That was what I was waiting for, and I casually asked, "Can you pick up the phone right now, ring the French Information Service and make an inquiry-all in French?" The answer was always no. "But," I would say, "that is what you would have to do in France."
The newspaper already knew about the language deficiencies of college graduates and was doing something about it. It was paying for language instruction for foreign correspondents. I myself took advantage of this program to study German and Russian. I brushed up on French at my own expense.
I found that even a smattering of a foreign language was useful. People were flattered to be addressed in their own tongue. It was helpful just to be able to read the headlines in Pravda, to ask for directions or order lunch. Most important of all was to have some consciousness of what was going on around you, which is well nigh impossible if you do not understand a single word that is being said.
In Moscow I could actually translate an editorial from Izvestia, but it would take me all day; my translator could do it in an hour. However, her English text was often rough. I knew enough Russian to smooth it out before it went to New York.
Ideally, the news media would like all their correspondents to speak the languages of the countries to which they are assigned. But reporters cannot be expected to know languages that are spoken in only one country, such as Polish, Finnish, or Afrikaans-although some have had the luck or persistence to acquire them.
However, every correspondent abroad should be competent in at least one widely spoken language-French, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish and now even Hebrew.
Most major news organizations now expect, or devoutly hope, their correspondents will speak the languages of the capitals in which they are stationed, especially Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Cairo, Jerusalem and those of Western Europe and the Spanish-speaking countries.
Language, however, is not the only requirement, and usually not the most important one. When I was interviewing potential foreign correspondents, I looked especially for some evidence of a deep and genuine interest in foreign affairs, inspired by the applicant's background, experiences or studies.
I myself was not a good example. When I entered college, I had already decided that I wanted to be a writer-initially, a newspaperman. Both my teachers and I thought that an aspiring writer should first learn to write. I majored in English and was enrolled in an advanced class in English composition, various "creative writing" courses and several classes in English literature.
Although I could already write a passable news story, it didn't occur to anybody that what I really needed for the job I would eventually do was a lot of history, government and economics. As it turned out, I found myself reporting on the Great Depression, the New Deal, World War II, the Middle East, postwar Britain, and Russia after Stalin, for none of which I was prepared academically.
Journalists are now better educated. The best of them are instructed not so much in writing as in the subjects they are to write about. The New York Times now rates the qualifications of potential foreign correspondents in the following order: (1) journalistic experience; (2) language ability; and (3) familiarity with international affairs.
The New York Times, like some other major employers, has a college recruitment program, but it does not recruit from journalism schools; it believes a student's time is better spent on substantive matters rather than on the relatively mechanistic techniques of news writing and editing. Scholastic grades do not play a major role. The recruiters look for bright, inquiring minds. Good writing is routinely expected.
From the colleges the paper recruits about 30 entry-level news employees a year, including some potential foreign correspondents. After a year or so, only 1 out of every 12 or 15 is employed permanently. Aside from recruiting by the paper itself, Craig Whitney, assistant managing editor, says he receives about 10 job applications a day, in addition to those that may go directly to the editors of various news divisions, such as foreign, national, metropolitan, business and finance, culture and so on. Whitney figures he interviews one in a hundred applicants and hires two out of every ten interviewed.
Those statistics suggest that the vast majority of aspirants should look elsewhere, and they do. "We are no longer the only game in town," Whitney says. Many journalists find they can quite adequately satisfy their ambitions on less renowned newspapers and in smaller cities.
Some local television news programs are beginning to outsmart the networks. With satellite transmission, they are sometimes able to deliver major world news first. They get a livelier and more immediate audience reaction than the network programs. They make money, and they pay well. Experience on such a station is almost obligatory if you want to make the big time.
It took me seven years to get a job on The Times after I applied. Next time, I waited for them to come to me. By that time I had eleven years of experience in two small towns and five cities, including New York, Washington and London.
While The Times itself shows no interest in journalism schools, smaller newspapers owned by The New York Times Company, some of them with circulations over 100,000 rely almost entirely on journalism schools to supply them with staffs. This is true of many other papers and chains that do not have the time, money, manpower or patience to train people on the job.
Most of these papers, however, do not have foreign correspondents; the Associated Press and United Press International do. My first foreign assignment was with the AP during World War II, and it was a fine place to work and learn.
In those days, Vincent Sheehan, John Gunther, Ed Murrow, Dorothy Thompson, Ernest Hemingway, H. R. Knickerbocker and their ilk had made the foreign correspondent a glamorous figure, a celebrity.
In the 1970s, with Watergate and the upsurge of domestic investigative reporting, interest in foreign assignments declined. Everybody wanted to be Woodward or Bernstein, as played by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. Now, in the 1980s, interest in foreign news seems to be reviving. As memories of Vietnam fade, Beirut, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Grenada, Libya, the Philippines and Haiti and even President Reagan's reassertion of U.S. power and patriotism have aroused interest in foreign reporting again.
There is, however, a new problem-the working spouse. Very few husband-and-wife teams are to be found in foreign bureaus. One spouse usually has to make a choice or an adjustment between marriage and career.
Everything so far said here applies more or less equally to newspapers, news agencies, news magazines, radio and television-all the news media.
