Honoring language learners.

• Position: Chas W. Freeman - Speech

Editor's Note: Chas Freeman, among many accomplishments in a distinguished diplomatic career, became one of the Foreign Service's premier polyglots, learning to speak several languages including difficult ones such as Arabic and Chinese. He was invited to this spring's graduation ceremonies at West Point to present awards to cadets who had excelled in learning Chinese and Russian. This is the text of his remarks.--Ed.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Corps of Cadets:

The Friendship Award was created seventeen years ago by Major General Bernard Loeffke in memory of Sgt. Larry Morford, a young NCO who saved General Loeffke's life. Sgt. Morford was killed in an ambush 15 days before he was due to come home from Vietnam. To those who knew him, he exemplified the humane spirit of the honorable warrior.

Both while on active duty and since his retirement, General Loeffke--who speaks Chinese, Russian, French, Portuguese, and Spanish and is not bad at English either--has made generous contributions to the betterment of United States relations with China and Russia. I am proud to have served with him and to count him my friend. Two of the awards Burn Loeffke created are now presented annually to the cadets who write the best essays in Chinese and Russian on how to improve our relations with these two great countries. I am very much honored to have been asked to present these Friendship Awards today and pleased that First Secretary Shi Lei of the Chinese embassy has been able to join us for the occasion.

It has been said that "a language is a dialect with an army and a navy." I don't know where the Navy is on this, but I think it's cool that we have an Army that recognizes the importance of learning other armies' languages. It isn't easy to learn foreign languages. You have to be prepared to laugh when you make a fool of yourself, as you inevitably do. So, in addition to training you to communicate and to have a good memory, language learning helps you develop a sense of humor. As Mark Twain once observed, having a sense of humor is better than having no sense at all.

I made a point of learning the language of every country in which I served. Doing so, I thought, was essential both to situational awareness and to the correct understanding of my hosts. But it had its occasional frustrations.

In November 1984, for example, four days after I was transferred from Beijing to Bangkok, I was invited by the Thai chief of intelligence to dine with then CIA Director...