Best Languages for IR/Security?

[TimB]

So, with “which school,” out of the way, I’m fast coming up on having to decide “which language,” I’d like to try to pick up over the next 2 ½ years before I get done with my MPP.

 

Right now I speak just English, and I really want to change that. Given how much I liked my work with FEMA, I also think I might like to work in national security/response down the road (still thinking about that).

 

Anyhow, I wanted to solicit some input on what languages people here think might be the best to invest my time into.  Really I’m trying to decide between Farsi and Turkish.

 

Here is how I see things.

 

Farsi:

 

Pros:

 

The consensus seems to be that Farsi is easier for English language learners to pick up than Turkish due to its Indo-European roots.

 

Farsi seems more “in demand” than Turkish. More people speak Farsi.

 

Cons:

 

Obviously while Farsi is going to continue to be an in-demand language in US intelligence and foreign relations for a long time to come, the places were Farsi is spoken most aren’t exactly the safest or easiest places to visit on vacation.

 

I don’t have any friends who speak Farsi so I’d be paying $40 an hour for a tutor.

 

Turkish:

 

Pros:

Uses the Latin script, no new alphabet!

 

My wife has a friend who is from Turkey so tutoring would be less expensive and we would have more opportunities for informal practice when we went out to eat, etc. We might trade basic Turkish tutoring for advanced English writing help.

 

Turkey is a NATO nation,  and the 16^th largest economy in the world, so it is important in US relations.

 

Turkey is a place I’d love to visit or live for a while, and my wife has another friend who lives there and said we could visit.

 

It looks like it was a “critical language” for the CIA and FBI circa 2007.

 

Cons:

 

The consensus seems to be that it’s harder to learn to speak Turkish than  Farsi for native English speakers.

 

Turkish is no longer listed as a critical intelligence language on the FBI’s page so I don't know how in demand it is.

 

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I guess my real question is: does Farsi hold a big advantage over Turkish when it comes to the jobs market in IR and security?

 

Anyone who has learned them both, is Farsi really all that much easier to learn?

 

Anyone with experience picking a language software for these languages? Any options to suggest beside Rosetta Stone?

 

Thanks for any answers in advance

[Gov2School]

Three things: 1) I think it's a little pointless to try to approach this from the perspective of "which language will be the most in demand," simply because we can't really know, with any certainty, the future path of global affairs. I can't tell you how many people I know in the government who speak fluent Russian or spent years studying Russian so they could fight the Cold War, only to find that the 90s and 00s were more about the Middle East and Asia.  Or people who studied Japanese in the 90s, but now wish they knew Chinese.  And while many people want to study Arabic, few people realize that the State Department has many times more Arabic speakers than Hebrew speakers.  

 

It's not that Russia is unimportant, or Japan, or any other nation, but just that if you're trying to pick a language based on what you think will be most "in demand" that's not always the best strategy.  It's a lot better to pick something related to your particular regional or subject interest.  Language skills are great, but subject matter expertise is better and much harder to come by.  

 

2) A lot of people are afraid of the Arabic script, and think it's really hard to learn, but in reality, it's the easiest part of learning Arabic, and I'm sure it's the same for Farsi, since it's the same letters.  You already read and write English, so your brain understands how to match up letters and sounds, you just learn how to match different letters with the same sounds. It's extremely easy, only takes a few weeks.  I took Arabic years ago, and while I can't remember what most of the words mean anymore, I can still read and pronounce Arabic script. 

 

3) Unless you're a very very disciplined person who has successfully taught themselves a language in the past, it's going to be hard to learn either language with just a tutor and a program (unless your tutor is a language instructor).  Rosetta Stone works well, but you have to be extremely disciplined about doing it every day for several hours.  Most people are for the first week, and then gradually get lazier, so they don't benefit from it.  It would be a lot better to enroll in a formal class, at least for two semesters until you get the fundamentals.  

[TimB]

Thanks for the input. All valid points. I do plan to take formal courses once I'm back in school. I'm hoping that software and tutors can get me to 102 level in a language so I can be 5 semesters worth of training in by graduation.

BTW, Russian is now once again a "critical language," lol.

[Gov2School]

"All that was once old is now new again," as they say.   I think that's just further to my point, if you try to learn a language based on what's trending in international affairs, it's not really worth it.  People who studied Russian in the 80s and 90s thinking it would be the hot language probably gave up on it by now and wish they had kept it up.  But people who are true Russia experts, who devote time to learning not just the language but the nuances of US-Russian relations, are still going to be in demand now, more so than ever because their years of study and practice give them unique perspective.  And on top of that, they speak the language. I just think it's a more satisfying approach, because even if your language goes "out of vogue," and they do,  you'll still be working in a field or related to a region that interests you. 

[Bunsen Honeydew]

Arabic gives you a baseline from which you can learn dialect for many important countries.  I would also advise you to consider the region you want to work in and go from there.  If you learn something like Pashtu, Tajiki, etc, you are going to be working a lot in impoverished areas.  

[gigantomachyusa]

The top 10 that seem to be the most important right now for national security jobs:

 

Arabic: North Africa/Middle East

Chinese/Mandarin

French: West Africa (is often coupled down the line with a more local language like Wolof or Bambara)

Hindi-Urdu

Malay/Bahasa/Indonesian

Persian/Farsi/Tajik

Punjabi

Russian: Central Asia (Russian is a common lingua franca in Central Asia where national security is also a major concern)

Spanish: Certainly if you want to work domestically

Turkish

 

The State Department gives bonus points to prospective employees who speak:

http://careers.state.gov/officer/selection-process#nogo with proficiency needed to garner the points here

 

Bonus point languages: http://careers.state.gov/uploads/23/86/2386f5de7f14369e5231db272ccfe423/Language-Points-2013.pdf

Super Critical Needs Languages: Arabic (0.5) the most important with Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Pashto, Persian, and Urdu garnering 0.4

 

So Turkish 0.17 < Persian 0.4 (at least as far as the government's needs are concerned). If the two finalists are Persian and Turkish, go for Persian if you are eyeing government national security work.