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Foreign Service Written Exam

Yesterday I proctored the Foreign Service Written Exam (FSWE) in Seoul.  The testing site was the only one in Korea, and Americans came from all over the country to take the exam.  The exam, held once a year each April, is the first step one takes to become a Foreign Service officer, or diplomat, working for the U.S. Department of State.  Reader Editfish, an aspiring diplomat, thoroughly details the FSWE on his excellent blog, Tumbleweeds.  He sat for the exam in the U.S. yesterday and is hopefully well on his way to joining the Foreign Service.  (Editfish, let me know how it went!)  I wish him and everyone who took the exam yesterday success.  Editfish should find out in July whether he passed the exam and will go on the next step, the Oral Assessment (FSOA).  The FSOA is not just an interview–it includes a group exercise, a structured interview, and a case analysis.  Once a Foreign Service candidate has passed the FSWE, FSOA, and received both medical and security clearances, he or she is ranked according to their FSOA score, and their name is added to a job register.  Then, they wait until they’re offered a position as an FSO.  Joining the Foreign Service is a competitive and frequently arduous process.  Of the 31,500 applicants who applied to join the Foreign Service in 2003, just 500 entered the Foreign Service.  It can be heart-breaking for many who don’t make it, because once they are eliminated from contention, they have to start all over and take the FSWE again.  The FSWE is held once a year at various locations around the world.  If you are interested in the Foreign Service and missed your chance this year, plan ahead for 2007 and study for the exam and register for the 2007 FSWE early next year.  To be eligible, you must be an American citizen between 21 and 59.5 years of age.  Other than that, there are no other conditions–you can be a truck driver, lawyers, domestic engineer, you name it.  You’re only limited by your interest and ability to pass a series of high hurdles required to enter the Foreign Service.
 
I digress.  Several years ago I took the FSWE and passed.  I remember taking the exam in a big lecture hall on the University of Washington campus.  The testing conditions then were far better than what test takers faced yesterday in Seoul.  I felt so bad for them!  I hope they pass the exam despite the challenging testing conditions.  Most of the test-takers took the test in a garage.  I am not kidding!  A garage.  The most hilarious moment of the day was when I saw two signs next to each other.  One read:
Foreign Service Written Exam site
 The other:
Vehicle Maintenance and Repair Shop
Very inauspicious, indeed.  Imagine taking an exam in a garage.  Makeshift wooden desks with folding chairs sat amidst automobile service equipment.  After entering through the garage door, you’re bombarded by the odor of tires and grease.  If that wasn’t enough, you then found yourself breathing in yellow sand from the Gobi Desert seeping into the garage.  Yesterday was one of the worst days of yellow sand on record.  It was absolutely terrible, and the exam takers were subjected to fumes and yellow sand throughout the exam.  The garage was also cold because, well, most garages are not heated. 
 
Why did they have to take the exam in a garage?  The Embassy in Seoul has limited space to host a large number of FSWE test takers.  Despite the less-than-ideal testing conditions, I think that many of the applicants will pass the exam and move on to the FSOA.  The testing conditions reminded me of an oft-heard phrase in the Foreign Service–"Suck it up."  In spite of how bad things are, just go ahead and do it.  In this case, the test takers–and the proctors–literally had to suck it up.  Yellow sand and fumes, that is.  Things could have been worse. 

A contrast of news and information

We’ve been absolutely spoiled with news and information in Korea.  There’s no shortage of Korean and English-language media sources providing a spectrum of news and information.  They run the gamut politically from progressive media such as OhMyNews and Hankyoreh Shinmun to conservative ones, including the Chosun Ilbo.  I personally prefer the more centrist media outlets (read balanced), particularly the JoongAng Ilbo and Korea Times.  Of the two, the JoongAng Ilbo tends to provide more comprehensive analyses, although the Korea Times is more fun to read.  It’s akin to reading the Washington Post versus USA Today.  There’s little wonder why the JoongAng Ilbo’s English edition is packaged with the International Herald Tribune, a subsidiary of the New York Times.  In Korea, you can generally tell the political bent of a news outlet based on its depictions the United States (favorable or unfavorable) and stance on hot-button issues, particularly North Korea and socio-economic issues (e.g. labor and education).  Korean media may have more in common with European media than their American cousins; whereas most U.S. media claim to be bias-free, European media are not apologetic over their political vent.
 
Paraguay is an entirely different story.  I surfed the web and could not find any solid online news sources in English dedicated to covering Paraguay.  Granted, Paraguay’s national language is Guarani, an indigenous language, and its lingua franca is Spanish.  It is also a small country with about 5.6 million inhabitants, the size of a large city.  Nevertheless, none of its major news outlets seem to offer Paraguayan news and information in English.  They all seem to use Spanish exclusively, except for a German-language news site called Aktuelle Rundschau catering to Paraguay’s sizable German community.  News sources available in English seem to offer more coverage of Paraguay’s larger neighbors, particularly Brazil, the 800 pound Latin American heavyweight.
 
I thought it odd that none of the Paraguayan meid offer news written in Guarani, the official language of Paraguay.  I had never heard of the language spoken by about 5 million people until I found out we will be heading there in 2007.  I was surprised to discover how different the language is from Spanish.  It is a language that pre-dates the arrival of Spanish in the 1500’s, although I assumed, perhaps wrongly, that Guarani had been heavily influenced by Spanish after comingling for about 500 years.  Here is a sample Guarani sentence from Omniglot:
Mayma yvypóra ou ko yvy ári iñapytl’yre ha eteîcha dignidad ha derecho jeguerekópe; ha ikatu rupi oikuaa añetéva ha añete’yva, iporâva ha ivaíva, tekotevê pehenguéicha oiko oñondivekuéra.
Here is the English translation:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.  (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Only the words "dignidad" (dignity) and "derecho" (rights) are obviously Spanish words.  The Korean language draws 65% of its vocabulary from Chinese and 5% from English, so I would be surprised if most Guarani vocabulary did not come from Spanish.  Guarani is fascinating, and I’ve heard that speaking it in Paraguay will win you friends for life.  However, I need to focus on learning Spanish!  Baby steps.

Of sunshine and son shy

Today was a good day at the office.  I hadn’t had a good day for awhile, and today was long overdue.  For one, I cruised to another productive day.  I set a personal goal to finish in the top three each day, and I did it for the third day in the row.  I will continue pouring it on mercilessly.  A group of instructors from out of town who came to teach a course left today, ending three days of support, including buying food for class, operating the classroom, and chauffeuring the instructors.  In addition, a project that had been percolating for about five months came to an exciting conclusion today.  Our community association contracted with a vendor to install some photo booths at work, and today the machines arrived.  We had a dickens of a time navigating the machines through the maze-like building and installing them–especially one on the third floor.  It took about six people and four hours to finish.  We signed the contract, and now customers have a quicker and more affordable photo option.  It’s the third new service introduced at work in three months–first, the opening of the cafeteria, then the reopening of the coffee shop and bakery, and now this.  I also found out today that our location in Manila, also a very large operation, really likes our performance management program and will adopt it in its own operations.  Word is starting to spread worldwide about the program, and the response is amazing.  Days like this don’t come along often, so I’ll savor this one for awhile.  Best of all, I now have a little less to do at the office, giving me more time to spend out of the office.
 
Tonight my son and I went over to a colleague’s home for a team dinner.  My son was very popular with my coworkers; unfortunately, he was very uncomfortable around my coworkers.  The only other kid at the dinner was an eight-year-old girl, and my son did not really know any of my coworkers.  The atmosphere was a bit too chaotic.  He was OK for about half an hour, and then he expressed a strong desire to leave.  He ate very little and tried to pacify himself with cookies.  We left after about 45 minutes, just long enough to eat dinner.  I wish we could have stayed longer.  I really like my teammate.  They are a really fun bunch.  As we left, two of my colleagues started dancing a silly dance.  My son couldn’t wait to leave.  I would have loved to have stayed longe, but parenthood trumps spending time with your coworkers, even in Korea.  Korean workers often get together after work as a team, department, or office.  But children are even more important and take precedence.
 
Blog Notes:  Wade3016, you wondered when I would post on your blog, so I thought I would write something I thought you would challenge.  LOL  I am so devious sometimes.  Does this mean you’re going to delay your trip to Korea?