I just read that the CIA is hiring...

So if you've been looking for adventure and ways to put all those foreign language skills to good use, try your luck!

What a fun idea! Do you think they take grandmas?

Yeah, I saw that in the paper the other day and immediately said to myself--If they unburn MW, then they already have the best!

If anyone wants to check out the CIA website it is http:/www.cia.gov/careers/index.html

Thanks for the post rebecce! It makes interesting reading. If I was younger I might apply!

It' kind of a cool site isn't it? They even have a kids page to get them interested in a future career in the CIA!

As much fun as that sounds...

My foreign language skills would most likely be put to better use as a border patrol agent in Texas. And I'd make a horrible spy. I'm way too loud and fun. So, unless my spy job was drinking, singing insanely loudly and off key, and shaking my non-ass to the beat only I can hear...I'd probably be spotted within minutes.

Seriously though, anybody think they'd make a good spy?

Not me. I remember reading an article about CIA hiring years ago, and what the job entailed. Someone inside said "it's not a good job if you're the kind of person who comes home from work and has to say 'guess what I did today?'"

I've wanted to be a spy since I saw my first Bond movie back in like 2nd grade. And I think I could do well, I'm secretive, have no problem lying, and generally enjoy manipulating people into doing what I want them to do. I already have some martial arts training, and extensive practice with various weaponry, PLUS I love to travel. I think I would make a good spy, just the only problem being I dont speak any other languages besides english and bad english.

It would be interesting to be in "the Program", but unfortunately the Max age for a Clandestine Service Opperative is 35, which means I missed my mark by 15 years.

I also believe langauge skills would be vital and, I too, suck at language, even my native one. I am always amazed at how proficient TV and movie spys are at languages, they seem to know a dozen fluently -- I always have problems with that. I knew a Sales Manger once, from Holland, who spoke five, which was very impressive. But I cannot image learning more than one or two (other than your native tongue).

I am curious of those in our forum, how many speak other languges and how many do they understand enough to travel to that part of the world to use them in a real life situation? (impromtu poll)

-Mac

Well I speak three languages, well four if you count English, but you're never suppose to count your own, right? My languages are Spanish, German and American Sign Language.

Bravo FiRocks, that is most impressive, and quite a list!! Did you learn from family or friends while growing up or did you study in school (or both)? The American Sign Language is particularly interesting to me, I am always facinated by people who can do this, and do it well. The dexterity alone is an impresive skill. I love watching sign lang., it's like a ballet with the hands.

One of my favorite movies is "Children Of A Lesser God" becuse of Marly Matlin. I know she has done signing all her life (out of necessity), but she still makes it look like a new and wonderful art form. I try to catch her in whatever movie or TV show she is in.

I took Spanish in HS for two years and got "C", which I probably did not deserve. I have a real tin ear for language, it all sort of sounds indiciferal to me. I would love to understand Russian, but I think French would be one of the more useful langauges to know when you travel. I've been to Europe a few times and it always seems that even when English is not spoken, French seems to be the next most popular.

-Mac

I think the trick for languages is to learn them young. Your brain processes language differently when you try to learn them as an adult. I think you'll find the people who are fluent in many languages picked up a lot of them as kids.

Let's see, fluent in English, three years of very bad high school French, several years of ASL when I worked with a deaf guy, and then immersion in Spanish when I moved to Mexico City at 35. I got pretty good at Spanish (was there for 1.5 years), but it was much harder for others than for me, and much harder than I remembered French being in high school. My Spanish has now superceded the French. If I see French, I know how to pronounce it, but a lot of the vocabulary and verb tenses are gone.

I had an interesting experience when I traveled to Europe with a large group of Mexicans. They all had some degree of English fluency and some other languages. They could understand American English, but not French-accented English, so I had to translate for them. Also, in Italy, I basically tried my Spanish and the Italians said "oh, you speak Italian." Umm, no. Then I ended up translating between Italians and Mexicans because they were convinced they could not understand each other.

Now it's 9 years later and my Spanish is getting rusty. I can follow some here in Florida, but Cuban and Puerto Rican Spanish is way too fast for me.

Haha CIA
its not that easy to get into the CIA

That is probably just the web site they want the public to see. I doubt they would put out any state secrets on there. They probably put it out there to clean up their image and to encourage young people to think about a career in the CIA. It seems to me like it is geared more towards that then anything else. They even have a "kids page"on it. It's not a bad thing to think about if you are still in high school and haven't decided what you want to do for a living.I wish i knew about when i was still in high school.

Well I had the German, English and Spanish before the age of three my mom spoke German, my dad Spanish so I ended up learning both. I don't remember this but my parents told me that around age 3 1/2 I would do this thing where I'd speak most of a sentence in one language and then throw the verb in in the other, I really, really don't remember that at all, but to this day there are certain words that I never say in English and I really have to think about them before I say them, for example I always say espina instead of thorn. As to the sign I picked it up when I was about seven, there was a hearing impaired girl who was mainstreamed into my school and some of the other kids were kind of mean to her and I was like "hey, I'll play with you" and she started teaching me sign. I had a pretty huge sign vocabulary at that age then when I went to Junior College I worked with the hearing impaired program, picked up a ton of cuss words then I started taking ASL classes there and I ended up being one class away from getting an interpreters' certificate.

They say that is true, to learn when you are younger -- I believe languages stidies are offered to younger students these days; I should check with my niece, she teaches 2nd grade in PA.



That's a funny story, I've also heard people say that about language. Dielects and regional adaptations to language can pose an obstical, even to the one's fluent. It is interesting that you had to act as interpreter due to the French accent. I've worked with folks from China and Viet Nam and they have said the same, going from one part of the country to another can be a challenge to keep up with local differences.

I guess the same is true in the US, I've been to West Virgina and I had some difficulty understanding the regional drawl, even through it was plain English.



Yes, the old adage, practice, practice, practice. I had a friend in Tucson, AZ who's father was an embassador to Venizula, so he and his brother lived in Caracus for most of their young lives. Nice Jewish boys who spoke perfect regional spanish. They used to love to pull up to the border guards and rattle off spanish like a native, when they looked so very 'white'. The guards were almost always suprised.





Well FiRo that bears out what Karendipitee was saying, learn when your young. It is so funny that you sometimes mix the langauges, I guess it get's ingrained. I always hated verb conjigation in school. Spanish was relatively simple, but I always seemed to screw it up. It is really great that you had the langauge available to you form both parents and thet you could learn it as you grew up, but I'll bet it was alittle confusing at times; it would have been for me!!

That was so sweet about how you learned signing from your playmate at school who was hearing impaired. I guess necessity makes for a very good instuctor. It's also funny you picked up all the cuss words, that always seems to be a perk to leaning the lingo. Others have said the best way to learn is to live in a country where the language is spoke. Again necessity becomes key.

I worked with a gal who taugh learning disable children, she had the perfect patient deminor for the job, but she sort of burned out of it after a while and worked as our receptionist. Then she scored a job with the DOD to teach on militry bases overseas. Her first assignment was Japan (her first choice) she was so very excited to be traveling and doing something useful. It is interesting how our personal skill sets can sometimes award us great opportunities.


Thanks you both for sharing your language background stories and experiences. It was a lot of fun to read about them. I only wish I had grown up learning another langauge -- it seems to be the ticket.

Cheers,
-Mac

Yes, I've visted this site off and on for a couple of years, and it seems to be a good PR site for the CIA and to get people thinking about a career with them. Certainly no state secrets will be found there.

But I agree, I wish I had something like this when I was in HS, it may have offered me something to ponder as a new career. Although for an operative I think a stint in the military is almost a necessity and I came out of the Viet Nam war era, where the military was a dubious profession, since most guys wer trying to avoid the draft.

In hindsight I wish I had enlisted and served, it would have given me opportinities I could not have gotten anywhere else. But it always look more glamorious thur hindsight (the rose colored glasses aspect.)

Oh well ,,,,

-Mac

I bet a lot (read: 99%) are desk job positions (ie. translating material from the super-secret eavesdropping machines).

They wouldn't exactly advertise for actual field positions, I'm sure they do most of their recruiting within government circles (ie. not from the civilian population).

I am fairly decently fluent in Spanish. I learned my Spanish when I was 19 and went to Spain for a while for school. Best time of my life, btw. I definitely agree with the whole Italian/Spanish thing. Personally, I think that Italian sounds a lot like, what pot head surfer Spanish speaking dudes would sound like. It's a very slow, relaxed form of spanish. (I can say that, my grandparents are from Italy!)

I never really did get the lisping thing down, but for a while, I had a really hard time adjusting back to english. I definitely said things like "deteputies" (a detective/deputy combo) and "violencized" (heaven only knows what i was thinking). And for the longest time, I completely forgot the word for snails. I would always say caracoles. It was awkward. I don't really find any specific dialect of Spanish to be too fast or anything, but the Spanish on this side of the atlantic is a LOT different. They use a lot of idioms and such that the Europeans don't. It's useful, but I keep it a super secret skill at work.

Dude, I totally am going to use the word "Violencized" now! That's a totally awesome word!