But comrades, we're Americans.

COLUMN: IN OUR OPINION; EDITORIAL FOOTNOTE 

Many smiled when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented a mistranslated "reset" button to Russia's foreign minister during her recent trip to Moscow. Trying to convey a desire to put U.S.-Russian relations on a fresh course, Mrs. Clinton presented the button, bearing the word "peregruzka." The trouble was, that word means "overload" or "overcharge." What U.S. diplomats had been trying for was "perezagruzka," an awkward but technically correct term for "reset."

Russian bloggers have sniped that even that word is not one a real Russian would likely use to express the thought Mrs. Clinton had. Others have noted the State Department might have remembered real Russians use the Cyrillic alphabet.

Embarrassment aside, the incident reminds us of the lamentable state of foreign language learning in this country. Millions of American students are subjected to years of snail-like progress through French or Spanish textbooks, emerging with bad or nonexistent accents and only a vague idea of how to order a cafe au lait or tapas. Worse yet, many Americans take perverse pride in knowing no language but English.

That must change. Embarrassment is one thing, but serious international crises can emerge from a lack of clear communication. American schools and students need to embrace more effective foreign language teaching. It seems the State Department does, too.