13 FAH-1 H-200
LANGUAGE TRAINING

13 FAH-1 H-210
LANGUAGE TRAINING FOR ASSIGNMENTS

(CT:FSIH-01; 12-20-2007)
(Office of Origin: FSI)

13 FAH-1 H-211 Related Directives

(CT:FSIH-01; 12-20-2007)
(Uniform State/Commerce/USAID)
(Applies to Foreign Service Employees Only)

a. Commerce: See Foreign Service Personnel Manual.

b. USAID: See USAID ADS (Automated Directives Systems) 438.

c. State: See 13 FAH-1 H-240 for base level language and rating scale definitions.

13 FAH-1 H-212 Training for Language Designated Positions (LDPs)

(CT:FSIH-01; 12-20-2007)
(Uniform State/Commerce/USAID)
(Applies to Foreign Service Employees Only)

a. An employee assigned to a language designated position (LDP) who does not possess the required, tested level of language proficiency should be assigned, insofar as practicable, for a suitable length of language training to enable the employee to gain the proficiency prior to assumption of duties at post.

b. If the required level of competence is not attained at the end of the language training period, the employee is expected to continue training at the post at the highest level of intensity consistent with the requirements of the job and the availability of geographic bureau funds until the designated proficiency is reached.

c. In determining whether an employee has the language qualifications for an LDP, test scores have the following periods of validity, counted from the date of the test to the estimated date of arrival at post.

Tested Proficiency	Duration of Validity
S-3+/R-3+ or below	five years
S-4/R-4 or above	does not expire

d. An employee who has previously scored at the proficiency level required by the prospective position but whose test date is past the duration of validity to meet the above (paragraph c) criteria should be retested. If proficiency has fallen below that required level, the employee should, insofar as practicable, be given a refresher course of study to assist in recovering the previous competence prior to arrival at post.

e. For Commerce see Foreign Service Personnel Manual.

13 FAH-1 H-213 Training for Non-Language-Designated Positions

(CT:FSIH-01; 12-20-2007)
(Uniform State/Commerce/USAID)
(Applies to Foreign Service Employees Only)

a. Every officer assigned to a post where French or Spanish is a primary language, should, insofar as practicable, have a tested proficiency of at least S-2/R-2 in such language or undergo intensive training to bring the officer as close to S-2/R-2 proficiency as circumstances permit before assumption of duties at the post.

b. The requirement of 13 FAH-1 H-213 (a) is equally applicable where one of the languages listed in the same paragraph serves as the primary-alternate language of the post, if the officer is not already proficient or assigned to training in the primary language.

c. For Commerce see Foreign Service Personnel Manual.

13 FAH-1 H-214 Training for Members on First Field Assignment

(CT:FSIH-01; 12-20-2007)
(Uniform State/USAID)
(Applies to Foreign Service Employees Only)

a. Any new member of the Foreign Service of classes FS-6 through FS-4, whose first field assignment is to a language designated position where a Category A language (see 13 FAH-1 Exhibit H-214) is primary, should normally receive training before assumption of duties at the post, if the member does not have a tested proficiency of at least S-3/R-3 in the language.

(Note: The remainder of this subchapter does not apply to USAID. See USAID Handbook 28, chapter 4.)

b. If tested proficiency is not at least S‑3/R‑3, then:

 

If proficiency is:	Then training should be:
less than S-1	up to 18 weeks
is S-1 or S-1+	up to 16 weeks
S-2 or S-2+	eight to 12 weeks

 

If the officer's first field assignment is to a post where any other language is primary and the officer does not have a tested proficiency of at least S-2/R-2 in the language or an S-3/R-3 in the primary-alternate language of the post, the officer shall normally receive up to 24 weeks of training (depending on the language and previous knowledge of that language). Normally, a primary language will take precedence over the primary-alternate language.

c. Officers with language limitation (see 13 FAH-1 H-241.9), whose first assignment is to Washington or to a post where English is a primary-A language may be considered for language training before the assignment only if such training will meet Foreign Service needs or substantially assist the individual officer. In cases where such training has not been given and the officer has not been removed from probation, a second assignment will not be made without provision for language training.

13 FAH-1 H-215 Training for Foreign Service Staff Personnel

(CT:FSIH-01; 12-20-2007)
(Uniform State/USAID)
(Applies to Foreign Service Employees Only)

Foreign Service personnel in non-language-designated positions shall be given the opportunity for language training to the extent possible. In particular, Office Management Specialists to principal officers, deputy chiefs of mission, and public affairs officers should, whenever possible, be given a minimum of eight weeks of language training if they do not already possess at least a tested S-2 proficiency in the language. This assumes even greater importance when such personnel are assigned to posts where Foreign Service National employees do not speak adequate English.

13 FAH-1 H-216 Training for Personnel Without Proficiency in a Primary Language

(CT:FSIH-01; 12-20-2007)
(Uniform State/USAID)
(Applies to Foreign Service Employees Only)

a. Every employee assigned to a post where a Category A language is a primary language and who does not have an "elementary" or "courtesy" level of proficiency (S-1) in the appropriate language should, to the maximum practical extent, be given at least eight weeks of full-time training before departure for post.

b. Every employee who does not have a "courtesy" level of proficiency in a primary language of post of assignment and who is not given training before arrival at the post will be expected to undertake a FSI-approved self-study program or as much live instruction as the resources of the geographic bureau permit.

13 FAH-1 H-217 through H-219 unassigned

13 FAH-1 Exhibit H-214
CATEGORY A AND B LANGUAGES

(CT:FSIH-01; 12-20-2007)

Category A

Afrikaans	Haitian Creole	Spanish
Danish	Italian	Swedish
Dutch	Norwegian
French	Portuguese
German	Romanian

 

Category B

Albanian	Greek	Polish
Amharic	Hebrew	Russian
Arabic	Hindi	Serbian
Armenian	Hungarian	Sinhala
Azerbaijani	Icelandic	Slovak
Belarusian	Indonesian	Slovenian
Bengali	Japanese	Somali
Bulgarian	Kazakh	Swahili
Burmese	Korean	Tagalog
Cambodian (Khmer)	Kyrgyz	Tajiki
Chinese (Cantonese)	Lao	Tamil
Chinese (Mandarin)	Latvian	Thai
Croatian	Lithuanian	Turkish
Czech	Malay	Turkmen
Dari	Moldavian	Ukrainian
Estonian	Mongolian	Urdu
Farsi	Nepali	Uzbek
Finnish	Pashto	Vietnamese
Georgian	Persian	Visayan

 

(NOTE: For USAID, see the Mandatory Reference for ADS 458.)