Dutch Now "Critical" Language
By Jay Lurie

SAIS 1st year Strategic Studies student, Greg Callman (left)shaking hands with former SAIS-Di Tella exchange student and Dutch national, Coen Van Iwaarden

Around Washington an outbreak of panic has surfaced regarding the US’s ability to survive in the further globalizing world with relatively few foreign language speakers.

The National Security Agency is sweating at the thought of a dearth of Farsi speaking US citizens as the nation considers strategy on Iran. The US-China Business Council fears Mandarin may suddenly become the international business language, leaving Mandarin-illiterate US businessmen in the lurch. Worse, the Department of Energy dreads the thought of not being able to send newly minted US negotiators to North Korea in nuclear non-proliferation talks due to a lack of Korean speakers.

To address this pressing need, the US Department of State and the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) sponsor intensive language programs abroad for US undergraduate and graduate students vying to master what they consider “critical languages.” These include the three languages mentioned above, as well as Arabic, Bangla/Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, Russian, Turkish, and Urdu.

“After taking two semesters of Mandarin at SAIS and attending a school-sponsored learning trip to China during winter break, an opportunity to return to China to improve my Mandarin would make my SAIS degree even that much more valuable in the global marketplace,” comments 2nd year Conflict Management student, Joseph Bubman.

While beneficial for some, these critical language scholarships have left many students questioning the stringency of the “critical” designation, and wondering why they can’t get funding for other languages that they consider vital, but that the State Department seems to have omitted.

In an effort to appease students before ensuing protests in the halls of Nitze, the SAIS Administration, together with State and CAORC, is now sponsoring immersion in an eleventh newly critical language – Dutch.

SAIS 1st year Strategic Studies student and Dutch language activist, Greg Callman, has for years emphasized the importance of educating Americans in the ancient Germanic tongue. Callman, who lived in Amsterdam for two years before starting at SAIS, expresses disapproval of his many American comrades who, while living in Holland as ex-patriates, order their pancakes in English and frequent Starbucks regularly for Light Java Chip Frappaccinos.

He gripes, “Not including Americans with a Dutch parent, I would say that I am one of a dozen or so Dutch speakers in the United States.” 

Callman attributes the reluctance of Americans to learn this historically prominent European language partly to the “dipthongs,” otherwise known as the gliding vowel, and partly due to the fact that many Dutch nationals are proficient English speakers.

“If Holland were to overhaul its dams into nuclear proliferation facilities, the US would be seriously short-handed [in dealing with such a threat],” warns Callman.  

But with so many more prominent nuclear threats on the horizon, the State Department’s decision to add Dutch to the list of critical languages reveals something more than security concerns.

After wracking up an estimated $850BN current account deficit for 2006, the Bush administration is searching for ways to appease critics and edge closer to external balance. In a hush-hush innovative strategy, the White House has recommended Congress pass a bill to deploy 300 American tulip farmers from the Pacific Northwest to the Dutch countryside in an effort to create a second coming of Dutch “Tulip Mania.”

The first Tulip Mania occurred in the 17th century, when the price of tulips rose exorbitantly to as much as eight times the annual salary of a Dutch worker. Most economists agree that this phenomenon could likely never take place again, especially in a market for an item as useless as the tulip.

Yet scholars and practitioners alike concede that if the American tulip farmers can place their exportable flowers in the hands of Dutch consumers for $1000 a pop, this could make a small but symbolic impact on the current account deficit.
The problem remains, however, that none of these 300 farmers speak a lick of Dutch. In fact, if Callman’s assessment is correct, .000004% of Americans speak the language. The administration’s hope is that through critical language scholarships, the training in Dutch will start with the most ambitious international tradesmen and policymakers (i.e. SAIS students) and trickle down to the tulip farmer in Oregon within a few years.

Currently, SAIS does not even offer Dutch classes, nor does it accept it as a foreign language for graduation requirements. Now, however, SAIS is promoting it as a “critical language” summer program and will prepare to offer five different levels of courses in the fall.

Citing SAIS’s recent drop to number two International Affairs graduate program behind Georgetown, the head of the French language department at SAIS, Dr. Pascale De Souza, comments that for SAIS “to remain competitive among its peers, offering Dutch is not only an attractive opportunity, but it is imperative, and it is urgent.”

De Souza, who was born in the Flemish-speaking northeastern part of France often referred to as Flanders, has agreed to switch roles and head the new Dutch department beginning in 2007. She was offered the position because of the Flemish language’s very close relation to Netherlands Dutch.

De Souza rejoices, “This is an excellent career opportunity for me given the rising importance of Dutch, as not just a powerful European language, but also a powerful global language.” Dutch is also spoken in Suriname (which is at the northeastern tip of South America) and by roughly 1% of Indonesians among other post-colonial pockets of the world. 

Second year SAIS students can now lament about yet another positive academic change that will take place after graduation. Perhaps, this is true, but it’s not too late. After filling out my application to study Dutch as a critical language, I hope to see you at an Amsterdam Coffee Shop this summer.

Jay Lurie plans to move to Holland after he graduates and sell flowers, or maybe arrange flowers, or maybe just frolic in the flowers - he likes to frolic