"They always seem to think they can cut the training," says Lt. But funding has often been in short supply. In 1981, federal lawmakers said a shortage of military officers fluent in third-world languages posed a threat to the nation's intelligence capabilities and urged the Department of Defense to spend more money on language training. By the 1970s, it was mostly teaching Russian. In 1946, it was renamed the Army Language School and moved from San Francisco to the Presidio of Monterey, at the foot of John Steinbeck-country hills of garlic and artichoke fields.ĭuring the Vietnam War, the school taught an eight-week Vietnamese "survival" course to more than 20,000 military personnel. The school began teaching Japanese to Army soldiers in 1941 in preparation for World War II. Hundreds of people could die if one of our linguists doesn't get the facts right." "Remember, our guys are going into the intelligence community. "Our guys have to get the facts right," Gale says. Though the mood is similar to that of a typical, though slightly rundown, college campus, students are constantly reminded that there are life-and-death consequences behind their lessons.īecause here, language training isn't about ordering moussaka properly in Thessaloniki. Roderic Gale, the school's enthusiastic associate provost and dean of students. There are also several language training detachments at sites in the U.S., Europe, Hawaii and Korea."NSA is the biggest sponsor for our students," says Lt. The DLI’s headquarters is in California, but it has the ability to instruct another 65 languages through its Washington, D.C., branch. He isn’t sure if he’ll stay in the military long term, but either way, he’d like to be a translator or do international business, both of which will make the course worth it. “If you slip up on a test or opt to go out and have drinks with friends instead of study, that can really come back to bite you,” Rutledge said, who will be a cryptologic language analyst when he’s finished at DLI. One thing’s for sure: it takes a lot of focus, especially as a military student. “Sometimes you can express rather complex ideas in very few words or written characters.” “In some ways, the grammar is similar, even sometimes easier,” Rutledge said. Jensen and Rutledge still have a way to go before they finish the course. If the students do well, they get the chance to go to Taiwan or mainland China to do a month of immersive language study. They have to go to training and pass all the tests,” he said. “They don’t only take care of their study, they actually have military duty after class hours. Some students listen to the language in the shower, while others review flashcards whenever they have the chance. Most of the students who do succeed reach the college level of understanding within a year and a half, which requires a lot of studying. “To actually be able to get through to somebody - that’s the reason why we came back here … to try to impart our wisdom to the students now,” Walton said. Walton said the students who make it to the end of the Chinese course have one of the highest passing rates - 95 percent - which makes students’ “ah-ha moments” so satisfying. Some can’t keep up academically, while others fail out due to disciplinary reasons. In general, the success rate for students at DLI is 75 percent. “You have to be interested in it in order for it to be successful,” Rutledge said.Īnd that’s not guaranteed. The school incorporates extracurricular activities such as cooking days, storytelling of legendary warriors and heroes, and there are immersion trips to places like a local Chinese market to get the students to appreciate the culture. ![]() Liu said the key is to link your interests with the language so you can stay motivated and keep up with the pace. “You’re spending so much brain power just trying to understand what you need to do.” The Keys to Learning So, you could say one thing, and depending on the context or tone you say it in, it could have up to five different meanings,” said Jensen, who spent the first few months drinking a lot of coffee and doing pushups to stay awake. Jensen and Rutledge were about a third of the way through the course when we spoke, and they were learning 25-30 words a day, as well as how to distinguish them - an often confusing task. “In a civilian school, this can usually take one semester,” Liu said. Liu said DLI students only need about one week to learn basic syllables and phonetic sequences to the level of greeting people.
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