give me five
Read on to find out why I was awarded a high five for excellent French. Continue reading
Posted in FSI
3 Comments
Category Archives: FSI
alex vs. the french r
After four years of Spanish in high school and then three semesters in college — just one semester away from fulfilling my language requirement — I quit. I started all over again with Zulu. Why? Well, a lot of reasons, … Continue reading
je parle un peu francais
Andy’s observations from the first week of French class. Continue reading
muffled messages
I just finished a one-week class called “the Fundamentals of Supervision,” and I’d like to share one piece of information gleaned from it: When you speak, your words actually only convey 70% of your intended message. The person listening to … Continue reading
gap days galore
I finished public diplomacy training. I haven’t started French. So what am I doing now? Continue reading
Posted in FS Life, FSI
Tagged bridge assignment, diplomatic passport, French, FSI, gap day, training
2 Comments
i’ve got class
In addition to being the place where FSOs go for their training, the Foreign Service Institute also offers a number of classes that EFMs are eligible to take. Here’s my review. Continue reading
scenes from the pentagon
Notes from a day at the Pentagon. Continue reading
Posted in FSI, Other USG Agencies, Public Diplomacy
Tagged cotonou, defense, DOD, hot dog, pentagon
1 Comment
the medium is the message
On Monday I started a four-week tradecraft course focused on the information and media aspect of my job. One thing we’ve discussed so far is the importance of understanding the unique histories, personalities and agendas of the various foreign media … Continue reading
Posted in Benin, FSI, Public Diplomacy
Tagged Benin, cell phone, information officer, media, newspapers, pdo, radio
4 Comments
training, training and more training
As Andy mentioned in his last post, we’re scheduled to stick around Arlington until March of 2011. There are a few others in my A-100 class who will be in training that long, but they’re all studying super hard languages … Continue reading
bid list – submitted!
As you may recall, two weeks ago we received a list of about 100 available jobs at embassies and consulates around the globe — the “bid list,” in Foreign Service speak. (Amazingly, there’s no acronym for this one.) After much … Continue reading