The Tools Of the Game

In this rapidly globalizing world, language skills are necessary tools of the game.

Since 1961, the Concordia Language Villages program, a kind of summer camp in Minnesota for young people, has offered immersion programs in 13 languages and cultures. The villages, set up on 900 acres around Turtle River Lake, give students a chance to learn Chinese, Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.

Now the program is adding another village: Al-Waha , the Oasis, to teach Arabic, thanks to $250,000 in the proposed federal budget for the fiscal year ending in October 2007.

During two-week immersion sessions, students will study Arabic and participate in a variety of educational and cultural activities common in Arabic-speaking cultures. The sessions involve native speakers, visa stamps in mock passports, custom control hassles, currency exchange and authentic cuisine -- no overseas travel required.

Last month, President Bush said at a summit of college presidents at the State Department that his administration was launching an initiative to encourage more American children to learn "critical" foreign languages such as Chinese, Hindi, Farsi and Arabic.

Christine Schulze , Concordia's executive director, will meet with State Department officials soon to discuss the budget for the new program.

Each summer, 6,000 students ages 7 to 18 participate in the various programs, Schulze said, adding that children from all 50 states and 32 countries have attended over the years.

Fete for a Foreign Minister

Tzipi Livni , Israel's new foreign minister, was the featured guest at a high-powered dinner party Wednesday given at the residence of the Israeli ambassador, Daniel Ayalon . Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff were seated on either side of Livni, who arrived after meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Cheney , said Glenn Kessler , a Washington Post reporter who attended the event.

In a warm introduction, Ayalon noted that Livni, 47, had risen quickly in seven years to become a close adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon , who suffered a stroke last month, and an important figure in the creation of the centrist Kadima party.

Other guests included Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), as well as Reps. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.), Jane Harman (D-Calif.), Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.), Gary L. Ackerman (D-N.Y.) and Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.).

Assistant Secretary of State C. David Welch , deputy national security adviser Elliott Abrams and principal deputy assistant secretary Liz Cheney were also there, along with old Mideast hands Dennis Ross and Martin S. Indyk and other players such as F. Daniel Abraham , the founder of Slim Fast, and publisher and real estate entrepreneur Mort Zuckerman .

Livni concluded her Washington visit with a meeting yesterday with the national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley . President Bush unexpectedly dropped by and then took her aside for a half-hour, one-on-one session, an Israeli official said.

Ayalon joked that while Livni does not discuss some aspects of her career -- she was a Mossad agent before becoming a lawyer -- perhaps she had been more open with Negroponte.

Urging Action on Energy

The president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso , received an honorary degree at Georgetown University yesterday evening. In an address to guests, Barroso urged the European Union and its member states to jointly tackle the problems Europe is facing in the energy sector.

"We have to do something about this, and we have to do it now," Barroso said. Europe is becoming "ever more dependent on oil and gas imports from geopolitically uncertain regions."

His appeal seemed even more urgent, given a recent wave of protests over cartoon depictions of the prophet Muhammad that first appeared in a Danish newspaper. "Recent events have done a lot to focus minds, and a quiet revolution has been taking place: the development of broad support across Europe for the idea of an integrated energy policy," he said.