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Diplomaticus posted:
A good friend of mine is there now. Lemme know if you want to get in touch with her.
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Jul 3, 2012 22:15
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Diplomaticus posted:
Awesome. I did a TDY there for a few weeks and loved it. It's smaller than Geneva but it has a quirky Swiss charm to it that's really cool. And your smack dab in the middle of some of the most gorgeous country I've ever seen.
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Jul 3, 2012 22:25
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Grats!! Was it Bern or Geneva that had the uh, special fire hydrant?
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Jul 3, 2012 23:59
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Diplomaticus posted:
Congrats! It'll probably be expensive but the country is so gorgeous it'll be worth it. Lucky! Miscreant Fromage fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Jul 4, 2012 |
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Jul 4, 2012 00:44
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Skandiaavity posted:Grats!! Was it Bern or Geneva that had the uh, special fire hydrant? That's Geneva. It does look nice though I have to admit.
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Jul 4, 2012 05:52
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Quite so. Didn't think one could chrome a hydrant. Switzerland would be a nice post, I have to say. Seems a little expensive but the trip would be worth it.
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Jul 6, 2012 16:42
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Freaking medical Office wasting my time. Have a current class one, they want me to redo everything for DS when I just need the supplemental. The bureaucracy of this process is annoying.
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Jul 7, 2012 00:18
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Diplomaticus posted:
Congrats on the nice assignment
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Jul 12, 2012 15:32
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JA S2/R2, baby! 
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Jul 12, 2012 15:34
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おめでとうご~ should we consider you quite fluent now? i presume you'll be taking keio university classes soon
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Jul 12, 2012 21:10
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If any of you ever feel compelled to go to euro Disney, Don't. DON'T. DO NOT DO IT HOLY poo poo.
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Jul 12, 2012 21:23
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Skandiaavity posted:おめでとうご~ should we consider you quite fluent now? i presume you'll be taking keio university classes soon Heh, my reward for being "on track" is another year of full-time language study. At least I get to do this one in-country! (Seriously, a 2 is nothing special, but it means I'm halfway to where I need to be.)
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Jul 12, 2012 21:53
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Vilerat posted:If any of you ever feel compelled to go to euro Disney, Don't. I think we all need to hear what happened.
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Jul 12, 2012 21:58
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Business of Ferrets posted:Heh, my reward for being "on track" is another year of full-time language study. At least I get to do this one in-country! Congrats, but it's kind of odd that your speaking abilities are the same level as your reading. Isn't an R2 being able to read newspaper articles? Newspapers are crazy complicated here! I equate that level of reading ability with drat near native level speaking. Do I just not understand State language grading or something?
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Jul 13, 2012 00:19
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Jacobobb posted:Congrats, but it's kind of odd that your speaking abilities are the same level as your reading. Isn't an R2 being able to read newspaper articles? Newspapers are crazy complicated here! I equate that level of reading ability with drat near native level speaking. Do I just not understand State language grading or something? I can do newspapers in general, though I still have real problems with editorials and other arts/opinion pieces. But I can knock out general articles with good comprehension. And for the test one has to read fast, so that is a skill I'm working on, too. The Interagency Language Roundtable scale defines skills at the 2 level (it is a 5-point scale) as limited professional proficiency. For comparison, 2 is usually the target level for newly minted military linguists. Next month I'll start a second year of study in Japan, with the goal of getting me to the 3 level. We spent two hours a day on newspaper reading, and papers are all about exposure to kanji and vocab once you've got the grammar down. I would usually make a point of talking about the previous day's reading topics in conversation class, so that helped reinforce my retention. I had an advantage in already reading Chinese, so the characters weren't new to me, but plenty of folks hit the same proficiency levels without prior kanji knowledge.
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Jul 13, 2012 00:50
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Business of Ferrets posted:I can do newspapers in general, though I still have real problems with editorials and other arts/opinion pieces. But I can knock out general articles with good comprehension. And for the test one has to read fast, so that is a skill I'm working on, too. The Interagency Language Roundtable scale defines skills at the 2 level (it is a 5-point scale) as limited professional proficiency. For comparison, 2 is usually the target level for newly minted military linguists. Next month I'll start a second year of study in Japan, with the goal of getting me to the 3 level. Yeah, the kanji is a loving killer in editorials. I guess that makes the JLPT N2 near level 5, then. I feel a lot better at putting myself where I did on the application, now.
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Jul 13, 2012 01:20
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Jacobobb posted:I guess that makes the JLPT N2 near level 5, then. I would estimate JLPT level 1 to be somewhere around 2+ or 3 on the ILR scale. By definition, ILR's 5 is equal to an educated native speaker. Actually, just found this site: http://www.nihongocentral.com/proficiency-scales/ which puts N2 (old scale - not sure if that matters) at ILR's 2. For illustration, I've had about 1100 hours of classroom instruction in the past 11 months. e: Actually, that's the new scale for JLPT. Business of Ferrets fucked around with this message at 01:52 on Jul 13, 2012 |
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Jul 13, 2012 01:44
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Got my next assignment today & was totally shocked to only get my 16th choice. Not in a completely bad way though.   Or, better yet: 
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Jul 13, 2012 08:08
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Hell yeah!
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Jul 13, 2012 10:27
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Very nice. I am not getting my hopes up when I get the country list this Tuesday.
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Jul 13, 2012 14:40
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BTW, I'm going to FSI next weekend. Does anybody know if there's still a shuttle that picks up somewhere around Courthouse? Also, if Skandiaavity or anyone wants to meet up for lunch or something let me know. I'll be there for 2 weeks.
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Jul 13, 2012 16:21
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1of7 posted:BTW, I'm going to FSI next weekend. Does anybody know if there's still a shuttle that picks up somewhere around Courthouse? I think the shuttles run from rosslyn, crystal city, and falls church. Rosslyn would be the closest. mtreecorner fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Jul 13, 2012 |
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Jul 13, 2012 19:12
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The sheer amount of OT I've done in the past week (and will do in the next week) is AMAZING.
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Jul 13, 2012 19:29
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Business of Ferrets posted:Heh, my reward for being "on track" is another year of full-time language study. At least I get to do this one in-country! my wife is at FSI a few times a week with me, let me know if you want to borrow her while i'm in training to practice native dialects/political/business conversational skills sometime. Skandiaavity fucked around with this message at 22:30 on Jul 13, 2012 |
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Jul 13, 2012 22:26
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1of7 posted:BTW, I'm going to FSI next weekend. Does anybody know if there's still a shuttle that picks up somewhere around Courthouse? Sure! I'm off monday/tuesday/friday if any of those work. Congrats on your new assignment. Fiji sounds like a small post?
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Jul 13, 2012 22:29
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Skandiaavity posted:Sure! I'm off monday/tuesday/friday if any of those work. Congrats on your new assignment. Fiji sounds like a small post? How did you get days off? I think I only had like 2 days off the entire 5 or 6 months I was at FSI. Anyway, Diplomaticus or BOF may be able to give you my real name so you can look me up in the GAL & email me to schedule something. Or, we'll figure something out.
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Jul 14, 2012 14:52
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1of7 posted:How did you get days off? I think I only had like 2 days off the entire 5 or 6 months I was at FSI. DL classes. They give you two weeks, if you finish (including the final exam), you don't have to go to the 'required attendance' days since you've already completed the course. If you haven't finished by then, you have to show up for all of them. They're quasi-admin days, not actual/proper AL days. FSI said 'we could take a long weekend if we wished to', but I'll still be at FSI to check in and sort some other stuff out.
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Jul 14, 2012 16:02
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Diplomaticus posted:The sheer amount of OT I've done in the past week (and will do in the next week) is AMAZING. I know some people that were getting 40+ hours in a week at Rio+20.
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Jul 14, 2012 17:21
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Diplomaticus posted:The sheer amount of OT I've done in the past week (and will do in the next week) is AMAZING. Are you compensated for that OT? I posted some general questions about Foreign Service experiences earlier in this thread (was told it was okay - I'm not in the US' Foreign Service, but am a diplomat for another country). On this note: I found out a few days ago that I'm going to Brussels. I'm really excited about this - hoping that the expat community there is rather active - I heard the city is rather sleepy from Saturday night until Monday morning, but have no personal experience there. I'm hoping for: organic food/markets, a good public transport system, and an opportunity to get rationally-reckless as the need arises. Fingers crossed.
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Jul 14, 2012 21:11
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Ordeith posted:Are you compensated for that OT? I posted some general questions about Foreign Service experiences earlier in this thread (was told it was okay - I'm not in the US' Foreign Service, but am a diplomat for another country).
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Jul 14, 2012 23:11
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1of7 posted:Got my next assignment today & was totally shocked to only get my 16th choice. Not in a completely bad way though. Cool! You'll have to go stay at the Poseidon Underwater Resort!
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Jul 15, 2012 13:34
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Ordeith posted:Are you compensated for that OT? I posted some general questions about Foreign Service experiences earlier in this thread (was told it was okay - I'm not in the US' Foreign Service, but am a diplomat for another country). Specialists always are, as far as I know. Generalists are up until tenure (can get either OT, or comp time). After tenure, you can only get comp time.
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Jul 15, 2012 18:43
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Ordeith posted:Are you compensated for that OT? I posted some general questions about Foreign Service experiences earlier in this thread (was told it was okay - I'm not in the US' Foreign Service, but am a diplomat for another country). Howdy neighbor! I'm right next door.
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Jul 16, 2012 10:04
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I'm planning on taking the FSOT again this fall. My girlfriend is a Chinese citizen, however, so I'm worried that this could prevent me from passing the clearance part of the process, even if we get married before the process starts. Neither she nor her family are CCP members or have any ties to the military or government/security. From what I've heard, non-citizen spouses are relatively common in State, so are my concerns overblown?
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Jul 17, 2012 04:48
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HisMajestyBOB posted:I'm planning on taking the FSOT again this fall. My girlfriend is a Chinese citizen, however, so I'm worried that this could prevent me from passing the clearance part of the process, even if we get married before the process starts. Neither she nor her family are CCP members or have any ties to the military or government/security. From what I've heard, non-citizen spouses are relatively common in State, so are my concerns overblown? Shouldn't be an obstacle to entry, though you might be precluded from being assigned to PRC (inc. HK).
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Jul 17, 2012 06:04
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Congratulations to the 126th Specialist class - saw you around today. hope your first days are going good. and yeah, it shouldn't be a concern. The biggest obstacle you might have is never-being-assigned-to-PRC posts... BOF, I heard from another IMS that they might run into visa issues; as some places don't allow chinese citizens to stay extended periods of time? I'm sure there's a workaround for it (E-level visa?); but worst case means some places she might not be able to accompany you.
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Jul 17, 2012 22:10
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I'm probably going to botch asking for this in a way that makes any sense, but here goes: I think, at some point, someone posted a link to some sort of archive of language learning audio tapes that were government hosted or used by state department employees, but it was free and accessible to the public? Did I dream up such an awesome resource? Maybe it was the Peace Corps thread... Does something like that sound familiar to anybody? VVVEdit: I think that's it! Thanks!VVV PopRocks fucked around with this message at 23:01 on Jul 17, 2012 |
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Jul 17, 2012 22:53
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PopRocks posted:I'm probably going to botch asking for this in a way that makes any sense, but here goes: Is this it? http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php
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Jul 17, 2012 22:57
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Business of Ferrets posted:Shouldn't be an obstacle to entry, though you might be precluded from being assigned to PRC (inc. HK). Skandiaavity posted:and yeah, it shouldn't be a concern. The biggest obstacle you might have is never-being-assigned-to-PRC posts... Thanks for the replies!
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Jul 18, 2012 16:45
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Just got back from my OA, got a 5.9. I think the structured interview was the hardest for me because I tend to ramble when I get nervous. Now onto the medical & security clearance!
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Jul 18, 2012 22:40
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