 weeks. That can be daunting.
But when you learn my way, they're thrilling. Learning another language opens a new world to you.
Image: the Foreign Office’s underground language centre at King Charles Street
Make a hard language easy
The secret to learning a language isn’t about how you study, it’s about how you feel.
Many people learn poorly, spending hours on vocabulary/grammar; following instructions, exercises and apps like Duolingo; reaching a plateau, getting frustrated.
School exams and foreign ministry tests assess correct use, deducting marks for mistakes. But linguists will tell you languages are not about ticking boxes. They’re about communicating.
Everyone has their own best learning style: there’s no “universal approach” that suits everyone. And every method has something to offer.
But you’ll learn faster and better, saving time and reaching a higher level, when you apply these 3 fundamental principles.