Ambassador offers practical advice to Language Schools graduates

Watch the video of commencement

As a former student in the Russian School, Beyrle opened his address by commenting on how strange it feels to be speaking English on the Middlebury campus where, he remarked, the Language Pledge is always in force during the summer.

The career foreign service officer said that globalization in the 21st century has increased the demand for multi-lingualism, and yet he finds it astonishing that only 18 percent of Americans speak a foreign language. “In Britain the analogous number is 38 percent,” Beyrle said. “Fifty-eight percent of Europeans speak more than one language, and in China now it is estimated that one-fifth of the population is studying English leading some to estimate that in another 30 years the number of Chinese speaking English will outnumber the native-speaking population of English on Earth.”

Quoting Nelson Mandela, he said, “If you talk to man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. But if you speak to a man in his own language, that goes to his heart.” During his 29 years with the State Department, Beyrle has held policy positions and foreign assignments in central and eastern Europe, Russia and the former Soviet Union.

The graduates and guests then rose and marched into the Vermont night led by marshals Jianhua Bai and Antonio Vitti, directors of the Chinese and Italian Schools, respectively, as Emory Fanning, professor emeritus of music, played the recessional on the organ.

Reporting and photography by Robert Keren