DLI isn't the only intensive 3-letter language school. See how Latter-day Saint missionaries learn languages fast at the MTC 👉🏼 th-cam.com/video/Ox6MdRTc0yE/w-d-xo.html
Having studied Russian, Japanese, and Korean, I can't imagine having to learn any of those in 64 weeks. Very impressed with anyone who can stick out something like that.
The topics are focused on military and political topics mostly, I'm active duty and I know several people who have gone to the school, they struggle with daily conversation, but can translate classified documents like it's nothing
Nice assortment. My daughters and I each took Spanish in school. One daughter has studied Russian, the other has an interest in Japanese, and I’ve been dabbling in Korean. From time to time we will all have a “conversation” in these languages, with a little French and German for good measure.
@@marshingo5262 Yes, I'm at DLI now. There are definitely still areas where one can improve in even after passing the DLPT. You can speak about some high-level stuff by graduation, but you may not be able to flow colloquially like a native speaker.
When learning Russian i found that using the basic methods as language is taught in high school. If you stop to think about it... why it is presented that way you find out that language is just a tool, easy to make use of. Combined with practical experience talking to Russians.. it did miracles. That was a long time ago and i forgot a lot. But it was good to find out that methodic study makes things really easy.
Elle is my daughter! She loves everything Korean and enjoyed her experiences there. I got to visit her while she was stationed in South Korea; it's a wonderful place. Great video!
In 32:15 Elle gives *the* secret tip for all languages/cultures ("Find something to love about the language/culture"), which I am sure helped a lot in achieving all that progress. The story was all well told too. Thank you for telling your language learning story, Elle!
I really loved Elle sharing her experiences learning Korean - my daughter heads to DLI to learn Korean after Basic! Sounds intense but fun. You must be so proud of her!
The quickest path to learning a language is total immersion. It is paramount that you ONLY speak the target language. You CANNOT use your native tongue. Remember, the greatest obstacle to learning a language is already knowing one.
The quickest path to learning a language is to first learn all the grammar and THEN the complete immersion. Otherwise the complete immersion method will take you years and even then with mediocre results.
@@miovicdina7706 That's an erroneous claim. Look up Stephen Krashen's comprehensible input theories for second-language acquisition. Studying grammar is never necessary unless you'd like to teach the language professionally. Immersion is the only way to acquire a language in the same way that you naturally acquire your native language.
@@taylorcandelaria3582 I don't believe that. I have some friends who speak our native language so poorly, that if a foreigner would "immerse" in their community, he would end up speaking like an uneducated person. This would affect his image and it will take longer for him to relearn in a correct manner. I am glad that I have studied English long before I have "immersed" in the English society, because I have discovered that many people (native speakers) write and even speak incorrectly (for example, the "famous" apostrophe!).
The Peace Cors do it, but almost none of them ends up speaking the language. And this, considering that they live in families there, in the local culture and linguistic environment. So, it's a myth.
I studied Italian and on making my first trip to Italy. I was traveling on a train to Rome, when a Japanese girl entered my train compartment and asked me a question in Italian…it was my very first time actually speaking Italian in Italy…I answered her…and we went on to have a great conversation together in a language that was not our own native languages. I will never forget how amazing that felt…the world changed in my mind!!!
I studied German at DLI in the late Eighties. Here was their secret: daily testing and assessment. They’d give you lessons, tons of homework, and a test every morning on the previous day’s work. For us Air Force troops, anything under an 88 was a failing grade. Imagine a school where a “B” is a failing grade! If you failed two days in a row, you washed out. If that happened, they made you a cook or another career. Motivation was high! Throughout the course, they cranked the rigor. At first, they’d give you 50 vocabulary words to memorize daily. By the end of the course, it was 300 words to memorize DAILY! The DLI prepared me to get through college and grad school.
@@058becs You could do it, but you work up to it gradually. I also served as a Latter-day Saint missionary in the years before I joined the Air Force. I went through the Church’s language training for French. We were there for eight weeks. It was challenging, but not nearly like DLI.
This is crazy and insane and whatever other word works 😂 Mad respect to you, learning a language was fun for me cus I took my time, never knew there were courses like this that prioritised speed and results first. Nuff said, the way you learnt was super efficient. Shoulda implemented this strategy or learning style when i was learning German 😂
One of my uncles grew up in the Bronx, he spoke English, Italian, and some Yiddish...In WWII he ended working as an interpreter in North Africa and Sicily, he then learned German, then Japanese, then Korean.....and after 20+ years in the US Army he learned Vietnamese. He had a remarkable ability to pickup on languages.
Learning and even simply hearing a foreign language actually changes a person's brain, creating new neural pathways. Once a person is familiar with a second language, it becomes significantly easier to learn a third or fourth language!
@@bluegoth Gua your dad is a U.S Army , I'm too Honduras immigrant but I just speak Spanish, how did your dad get into the army? Explain me please ? I want to into too
@@bluegoth Yes of course thank you very much for this Information, I'm is studying G.E.D it's tool's to apply after continuing and improving my english. You has than parents immigrant. what advice you give me for improve my english?
Most foreign born military brats grow up speaking two languages at home. Your uncle's generation literally paved the way for my generation to learn these languages growing up. Myself knowing nine plus learning another three due to work.
My dad was almost fluent in Arabic by the time he came back from jordan, he was there for a year and a half. He has some of the language but he can still have a deep conversation with his Jordanian friends in Arabic. It’s really impressive, not a lot of people expect a Mexican guy to speak more Arabic then Spanish.
"7 hours of class a day, 2 hours of homework, and an hour of study, five days a week" Yeah I don't care what "technique" they're using to learn... the time spent is probably the biggest factor.
@@mikeoxbig619 Wow! For the past year I have been grinding, working hard and sacrificing to master russian. At least get to B1 level. Any advice for me now that you have hindsight?
I just got done with Basic, AIT, and Airborne. I'm a 94E (radio & comms repairs) we learned an MOS that was originally 36 weeks in 17 weeks plus info that was added to the original course and it was cut even shorter due to holiday extended weekends. You do get through it if you keep your head up but it's an insane amount of information. We got an average of 4-6 hours of sleep every night plus they made me PG so I had to get up earlier to keep proper accountability of everyone in my platoon, I looked healthy as hell in basic training compared to AIT. I was honor graduate and I still wasn't very confident in my abilities. I just hope I can be proficient in my job since I am national guard and am only practicing my MOS one weekend a month.
@@OscarMikePrecision you had me until the "4-6" hours of sleep thing. That's really dumb on their part. Sleep is the single most important aspect of improvement and learning.
@@DrGetgood Usually the military requires like 7 hours minimum each day for trainees at least. I think it's okay to get less every so often. There's a lot of strict rules for that sort of stuff, including 3 meals a day. It doesn't ways get followed, and maybe once you're a real soldier after basic, there's less emphasis. Once I got to my unit, I never heard of a sleep requirement rule or anything, but we usually got 6~8 hours of free time in between days. So, you'd work for 16 and be off for 8. One time I did have to stay awake for 72 hours while on the radio. Had to reply for a radio check once every hour. Edit: Actually found something on it: "The Office of the Army Surgeon General recommends that soldiers sleep at least seven hours per night, although only a minimum of four hours is required during field training exercises.May 27, 2021"
In the early 80’s I had a girlfriend who joined the Air Force as a linguist. After basic training she spent 6 months at Lackland AFB in Texas doing a full immersion Russian course. For 6 months they spent 5 days per week on a section of the base where she said they were only allowed to speak Russian from day one. They were forced to learn Russian just to function.
@@LesserMoffHootkins It's all about the methodology. I thought the same about German until I came across the videos emphasizing comprehensible input. Although my speaking and writing ability is almost zero, my listening and reading comprehension reached the intermediate level in 12 months.
As a former LDS missionary and US military veteran that studied at DLI, I can attest that the language courses are intense and effective if you apply yourself and have some skills.
@@sebastianmosqueda5959 Obviously there are a couple, for example, quick and clear thinking, good memory recall, focus, etc. Some not quite apparent, but equally important for the immersion process are good visualization in your mind and forcing yourself to "think" instead of translate. You do not want to go the route of having a "translation" machine in your head all the time, you want to see objects/actions and think in the language directly. That being said, dedication and focused hard work are irreplaceable.
@@lukenielsen8397 Great! Thank you sir. I'm currently working on accomplishing the rest of my Spanish. Eventually learning Japanese if possible seeing as how I work with many Japanese people. They learned English. I figure its only fair if I learned a bit of Japanese
I am active duty navy and I studied to be a military Russian linguist at DLI it is no exaggeration when I say it is definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life the stress levels of the school puts Bootcamp to shame but if you make it through the course it is one of the most gratifying experiences you’ll ever have. When you get to that point in class where you realize three months ago you had trouble pronouncing the difference between a chair and a table and now you can listen to a news broadcast and understand is just amazing. It reminds you that the almost unsustainable amount of effort you’re putting in isn’t worthless. this video was fairly accurate about the schooling structure, more so than any other video I’ve ever seen about DLI. The instructors there are extremely skilled often knowing English grammar better than most college students and being able to explain their native language grammar in their second or even third language sometimes. The school is not for the faint of heart but it is a once in a lifetime opportunity that if you’re given it hit the ground running and do your best just remember that even more than your ability to learn the language having a positive attitude can make or break whether you make it through the course.
But it certainly does not sound very encouraging to me, rather instilling fear in me, for my penchant for language learning. These days I am learning French for no set purpose and I am feeling that I am enjoying the process more in this free casual approach!
I call bs. The military likes to make things difficult and stressful just for the sake of being difficult and stressful. Language learning is a process that involves continuous exposure over time. It is not something that can be intensely drilled into you. It would be like trying to drink from a fire hose.
I am an Army veteran and graduated the Arabic program at DLI-FLC in 2001. It really was the hardest thing I had ever done up to that time, but it is also one of my proudest accomplishments. The attrition rate for Arabic at the time was 2/3, with half of those being kicked out of DLI entirely for showing a lack of effort. The other half of those were kicked out of the language and may or may not be reassigned a new, easier language for lack of ability. The latter was always more desirable because those people either got put in an easier language class and continued in their jobs or got reassigned to another non-linguist job but usually a decent one. Those kicked for lack of effort, however, typically got chewed out thoroughly for failing to give 100% and then were reassigned to what was often the least desirable job the Army could find for them at the time - they were made an example. The two veterans you interviewed had somewhat differing experiences from mine, but things do change over time in the Army as anywhere else. For example, we actually learned exclusively Modern Standard Arabic for a very long time, and the last portion of our training was more focused on learning three major dialects at the same time while maintaining our MSA skills and preparing for our final exams. We were given about 100 new words every day for most of the course, and the next day we would have a 100 question quiz on those same words worth 100 points total at one point per word. If you scored less than 90 on a quiz, you failed the quiz. The idea as they explained it to me was that in the military, in life and death situations there is no room for error, so 90% is considered the very worst acceptable score, rather like a D- in high school. If you failed three quizzes during the course, you were kicked out of the Arabic program. If you consistently scored at or near the 90% cutoff, you were usually assigned remedial training during your lunch periods and/or after school, usually in the classroom with a teacher or MLI. To graduate with good scores and fluency you had to do a lot of extra study outside of class anyway. I practiced on my own for about six hours a day after class (stayed up late) around my military duties. It paid off, and I graduated at the top of my class, but to say it was intense is an understatement. I did not take "Jack's" advice much to enjoy Monterey. 9/11 happened during our training there and we were advised we could expect to play a crucial role in the war and that we were to be deployed pretty much immediately upon graduation. I think partly because of that, I wanted to make sure I was as close to native proficiency as I could get. I didn't want anyone dying because I mistranslated a crucial bit of information. I did make time to explore Monterey a bit on the weekends, but I also kept up on my studies seven days a week, so I went out a lot less than most. Any fun had to fit around that, because I wanted to be the best I could be in my language. I didn't want to learn Arabic originally (I hate the heat and the dessert), and I even tried in vain once to work out a language trade with a guy in Russian, but I learned to love Arabic and the Arab people in the end. My experiences there spurred a lifelong love of languages and other cultures. I now speak many languages, although Arabic is still my strongest language next to English, and I love being what I call a "word nerd". Also, something they failed to really mention is that the teachers at DLI are a HUGE part of the success of language learners there, and they deserve a serious shoutout for their dedication, patience, and excellence as teachers. Having native speakers to explain all the nuances of the language makes a huge difference, and the MLI's rounded it out with their language learning experience. I could not have graduated without all the amazing support of my MLI and الأساتذة (professors/instructors). I still remember every one of their names and faces, and I am still grateful to each of them, although I am sadly aware at least one has passed away now. Anyway, thanks for sharing this. It was a fun walk down memory lane. I hope you don't mind me sharing my experiences here.
Wonderful story, thank you! Do you believe that the intensity you describe was always beneficial? 100 words a day seems totally unrealistic, however much effort you put in.
@@storylearning I do think the intensity was consistently beneficial, at least in my language and in my specific case. The vocabulary tests were extremely hard, but Arabic has a very large lexicon of words to learn, and we had to know a very large portion of them in order to graduate. Despite how difficult it sounds a good number of us did graduate and that should speak for how attainable it actually is with enough focus and effort. I think part of the reason it seems unrealistic to many is the difference in context. As a civilian, perhaps as a college student, there is little riding on your learning a language to a very high level of proficiency in a short period of time. Under most circumstances, the worst that will happen is you could offend someone accidentally, get corrected perhaps, and one day you all look back and laugh about it. Or perhaps you order something disgusting by accident and have to either stomach it or risk offending. In stark contrast, in the Army a single mistranslation at the right moment could cost a life or even multiple lives. The accuracy simply MUST be there. That means knowing all the words, because dictionaries aren't always around in the field. There were many times I honestly thought I could not meet the high standards to graduate, but I cared a lot about my job and my fellow soldiers, so for me as for many others failure was simply not an option. We worked hard, maybe missed out on some fun here and there, and we definitely went through a lot of stressful study sessions, but we ultimately picked up one of the world's hardest languages. We went from having never even heard the language before, at least in my case, to professional proficiency in less than two years. I don't honestly believe that would be possible without that level of intensity. Because I attended just as 9/11 happened, learning the language exceptionally well and learning it quickly was being heavily emphasized in the Arabic classes, as well as a few other languages from the region. I still remember the Colonel visiting our class on 9/11 to tell us all that our jobs had just become a lot more important and we needed to study harder than ever. That is a long explanation to say that under the circumstances and at that time I do think it was necessary, but perhaps not so much under other circumstances. They change policies and approach in accordance with the times, I think. I remember being told that before we arrived things had once been much more relaxed at DLI. We got there just as Drill Sergeants were being brought back to DLI for the first three months of school for Army personnel, then we moved to a more traditional unit structure if our school extended longer than a few months. I understand they have Drill Sergeants the entire length of all schools now, and there are a lot of other changes to their routines. It is still an amazing place, though. It was hard but I have so many fond memories of DLI and would do it again in a heartbeat.
I loved your response! thank you for sharing your DLI experience. I’m one of the Arabic/Levantine instructors who developed the MSA course (2004) and the Levantine Dialect course (2011). I teach the post basic_Distance Learning now! I love my job! And I love my students! 💕☺️
Love hearing this. I'm just starting here and I'm MSA, also. USAF though. Not much seems to have changed from what I understand of what's ahead of me. I won't be able to do the 6 hours extra a day you did as I'm a mom also. However, I will do all I can to have that level of proficiency as possible! Thanks for paving the roads for all of us following you.
This is by far the most interesting video I've ever seen. I'm an absolute lover of learning languages. I speak German, Spanish, Italian, and just recently Japanese. I'm almost 50 years old and I marvel when people say you can't learn a language at 50. I'm entirely self-taught and have no difficulty learning languages easily. Hearing about the process is getting me so excited. I'm going to map out a course for myself to learn these ways and I bet I'll learn new languages even better than my old process. Thank you.
While it is true that language, math, and music are processed in the same place in the brain and people with one of those aptitudes can easily usually pick up the other two, anyone can learn a foreign language. It is *outstanding* that you are curious enough to embrace other languages. It enriches one's life by having done so.
@kingdomprincess I would suggest adapting some of the techniques in this video. Find things that keep you interested. If you enjoy Journaling or singing then listen to French music and sing with it. Find the translation and when you sing it again, hear it also in English (in your head). I would suggest one song at a time. Maybe just the same song for a week to get pronunciation and translation down. You can re-write a poem that you love in French. Make your grocery list in French. I think the easiest way is to adapt the learned language into your daily life so it is simultaneously being absorbed. Also, when you finally visit you'll be amazed with how your brain has stored the information. The foods you normally eat will be at your verbal fingertips. You'll know how to ask for the food in French. Lastly, I believe that listening to TH-cam videos in the background or even while sleeping allows some programming. I've done this with basics such as numbers and the alphabet. During your waking hours you can practice the same information. Great process while driving simply because of how the brain runs on auto-pilot when we drive. Listen and repeat the same videos you are sleeping to. You must practice saying everything because the way the mouth is shaped and tongue lands in the face is different with each language. Haha. Sounds strange because I'm not being technical here. Nonetheless, it's factual. Good luck!
My daughter is a linguist via DLI (military) and learned Korean. She can speak it, read it, and write it. Plus they learn the history, culture, and society. I love to listen to her speak it.
@@nineteenfortyeight, what does that have to do with learning a language. You must not know why that school is used by the military. I’m not Russian, but I’m learning the language anyway. Any person can learn any language, that’s the beauty.
@@culby276 May I test her Korean by having a conversation in Korean with her? I'm Korean and living in Korea, what's her social media if it's okay? I'm really curious! I want to know if she sounds natural or if she sounds like google translate when talking
I was a Russian DLI graduate from 1989. Your video is very accurate, and I noticed how much has changed since I went through the course. I work in an elementary school now, and there is a newly arrived student from Russia who doesn't speak English. Unfortunately, not having used Russian since I left the military 30 years ago has me barely remembering even basic words and phrases. I've been Googling those, and the pronunciation is still there, because she understands everything I say, or at least is very happy to hear an adult attempting to speak her language!
1965, DLIWC, Monterey, CA. Day one, hour one, minute one of Chinese Mandarin instruction, the head of the department enters the classroom and starts pounding his fist on the table, saying in a loud voice 這個是什麼? over and over until we dumbfounded students started to repeat it back to him. When he was satisfied that we were at least repeating it semi-intelligibly he stopped, changed the phrase, pointed with his index finger at the table and said 這個是桌子! We got the idea and recited back to him as best as we could. From that day onward, whenever I hear someone say, "What is this?" I have to stifle the urge to blurt out "This is a table!"
I learned the Czech language in 1985 at DLI. My sister and I eventually flew to the Czech Republic. I was shocked when the Czechs understood what I was saying! It was wonderful.
Wow, I am from Czech Republic and as far as I can say - every nation is very pleased when somebody is learning their language, especially the one which you can not use in other countries - like it is very different to learn spanish because you can use it worldwide but when you learn czech you can only use it in Czech Republic :)
The way diplomats learn languages to a high level is also really inspiring to me, especially as somebody majoring in International Relations the instruction even at college level is really good and intense. They also assign you a language in college and on the job depending on the government's needs
@@storylearning I'm from Russia! Saint Petersburg State Uni, lots of people in my class got assigned difficult languages like Farsi and Japanese/Chinese(+English) and the courses are focused on difficult vocab, pronunciation and fluency, you also have classes about politics and law all in that language
I am a portuguese teacher and very often I get diplomats from the U.S who need to work in Brazil for, usually, two years and they learn the STANDARD language very proficiently, yes! But they always go for private tutors to get the REAL language lessons. They all say the same, they are paid to learn the language 8 hours a day from monday to friday and it's a very intense course and mostly taught in the target language once they already have the basics of it. But they focus a lot on standard language, that is, content from newspaper, tv news, diplomatic vocabulary and etc. But it's very hardcore the way they study and that's why they get a good fast result!
I was at DLI for two years. I wish I could go back again. Life changing. And you make life long relationships with some incredible people who share the same interest in language as you. It’s incredible.
@@nala6846 was originally slotted for Chinese but there were too many of us with that language marker on our initial contract so we all got shuffled around. I got put into Spanish which was fine but kind of boring as I was already fluent in French so though it helped I wanted more of an intellectual challenge lol
@@CosmicEngimas I didn't take it seriously tbh. I've maintained a 2+/2+ in mandarin for 4 years now lol. I think (at least with mandarin) your brain either gets it or it doesn't. Some peopleI knew studied for hours every day and still failed out of the course. Whereas I never studied at all and I never failed a single quiz or test the entire course.
@@CosmicEngimas Russian, 1971. From my barracks window at the top of the hill (Company C--650 men, all 4 services, all Russian students) I could look out over the Presidio and the bay, and see the red tracer bullets from the machine guns at Fort Ord--Infiltration Course. Did that once in Basic at Fort Leonard Wood--low crawling in full gear with M-16 cradled on my elbows under barbed wire through mud with the machine guns firing live ammo 3 feet off the ground. As bad as the stress of my 6 hours of class / 6 of homework was, those glowing red tracer bullets shooting over the cliff into the bay reminded me of how much worse it could be. Wash out of DLI and be in infantry AIT the next day then Vietnam.
I trained in Taekwondo with a man entering the Navy. Possibly the worst at speaking the Korean we used in class (Korean instructor). He came back 12 months later after linguistics training and my instructor was BLOWN away. He said he sounded just like a native speaker from North Korea. He was shocked. It was very impressive.
This goes with my theory that you SHOULD focus on a particular accent/regional dialect from the beginning of language acquisition. The more accustomed to accents and phonics in a language, the more intuitive and fluent you can become. People always say "accent is not as important", but I've met too many people who speak a language fluently with absolute unintelligible pronounciation.
I'd say, it depends. People study languages for different purposes, and some of them may require as subtle accent as possible, and some may not. If you just want to communicate, accents aren't important. You may even notice them (for example, I can notice major features of Argentinian or Andalusian Spanish) - but mimicking them is a separate task, and many times it isn't necessary at all.
Worked in Iraqi with a graduate of DLI with a Navy Seal Team, the native speaker interpreters had trouble understanding her as she had no "accent" in her Arabic. My self taught arabic they had no trouble understanding what I spoke as I always listened very carefully to native speakers Arabic.
Technically one isn't considered fluent unless one can speak a language without any discernible foreign accent, but to do so often means a bit of accent from the second language creeps into one's first language.
One of my highschool teachers was in this program for spanish. The way he described it was insane, it sounded so so rigorous. He learned spanish entirely in like six months
I have spoken Spanish my entire life. I grew up in Puerto Rico. I went to DLI for Russian (12 months), but I had friends in the Spanish course (6 months). You are correct. I saw many students come in who could barely say "Taco", and they were having full conversations with me by the time they graduated.
As for communication skills I learn whole sentences saying them aloud. 5 days - 300 repetitions per day at least. Later I don't need to translate. I know the meaning of words straight away like in my native language. And also I remember the meaning longer than by learning separate words. This method is called: chunking. It was a real game changer in my learning process in English and other languages.😊
I had a high school teacher that was in the program too but for Russian. All he told us was that he intercepted and translated messages. He wouldn’t tell us about any of those messages said obviously. He was a communications and English teacher, so he did like freshman level, English classes, and journalism and media classes, so he was in charge of lake, our media program, and the program that we used to create our own little news broadcast. It was really cool. I learned a lot from him. but once, every once in a while, he would take on a student to do an independent study in Russia. This could only happen during one of his prep periods. You had to basically prove yourself before he would take you on. You already had to have one language under your belt and have a plan and reason for why you wanted to do this. I think it was to meet some sort of state requirements. One girl in my graduating class learned German, and then for whatever reason Spanish, and then he accepted her independent study Russian. She did the class, and he must’ve written her a letter of recommendation or something because she later gotten into Westpoint and was trained in Arabic. She worked for the military for years translating Arabic messages, and then retired at like 30 and opened a dance studio.all this to say: this is how teachers change lives, and how important both of this program is to people and our military, and our national security, as well as two citizens later down the line, a generation or two later. Learning about what these people go through has been really fascinating.
The language aptitude test was really fun. Didn’t want it to end. Spent about 2 years at DLI studying Russian in the 70s. I’m impressed with the improvements made to the program, especially the immersion and simulation exercises.
That's exactly why Russian is not a pseudo international language. Because you always can talk with spies or representatives of foreign military. [someone, bring the Sarcasm sign]
I did the ASVAB back in 1984 and based on the results, they pushed me towards learning Chinese. Being that it was the Cold War, I told them that I wanted Russian and got it.
@@Zipperneck. wait, one question. So my mother signed me up for the ASVAB because she thought it "would act as a practice test for the SAT." She didn't even know it's an army exam...So am I fucked or no?
Curious if you knew Kevin Kelly (my brother) . He was also studying Russian there in the early 70's. He went on to spend his life as a Russian Language Specialist in various capacities, working for DLI as an instructor (after serving in the army in Germany), as an interpreter and translator for the US State Dept and NASA, and at the Marshall Center in Garmish-Partenkirchen in the Bavarian Alps in Germany. Enlisting when the draft came out and ending up having the opportunity to study at DLI formed an amazing pathway for his life. I had the highest respect and admiration for his expertise and profound understanding of language learning and communication in all the languages he eventually mastered. DLI is a fine program.
In brief: The video is about the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monterey, California, where the US military trains its personnel in foreign languages. The DLI offers an intensive language learning program that lasts between 36 to 64 weeks, depending on the complexity of the language. The video provides an in-depth look at the training process, the daily schedule, and the experiences of the students. Here's a summary of the main points: 1. **Admission**: To qualify for the linguist job in the military, candidates must pass the Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB), a test that assesses their ability to learn new languages. The test is based on a made-up language to ensure fairness. 2. **Language Assignment**: After basic training, recruits are assigned a language based on their test scores and the military's current needs. They don't necessarily get to choose the language they want to learn. 3. **Training**: The training is extremely intensive. Students spend up to a year and a half immersed in their chosen language. The instruction is initially in English, but as students progress, teachers use less English and eventually switch to teaching entirely in the target language. 4. **Instructors**: The instructors are either civilian native speakers or highly educated military language instructors. They come from over 90 countries. 5. **Classroom Experience**: Classes are held from Monday to Friday, with six hours of language learning each day. The course is divided into three semesters, each focusing on a different theme such as history, geography, or culture. The instruction includes grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension work. 6. **Self-Study**: Students are expected to do a lot of self-study, including memorizing vocabulary words, making recordings of themselves speaking the language, and transcribing recordings. 7. **Immersion**: The DLI has an isolation immersion facility where students can live for up to three days, interacting in an environment where only their new language is understood. They also have simulations to prepare them for real-world situations. 8. **Assessment**: To graduate, students must reach level two, which means being able to understand the gist of a conversation or accurately pick out facts from a news broadcast. Some jobs require a higher level of understanding. 9. **Advice**: The video ends with advice from former students, who emphasize the importance of finding something to love about the language and appreciating the unique opportunity to learn a language intensively. The video also mentions some resources available to the public, including the Global Language Online Support System (GLOSS) and a practice DLAB test available on Amazon.
I learned Dutch to an advanced level in about 3 months or 300 hours of study as I focused on it for about 3 or 4 months, and I didn’t even try hard, and still watched mostly entertaining videos, because Dutch words are so pretty, and one’s hern tends to remember prettier and more distinctive words faster, and I’m learning pretty languages for fun, so it’s a hobby for me, and I am also intermediate level in Norwegian / Swedish / German and beginner level in Icelandic / Welsh / French / Breton / Gallo / Hungarian / Galician / Old Norse and most other Germanic / Celtic / Latin languages and a few other pretty languages, and I also discovered Slovenian a few days ago, which also seems to have a lot of pretty words - I noticed that, after learning Dutch, learning German has magically become so easy, and I find that I can understand lots of sentences in German now, just because some of the words have the same root as the Dutch words, and I can tell what they mean in that context, and I can even remember new words in German faster, so this makes it even easier, plus the sentence structure is the same in German as it is in Dutch, so I don’t even have to worry about it because I am already used to it!
I highly recommend the learning method of transcribing recordings. This is a quick way to check if your hearing and pronunciation are correct. This method also trains learners to adapt to the pronunciation of gernal native speakers, rather than what a teacher with standard pronunciation speaks.
My military son went to the DLI to learn a language straight out of Basic Training. Now, five years later he is back at the DLI learning another language (they needed more linguists and he volunteered). I went to Language Day in 2019 and it was an incredible experience! The DLI opens its doors to the public only one day a year (unfortunately I can’t go this year because it’s on a work day). There is native music and dance, poetry readings in different languages, food trucks with many different cuisines of the world…the students get to show some of what they are learning and it felt like a celebration all day! If you ever have the opportunity to go, don’t miss it!
I learned Spanish quickly by moving to Costa Rica and finding a girlfriend. I moved in with her family and I was fluent in a couple months. Everyone in town was shocked. Now I surprise Spanish speaking people in the states all the time by striking up a conversation in Spanish. I miss Costa Rica, it's a beautiful country with lots of awesome people.
That’s how I became fluent in German in 9 months. After 3 months I was speaking and laughing along children audio books. Business level took me a few extra months. At the end of the 9th month I was writing college papers.
@@sumairymendez6936 I loved Germany and I took some classes because I thought I'd move there. But when I learned Spanish and didn't use the German I forgot most of it.
@@comfortablynumb9342can you tell more about how you picked up language that quick, and how you travelled without plan, what job you had ? Very interested
@@oliverneborachko4552 I needed to get away from some people and habits in FL and I had always loved Costa Rica and wanted to live there since I was a kid. I went a couple times on vacation with my family and some of them moved there. So they had some friends in Pavones and they set me up down there. I rented a cabina and before long I hooked up with one of the owner's nieces. I moved in with her family. They spoke a little bit of English and I spoke a little Spanish. And I intended to stay so I wanted to learn. I can learn languages pretty easily so it didn't take long. I fished and farmed there too.
I studied Mandarin Chinese here in 2000-2001, Despite not having taken any formal classes in the past 20-ish years (just a bit of self-study now and then to brush up), and not being exposed to the language regularly, I still feel very comfortable speaking it when the opportunity arises! DLI is literally the only thing about the US military that I can speak positively of.
@@Yurzys If you need to result to (1) assuming someones political alignment and (2) attempting to insult them as if their opinion & personal experience is someone less valuable than yours, then what you have to say has about as much value as you attributed to them.
My brother studied French from Alliance Francaise. The did a similar thing, the instructor spoke in French the moment they stepped in. They know you are beginner so they did a lot of body language to make you understand but never used English in a sentence. They did movie days where they watch movies and review them, game days when they play children games, all the while only speaking in french. Helped him a lot and he learnt french enough to have a conversation within 6 months.
Hey! Tagalog Language speaker at DLI from 2010's. Never thought I was good at learning the language, but when I passed the language exam and heard about the bonus (10k if you complete the school) I was in! I think the schedule is not as harsh as you explain here, at least during my time there and in the Marines which is the most disaplined of the branches (dont let anyone tell you otherwise). Most of the time we were drinking and studying, I remember one of my neighbors would always get drunk and listen full blast to filipino music for his "study time". It was the closest think I ever came to a frat house or sorority. 8 hours a day, all together just trying to learn tagalog. The teachers were also super harsh, I laughed when the guy got the response that his russian was shit, because that is so true. The teachers let you know when you sound like a 5 year old. But they also care about you and are equally proud when you do well on exams. My teachers at least never spoke slowly and always gave us a hard time when we tried to use english to explain. Every DLI learner will remember when they started dreaming in their targeet language, and breaking that fourth wall when they start thinking and joking in that language, when they start to prefer the target language over their native one, and finally they feel just as natural speaking that language as they do the english.
@@ashleymiller4318 very interesting. I've always been curious about the DLI Center in Monterey every time I'm in the area. I didn't know they teach Tagalog as well. Growing up in the Philippines, I hated learning Tagalog in school. Grammar was a pain. Learned more by reading Filipino comics. Marunong ka pa bang magsalita ng wikang Tagalog? Whew! That was a mouthful 😂
@@teban6560 Oh yes, there is a reason why even filipinos like to mix in english and spanish to their language. We were forced to read some of Jose Rizal works in pure tagalog and it was mind numbing
@@ashleymiller4318 yikes! I dreaded the required reading of his 2 books. I remember having more fun memorizing the Gettysburg Address in speech class and reciting it in front of the whole class. Nerve-wracking but so much easier. I don't know how Abraham Lincoln's famous speech became a requirement in our curriculum. This was back in the 80's.
I learned Korean in 64 weeks in DLI in 2011-2013. What a time! As for "sound and script", we didn't have that. We had an "optional" headstart program before the 64 weeks started to learn the sounds in an afternoon and a few phrases for a couple of days. Week 1 of official class was hitting the ground running with introductions/salutations + vocab study.
I honestly don't consider 64 weeks "fast". I studied Korean, and recognize it to be among the half-dozen _hardest_ languages offered, but given the density of daily training, I think the time could be cut to under a year if some of the old-school drill and kill, and delayed-speech, etc. methodologies were re-introduced in modern CAI audio-visual garb. What I'm getting from this video is that you guys have been run through nothing more than a super-intensive version of what I went through in university Korean; and as dumb as that was, if I had to do it morning to evening I'd have wound up speaking like a native in year. If I had to do it leading-edge on the other hand... 6 months. Granted I live where there is a large Korean population, and an all-Korean big supermarket/cafe where you could spend 10 minutes and never hear any English at all.
@One Two Three Incorporated bruh s&s was definitely NOT semester 1. I still have my books any sound and script learned was done in 1 day in head start before the start of the course. How are you going to tell me what i went through?
@One Two Three Incorporated except i never said a damn thing about what YOU did you ding dong. If you read either comment i wrote, you'd see it's of MY experience at a specific time in a specific schoolhouse. So no, we NEVER called it s&s and if we spent semester 1 on that, we'd never get anything done. Hell, even the DLI transcript doesnt call semester 1 anything remotely resembling s&s. But please go off.
As a functioning bilingual whose second language was, at first, a learned language, I am convinced that the key to this type of language learning is the acceptance of discipline. Any method works, when the students are this disciplined and dedicated.
You've obviously done a lot of work to put this video together. It was very interesting to see what has changed and what's still the same since I graduated from DLI in German in 1970. It was a wonderful experience!
I graduated the Korean course in 1991. It appears that their training and school have become more intense and immersive since then. It was truly amazing and the friendships you form with your fellow linguists will last your entire life. Great video and trip down memory lane.
I am creating Arabic language learning lessons in English for beginners. Your support, suggestions and advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks a ton
I attended DLI to study North Vietnamese in 1973. 45 years later I was talking Vietnamese at a nail salon with a woman who told me my Vietnamese was very good, “elegant.“ I have had formal studies in eight languages and since DLI I have found all the commercial language learning products to be too slow. We learned a high-octane method of study, and we learned how our minds best absorb a language for memorization and conversation. I learned as much about myself as I did the language. PS-I may be the only person on earth who speaks both North Vietnamese and Swahili! :-)
i think commercial language products are too slow for most people! i used to teach classes, and then later i taught private 1-on-1 lessons and the latter was so much more effective because you could go at the pace of the student. fast or slow!
I went to DLI. There are civilian programs that we were allowed to attend if we wanted to get additional immersion time after graduation. Middlebury College in Vermont was one of those options. I never did that, I did an in-country immersion, but by all accounts Middlebury is very good.
@@TheInterestingInformeri was just about to mention this. literally my dream to attend and the fact that you can’t speak ANYTHING other than your target language (unless in certain personal circumstances i think but don’t fully remember) sounds so challenging but so intriguing as well cause everyone is going through the same struggle
Fantastic! I love this video. I am sending it to my friends and family now. I am a US Army honor graduate of the Arabic program at DLI from 1987. It was a grueling experience that I love to this day. It laid the foundation for a career that has lasted for decades. It opened doors for me in media, diplomacy and of course, security and defense. I worked all over the Middle East and Africa and was able to pass as a native speaker. The skills I learned put me in harms way, but also saved my life. I worked solo on the streets of Baghdad in 2003-2005. I was able to pass valuable intelligence to our allies from conversations I heard on the streets. I am so glad to have found this video. Thank you for your wonderful work!
I was in German class at DLI when the wall came down in fall of 1990 (yeah, I know--it was reunification, not wall--addressed in comments but editing to avoid more comments 😁). It was an amazing experience. Our instructors used almost no English from the start, but of course that's easier with German than for some other languages. We were housed with fellow German students and encouraged to use the language even when not in class. I knew no German at all when I arrived and could communicate at a pretty high level at the end
I've found over years teaching - and learning myself - is that motivation is the driving force to persue languages (and anything for that matter). It's hard to imagine a bigger motivator than not dying.
100% disagree. Learning under duress is not conducive to retention. Think about the when you were in college cramming for an exam, how did you do, how was the retention?
Yeah, if someone told me I needed to learn Mandarin to say a C1 level in 18 months, and they said there's a $1m reward if I were to manage it, I'm farily certain I'd acheive it. The trouble is, you can't fake that kind of motivation. A _genuine_ drive has to be there, and that usually requires a genuine reward, which 99.9 times out of a 100 isn't, "It would be really cool to be fluent in Mandarin." For one person in a thousand that might be enough, but the rest of us will give up because it's nowhere close to enough of an incentive for the amount of work it takes.
@@gfuentes8449 Procrastinating and cramming is not conductive for learning, but learning under stress with enough time is effective. To this day I can still solve kinematic equations from memory even a decade later.
Fluently speaking two foreign languages (Mandarin Chinese and English) I've learned that one of the best ways to learn a language fast is to involve your emotions. You memorize new words quickly when you're in a native environment, so when learning on your own you can try to curate that exiting or stressful feeling by learning new vocab from movies about traumatic experiences (example: "tangshan earthquake" for mandarin) or reading erotic novels (manga/manhua for asian languages works great too). And watch tiktoks in that language! It works wonders, really helps to get that native feel in your speech.
I speak 14 languages and i came to the same conclusion. You have to use emotions and feelings then you talk to yourself by imagining talking to someone else but still feeling the feelings like in an actual conversation
@@befalanguageschool1919 that is sound, in neuropsychology it is known the importance of the amygdala with the formation of memory. If you are capable of mixing emotions with information, it will definitely help to retain it faster. That is why it is better to teach languages with comic books and fun stories, meeting people and dating. The more fun you have, the better and faster retention.
I graduated from DLI in 1971, German language. Scored a 4 in the course, at that time the highest score attainable. A 5 would indicate native speaker. I can still read German pretty well, 52 years later. That was a GREAT way to learn. We had two teachers over the 8 months, one from Vienna, the other, from Hamburg. The process described here is much advanced over the training we received.
DLI '73, Deutsch. Ich frage mich, ob Sie Herrn Trautmann hatten? Und ich erinnere mich ehrlich gesagt nicht an meinen anderen Ausbilder, aber er hatte einen Arm. Er war ein Veteran der deutschen Armee aus dem Zweiten Weltkrieg und verlor seinen Arm im Krieg.
My grandfather went to Monterey in the military and learned Russian during the Cold War. He worked as a codebreaker during the korean war in Japan breaking and translating soviet code. He didn't speak much of his service, and always fought tooth and nail for my family to never join the military but i'm proud he was able to study one of the hardest languages at the DLI.
I went through DLI for Korean from 2002 to 2003. Full disclosure: I was a washout from the course. I was fortunate enough to be already be multilingual, so I was able to go on to be a military linguist. My main criticism with the DLI method is that they tend to focus heavily on syntax and grammar at the front rather than learning expressing basic needs. I believe that learning a second language as an adult should mirror how one learns their first language: express basic needs and build on that. DLI works because they force a large volume of people through it with the hopes of getting certain percent out. It’s sink or swim there.
You might have found it interesting that the Chinese program did not follow that method at all. Our first phase was Mandarin Chinese, a Modular Approach, and within the first three months we were conversant with precisely what you addressed, namely all the basic needs. So from directions to clothes, food, and all the structure needed to be able to navigate in the language, we had that all up front, then we started building vocabulary and of course working on characters.
@@busterbiloxi3833 The Chinese course was only 47 weeks, but for most of those weeks it was all day in class, average of 2-3 hours homework, and same on the weekends. Testing multiple times a week, and if you failed more than a few rapid fire drills or tests, you were dropped. All grades were posted publicly to increase the pressure on performance, but on the bright side, there was no forced curve, so in theory, everyone admitted to each class can graduate provided they do the work and pass.
My brother studied languages at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in California. The pace of study was intense. Students had to master the language course in 36-64 weeks. Psychologically it was very difficult, but fortunately he was helped by Yuriy Ivantsiv's book "Polyglot Notes. Practical tips for learning foreign languages”. The book " Polyglot Notes" became a desk book for my brother, because it has answers to all the problems that any student of a foreign language has to face. Thanks to the author of the channel for this interesting video! Good luck to everyone who studies a foreign language and wants to realize their full potential!
Hi Matilda. That's where my brother went, too, to learn Russian. He was there maybe 1978/1979. I believe from there he went to Goodfellow to study some more.
Studied Russian at DLI, graduated in 2020. Was super cool to hear you talk about it. My course was 52 weeks, and luckily plenty of people in my class passed, thanks for the cool video!
I attended DLI for German immersion as a military spouse, but it was a special program as we were getting set to move to Germany as part of an exchange program. The experience in the program laid the foundation for my eventual fluency, and it has also helped me learn other languages. Very great video.
Hey my parents both work at the DLI! One thing thing to note is that they learn these languages because they are completely immersed into the language it’s honestly pretty cool to see them improve at the languages
well its as close as they're getting. I would say it is immersion. The teachers talk only in the language they're learning. The entire school day (8 hours) is nothing but Farsi.@RetreadPhoto
When I was in Marine Corps bootcamp, I was pulled out one day to see how well I did with languages, something about how I did on the ASVAB.. It was all audio, and a made-up language. We were supposed to figure out what they were talking about based on what we heard. I apparently didn't do so well and continued on with basic training. It was a cool experience though. Probably why I still suck at hearing and understanding Russian after 5 years 🤣
@Vadim Mikhailov Да, я согласен на сто процентов! Но мне очень нравится его изучать. Я могу говорить чуть чуть, но когда дело доходит до понимания русской речи, мой русский отстой 🤣
So fascinating to hear about this language instruction. I studied language both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and in between I joined the Peace Corps where I was able to learn the indigenous language Guarani in Paraguay. Part of the challenge was that we had a limited amount of formal training. After that, I continued acquiring the language in my site learning as best I could through daily interactions and situations. Although it was most certainly difficult, it was also greatly rewarding.
Yes, I was disappointed when I learnt how short the Peace Corps language programs were before they advanced their volunteers to their respective assigned countries. I had once considered joining the Peace Corps for, amongst other things, the language training. I chose the War Department instead. One of my best friends at the DLI was a Peace Corps alum. He is now dead, having been felled by the enemy in Afghanistan. (Note: Former Peace Corps volunteers can join the U. S. military with a waiver. Well, practically anyone with a pulse now can, to include the entire crew of "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome," but that is another matter. Project 100 has been resurrected. 😂) There is a reason for everything. For American learners, I highly recommend Middlebury College's summer language programs.☮️ 🕊
I'm a '72 graduate with honors, tied for 2nd in my Spanish class of DLIWC. One of the best experiences of my life. I really enjoyed the video; excellent job.
This one and how the Mormons learn languages have been my favorites so far. Thanks for gathering and curating this info - your generosity is astounding!
Very interesting video! A lot of this is very similar to how my Japanese language school taught Japanese. I studied for 72 weeks at a language school in Japan and by the end of it I was able to apply for, test, and get into a University in Japan. Between language school, University, and later work, I ended up living for 10 years in Japan which was a fantastic experience. The idea brought up in the video a few times about also learning the culture hits home a lot when thinking about Japanese as a language since it's a very contextual based language, so having that knowledge background goes a long way.
I completed the Arabic language course at DLI in 1993. We studied Modern Standard Arabic and then Egyptian, Iraqi, and Lebanese dialects. Very intense but well worth it. I used it when I went on the U.N. Multinational Force and Observers tour in the Sinai Peninsula. 10/10 WOULD RECOMMEND! 😃👍
@@mahmoudsalah2626 Good question! When I completed the course, I tested out very high at reading, listening, and speaking. However, I noticed over the years that the vocabulary gets lost very easily if I don't use the language regularly. As it is, I don't have the opportunity to keep the proficiency at a high level with work and other responsibilities. This disappoints me because I love the language!
In 1967 I studied MSA and then Iraqi dialect the last few weeks. For 2 1/2 years my target country was Yemen. Had to learn a new dialect on the fly in Asmara, Ethiopia (Eritrea). Left the Army, became an attorney, and forgot 99% of my Arabic.
Olly, I just want to say that I was taught Spanish at the MTC and after my mission to Buenos Aires, I went to DLI and first learned Czech. After the wall came down and peace broke out, I changed to Arabic. I also was an MLI (Military Language Instructor) at DLI. I agree with all of what they said and I was there for 6 and a half years after the year and a half of studying and four years of working with the language. Thank you for your video. It's great. Oh, and by the way, my recruiter was a cook and he knew nothing about DLI, Linguists and my MOS. I would like to add that in Spanish, I learned the religious part of the language. In Czech, more military rather than religion. But in Arabic, the language is so tied with the Koran and Islam that learning religious language goes hand in hand with learning Arabic. Still, I read the Book of Mormon a couple of times through in Spanish, one time in Czech (though Slovak languages are hard because of cases) and several times in Arabic. I now translate certain books from English to Arabic...a skill I learned at DLI.
As enlisted Navy, I graduated from the basic Mandarin 47 week course in 74-75, and came back as an MLI in 86-89. Worked in the signal's intelligence field. Retired in 1994 and did an MA in Chinese in Hawaii. Qualified as a graphic language analyst at the NSA in 1990 while still on active duty with the Navy. The AVERAGE graduate of DLI in Asian languages is not really fluent, but they do have a solid foundation in the language. Most would be placed at the start of the 3rd year level at a university (CHN 301). University students have a better knowledge of literature and the written language. DLI grads tend to have better listening comprehension.
There in 77. Arabic. Unless it's changed significantly, this video is a mix of hype and nonsense. Unless you live in a country where you can use the language - Korea, maybe a Middle Eastern nation - you're at best a buzz phraser. No one I knew, including NSA guys, were fluent. In my day, the Navy and Air Force guys used their Arabic more than the Army guys. That's probably changed given the last 20 years in the Middle East. I was actually never stationed at a Navy base after bootcamp. DLI is Army, Goodfellow is Air Force, and we flew from an Air Force base. The vast majority of the Navy guys were 4 and out. Most of us had some or a lot of college before we joined the military. Linguists are an odd bunch - ex-seminarians, a college grad who majored in French. With college, you started as an E-3, got promoted for staying out of trouble, made E-5 and left. I can't imagine anyone I was in school or served with interrogating someone in Arabic. Including the Army guys. Finally, the history of the USS Pueblo is interesting. Navy linguists went to naval headquarters in Japan and told the brass they couldn't speak Korean. They were told, you passed Korean at DLI, you're qualified. Later they pulled over a Korean fishing boat. The fisherman warned them that North Korean warships were in the area. The sailors had no idea what they said. Unfortunately the Pueblo was captured. The chief benefit was learning from native speakers. When I hear Modern Stardard, I recognize words, could probably transcribe it, but had zero idea what they said in real time. After 9/11 I called the FBI when there was a need for Arabic linguists. They never got back to me. I probably would have been useless, but I definitely would have been more motivated. My advice if you go to DLI? Play golf and learn to sail. Monterey was amazing. I had friends that went to Monterey Pop and saw Hendrix on their first time at DLI. We went to see the Grateful Dead at Winterland. No idea what the curfew stuff is all about. I had friends in all the branches and we were out late and often crashed at off base apartments. Never heard of open door studying.
@@mikem668 I retired almost 30 years ago and can still read Chinese newspapers, but I was one of those nerds who would sit on watch studying open-source materials. Most linguists wanted nothing to do with the written Chinese language. "Characters? Characters? Are you nuts!".
@@philgainey2663 I hear this and wonder how you all memorized the vocabulary words? Just in pinyin then? Or rather most don't really want to put even more into learning characters and whatnot
My husband, son, and brother were at Monterey. The experience may not be fun but the experience will mold you into a person who can set your mind to anything and accomplish it. There will be tears, but the rest of your life you will have this amazing experience that has helped shaped the incredible person you've become.
One of my best friends learned Arabic for the military, he met his wife in Monterey and it was crazy to see how fast he got fluent in the language. I took 5 years of German in high school and he became fluent in Arabic in like a 3rd of the time while I never really got close.
It says on 3.41 that the students get taught 4 types of Arabic; modern standard, Egyptian, Levantine and Iraqi Arabic. I thought that those people would be able to understand each other's Arabic without having to learn about the others.
@@gerardburton1081 based off what my friend tells me it has a lot to do with more cultural things, since after all if you are a translator for these people misinterpreting things could have some pretty big consequences depending on what it is
@@gerardburton1081 no, Egyptians find it very hard to understand Moroccans. An Egyptian can understand Moroccan about as well as a Spanish speaker can understand portuguese. They are different languages really, not dialects.
@@firebanner6424 if that is the case then the Egyptian Arabic should just get called Egyptian and the Moroccan Arabic just Moroccan. Spanish and Portuguese are two of the four Latin languages so maybe it should be known as Egyptian and Moroccan.
Hey thanks for making this video! I'm an Air Force veteran that was trained as a Pashto linguist at DLI. Pashto was particularly difficult, even with our native speaking teaching team. Our entire career was riding on mastering the language in just 64 weeks, so the pressure was high. From day one in our course, English was banned from the classroom (though this rule couldn't be fully enforced). I do fully subscribe to the immersion method of learning, as it accelerated my understanding at a pace I didn't think was possible. The course was mostly focused on vocabulary that we'd have to recognize in our missions, not necessarily all things that a native would talk about on a daily basis.
However there was also the misconception among our instructors that it was our only priority. At DLI, it's military duties first, education second. You could get in serious trouble for things like not marching to class (if you're in the first couple phases of training), forgetting courtesies around your superiors, or not passing your physical test. And if one person really messes up, we all get punished. Punishment often included standing in formation for hours or scrubbing the dorms top to bottom. All of this affected performance in learning our language and none of the leadership was very understanding of how much we had to juggle just to pass our exams. Language day was a good time, I loved going around to the various tents and tables and looking at their respective cultural items. Our own contribution was a traditional dance that some of our students participated in with full traditional garb as well. We also enjoyed a an Afghan potluck back in our classrooms, and one of our teachers played a bayan accordion while another drummed on his tabla. I became enchanted by Afghanistan's rich culture and poetic language, which kept me going. But if I had to do it again, I'd probably pick another profession.
I had a similar experience. The ATAs and MLIs had been there, done that, so they were much more understanding. But the MTLs all came from different career fields and had no idea the kind of pressure the students were under. I can still remember having to stand in formation at zero dark thirty, while in service dress, getting yelled at for some stupid shit or another. Meanwhile, for many of us the most important test of our careers at that point, and out entire reason d'etre for being at DLI, was just over the horizon. Just clueless leadership.
My dad went to DLI in 1964 to learn Vietnamese. I was very young but remember how fascinated he was with the culture and the language. Thanks for sharing this with us!
I am creating Arabic language learning lessons in English for beginners. Your support, suggestions and advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks a ton
I met many u.s military linquists when I worked abroad. I loved them and was amazed by them, partly jealous at their opportunity and fluency. Great video!
Iso-immersion is intensive, but necessary. It's easy to get discouraged, but keep going. At some level, osmosis does occur even if you're passive in learning. Medellín has humbled me in these last few weeks
I went to DLI in 1980 and the Russian Language course ran 46 weeks. I can confirm that the DLI experience is extremely intense. After week 9 you are not allowed to speak English in the classroom complex and most days have you studying between 10 and 50 new words -- which you must be able to understand, read, write and conjugate properly by the next day -- when you'll get a new vocab list to study. When I first reported there, I was issued a reel-to-reel tape player, a two-foot tall stack of tapes, and a stack of forty text books -- that was just for weeks 1-9. At week 10 I got another issue of about the same size. It was insane. It continued like this for the whole 46 weeks -- after graduation it was off to Goodfellow Air Force Base for further training. If you want to be a military linguist -- whether as a transcriber, a translator, an analyst or an interrogator -- just know that by the end of the process your brain will be bent and you'll have a massive superiority complex. You won't actually be any smarter than a non-linguist, you'll just think you are.
I just want to look into the eyes of those who decided to make the word "кого" sound like "каво". Russian language consists of thousands such cases when u spell words with completely different letters compared to form u write them
Leils Paldies! I am currently learning Latvian and initially researched the fascinating, deeply moving, history and culture. I have since been using songs, politics, and many many other genre of Latvian content (also Russian). Your video has provided additional valuable tools for my linguistic journey. I plan to be in Riga next year and hope to help with refugees. My emotional connection has also driven me to learn Latvian. I exist due to my infant father and grandparents leaving Riga during Stalin's "Red Terror"
I'm Deaf, and a full-time ASL user and I've either been teaching ASL or teaching Deaf kids English for ... 20-25 years. More recently I have been picking up bits and pieces of JSL (Japanese Sign Language), BSL (British Sign Language), and AUSLAN (Australian Sign Language) and the cultural and developmental qualities of a language absolutely require background information about the day-to-day life of the people who developed it. For example: Western cultures tend to say "me/I" by pointing to the chest - we see our central emotions and aspects of the self as being in our chest/heart. Most Eastern cultures, when signing "me/I" will point to their nose or forehead, as they view their central identity (the self) as being in the head/mind or in the center of the face. On the other hand (ha!) sometimes the basic signs (like the sign for book - two hands flat up against each other, like a prayer, then, keeping pinkie fingers on each hand together - like a book spine - pull the thumbs apart until both hands are flat, palms up, like an open book) are almost 100% universal. I come from a long-standing military family (at least back to the Revolutionary War - and beyond), and I would have VERY MUCH liked to have an opportunity to serve my country, and access the cultural and linguistic education that goes with it!
This is very interesting to me as an American. An uncle of mine spent 20 years as an Arabic interpreter for the army, and he’s described how intense the process was, but never to this extent.
I am creating Arabic language learning lessons in English for beginners. Your support, suggestions and advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks a ton
The DLI and the Foreign Service Institute language courses (which you can find for free online) are probably some of the best language courses I've ever used for gaining a foundation in a language. Most of them are from the 70's so there is a lot of outdated vocabulary, but as far as grounding you in the essentials of the language they're some of the best material I've used.
They are even considered really dry, but getting through and finishing the no frills course is already a testament of the discipline a learner has and how much they want to truly attain that knowledge.
I am creating Arabic language learning lessons in English for beginners. Your support, suggestions and advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks a ton
Graduated Spanish in 91, and this seems far more rigorous than when I was there. There seemed to be a lot more partying going on amongst my group at least. I remember the poor group that was halfway through German when the Wall came down and they got moved into Spanish. I think they lost 1/4 of their students within a month because the change was so extreme.
Yeah, it's not that extreme. I graduated Russian in 2000, and spent the last 5 years of my career heavily involved in the entire language learning program, before I decided to retire. No one is studying as much as this video claims, the formation requirements, lights out, curfew etc are only really applicable to brand new folks right out of basic. It's still intense but nothing like the implications in this video.
That era was the stuff of legend when I was there. I went there in 97-98 after they did some major house cleaning (there were stories of people smoking weed in the barracks.) My commander there - who incidentally was the candidate for Pennsylvania governor last election - represented the new breed of leadership who brought in strict enforcement of standards and regulations after the partying 80s and early 90s.
@bigheadface Depends on the culture and your teachers. Russians are pretty chill. I'm sure you've heard about how kids suicide by train in Japan and Korea because they didn't pass their college entrance exams? That culture is very pervasive in Japanese, Korean, Chinese people and it will most likely apply to your instructors as well. It was common for us to receive 3-5 hours of homework a night and 8+ on weekends. High school kids in those countries ROUTINELY go to cram school every day after regular school AND on Saturday. The culture that fosters this behavior often is ingrained in the instructors from those cultures. Having learned something about Arabic culture and subsequently studied Russian I do not doubt that the instructors of those languages were probably not that intense, but not everyone's DLI experience is the same.
I learned Farsi in 2013 and Spanish in 2015-2016. Loved every bit of it, it was some of my best memories in my life. I even recognized one of my Persian teachers in this video. It's good to see she's still there, she was so sweet.
My wife and I completed the German language program in the late 80s. We were privates. I didn't have officers in my class, but my wife did. Once we entered the classroom, rank seemed to disappear. When interacting with the other students, we never got hung up on rank ... it was all about learning the language. To that extent, we were all equals and that's the way the classes were conducted. The funniest thing was what the Germans through was funny versus what we thought was funny. There was certainly a sense of humor gap!
@@danislavevtimov5984 English is extremely close to German linguistically due to the migration of the Angles and Saxons to create England after the fall of Rome. The only languages closer to English reflect the migratory route that the Germans took to get to England (through the Netherlands) …therefore the closest living languages to English are Dutch and even more than Dutch to take the trophy is Frisian. Modern German speakers can even understand Old English (spoken by the original settlers) better than modern English speakers can understand it. There’s plenty of TH-cam videos of Germans recognizing Old English.
When I was in high school (1984), I grew up in California and got to visit the school. I found it really exciting and almost signed up for the marines, because I was really interested in languages, since my dad is from Norway. But, I went a different direction. However, I ended up spending 3 years in Finland and learned Finnish and Swedish there. Now, I have lived in Germany for 20 years. So, with my background, I can testify that an intensive immersive program is the best way to learn a language. If the options are sink or swim, most people will swim. I am sure that the program is good, but being in the country is critically important, since that is where you are exposed to the many dialects and cultural aspects that are hard to simulate remotely. Now, I have a daugher, who is 19 and she was fortunate to go to a Gymnasium (German for High School) that focuses on languages. She grew up learning German and English at home, then at school she learned Latin, Chinese, Russian and French. She even got to spend 6 months as an exchange student in Shanghai and 2 weeks in St Petersberg. I know that this seems amazing for folks growing up in the US, but this is not uncommon for people growing up in Europe.
I like learning in general, but there are so many hours in a day. I learned Spanish, but that was basically by accident because I worked my way through college in an auto parts store in California. To each there own, but I'm not sure it's worth learning a bunch of languages. Some, and I have to stress not all, Europeans are rather snotty that most Americans only know one language. I think it comes down to opportunity cost. Time spent learning a language is time not spent learning something else. So learn more science, engineering, math or learn German when most Germans speak English anyway?
@@Anon54387 I totally understand the issue of limited hours in a day. For me, I do as much as possible to do my learning in a manner that is part of my day-to-day life. My entertainment (videos, books) I try to have a healthy 50/50 mix of English and German or Norwegian. For example, I really enjoyed the Harry Potter books, so I reread the series in German and Norwegian. That was huge boost to my language skills. But, for me the benefits go way beyond just being functionally able to communicate with people who don't speak English. First and foremost, it is exercise for your brain. Like a muscle, if it is properly exercised, it will stay strong and healthy into old age. Language learning is also known to improve problem solving, decision making and multi-tasking. It also exposes you to nuances of other cultures, which is important to living in a world with so much diversity. People who speak multiple languages tend to be more accepting of others, because they have been exposed to diverse cultures and points of view. For example, in German there is a formal and informal form of the word "you". In Finnish there is only one word for "he" and "she". In Norwegian, people say thank you for so many reasons, that are uncommon in other languages, "Thank you for buying from me", "Thank you for the last time we saw each other". These languages have their culture integrated into them and by seeing them, we get new ways to reflect on our own cultures.
Great video, also Olly is extremely well-spoken and articulate, the way he emphasizes certain words and puts pauses at just the right moment while he speaks is fantastic. The entire video just had a lovely flow to it and was easy on the ears. A great orator - probably one of the best I have heard on youtube.
I am creating Arabic language learning lessons in English for beginners. Your support, suggestions and advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks a ton
I was recruited by the US Army to be an interpreter as my DLAB was extremely high. I decided to go into the USMC, who did not have a DLI job available at the time. My 6 years in the USMC was invaluable but the "what if?" factor absolutely tortures me even 30+ years later, especially since learning languages has become my number one personal hobby. If you're young and have the chance to attend, don't pass it up!
I will offer a counterpoint, I was offered several jobs (non linguistic- just nuclear stuff/Intel) for other branches, but went with USMC Infantry. This was hands down the best decision I’ve made. While I might have enjoyed other jobs, nothing really is a fulfilling as being in a sucky job in a tough branch with a bunch of other guys. The “What if” ‘s do occasionally pop up, but I’ve heard more “what if” ‘s from my non-infantry friends than my infantry ones.
I learned Arabic at DLI when I was in the Air Force. I was definitely fluent in Arabic after the program. I’d say I’m semi-fluent now, but I’ve moved on to an unrelated engineering career so I rarely get a chance to use the language. It’s neat to see a video about the school! Definitely a cool experience, and a part of my life I remember fondly.
Hi, I’m leaving to bmt next month and going in for airborne linguist. I got tempted to take the job because of the top secret clearance. Is being a linguist worth it in your eyes?
@@Josetoowavvyy Hey, I'm a former Airborne Linguist going through a re-class. To answer your question if being a linguist is worth it: It depends on your values. I'll just give myself as an example, I joined the military right out of high school mainly because I didn't want to go to college and didn't know what in god's name I wanted to do with my life. I just threw myself in the deep end of the pool. High ASVAB Score and no health issues, they pressed me to be a linguist and I accepted. Over the next two years I experienced BMT, DLI, Survival School, and other trainings and man I wouldn't take it back. I've learned a lot about myself, met people who've become great friends and people who challenged me in a positive way. But as I was going through the LONG training pipeline, I was figuring out who I was and what I'm passionate about. I found myself to be super passionate about health, nutrition, meditation, and general spirituality. I'd read books in those categories all the time, even during DLI when studying ought to have been the better use of time. And as I reached the end of my training pipeline, I learned that (for me personally) passion is vital to my work life. If I'm not passionate and don't like what I do, then I either won't do it or I'm miserable doing it. So slowly but surely, I completely stopped studying arabic and lost all interest in the language and the career. So I talked to my supervisors about this and they did a wonderful job working with me, and now I'm in the process of a career change. So according to my values, no being a linguist was not worth it. BUT there are others who are go-getters. They love flying, the action of a high paced mission, love that they're going after X target country, etc. It's fulfilling for them. For a peace-oriented guy like me, not so much. So it really depends. DLI is a great place for learning about yourself. The challenges you face from people, military leadership, and the intense curriculum are akin to the stress a caterpillar faces when they are in their cocoon going through metamorphosis. So really utilize that! Monterey is beautiful, you can have lots of fun with dating (Desperate Love Institute HAHA), and all this fun stuff. Last thing I do want to point out; this could be a military or linguist thing (both most likely), but man throughout the whole pipeline even to my operational duty station, people are super negatively oriented. There's gonna be lots of complaining, shit talking, and gossip. And you'll habitually join in because that's what everyone else is doing. But after a certain point, I realized all that negativity was super draining to engage with. I often isolate myself just to not be around that because 9/10 people around me are focused on complaining. It's not a high morale career field. So take that into consideration as well. I wish you luck with BMT and DLI, feel free to ask any other questions!
It was interesting to watch this video, Olly. I'm a native Korean speaker who's working as a Korean language teacher in a university in Egypt. When I was serving my mandatory Korean military service time about 20 years ago, I was one of the KATUSA soldiers. KATUSA soldiers are Korean soldiers who work and live with US soldiers in Korea with their language skills. So, I have both military parts and language learning/teaching parts in me. This was very intersting. The video itself is well thought out and organized.
I am creating Arabic language learning lessons in English for beginners. Your support, suggestions and advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks a ton
I love that they mention the culture aspect of language learning. My Latin teacher in highschool would always say "you can't learn language in a vacuum you must learn it's people and history as well".
While the course as a whole is obviously too intense, the language day and the iso-immersion rooms are absolutely awesome! I wish they were avaliable for the general public
@@suzannesimmons4204 That's really interesting because no resource that I can find agrees with you in the slightest. Do you happen to have a reference for that?
@@orionweiss5418 Someone who graduated from there recently. He was instructed about it when he enlisted and was aware of many who died while he was there. Not something they want to publicize.
Hi, I am actually currently at DLI. When it comes to the schedule specifically it is very branch specific. From what I have seen Air Force has it alot more relaxed. After school and PT (if you have PT that day) the time is yours. Theres not really bed checks or things like that. They give you alot more autonomy in the Air Force than other branches. I highly recommend coming to DLI it is an amazing experience.
Learning Japanese in the 1960s, I wasted a lot of time in the first few months asking “why?”. Once I accepted that there was no answer to this question, I started to make some progress.
I am creating Arabic language learning lessons in English for beginners. Your support, suggestions and advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks a ton
I learned english in 1.5 years with a self developed system, much akin to this one (congeniality really is a thing) After that I managed to learn german in 1 year and spanish subsequently in 6 months. Things like "100 most needed phrases" and "1000 most needed words" speed up the learning process immensely!
@@Betty-jp7sw No, they cant because most people like this are full of $hit. I have met many many people that say they know a bunch of languages fluently but in reality they have basically no ability to speak, read or write it. I speak one other language well, I wouldnt say fluently, and a few others at a very very basic level and my basic, bordering on not knowing the language, level is almost always as good or better than their ability which they said was fluent.
@@Betty-jp7sw TBH intermediate level (B1-B2) is all you need, unless you apply for a philology professor position at Ivy League school. 🤣 Most locals never go above B2. They just pronounce impeccably - therefore one should put the most effort in pronounciation improvement from day 1. Myself personally lack in speech department. See, I reached IELTS 8-9 in consequent reading, understanding and writing, as well as reading aloud, since I have no accent anymore, I even can mimic various english dialects, when reading aloud, but as soon I start to speak freely, I begin to stutter and the accent is promptly reverting to my native pronounciation. This is a common issue, so spend more time with speaking to an imaginary conversation partner or straight look for locals to exercize speaking with. Should you want to improve, try to pinpoint the areas, your vocabulary is still lacking and delve into that. This is really all you have to do yet - since all the inevitable grammar should be in your head by now. Spanish is really the easiest language ever. Especially regarding grammar. Thus they picked it as a base for Esperanto.
One of my closest friends of nearly 50 years was a young Marine, a high school drop out who as a SNCO became a Vietnamese Linguist after a course at DLI Monterey, by the time he finished his 30 year career in the Marines, he had attended and graduated as a Japanese, Korean, and Spanish linguist from DLI and ended his career as the Non Commissioned Officer in Charge of the Marine Barracks at DLI, Monterey! From there he went on as a DIA Agent at the Post Graduate School in Monterey where he retired as a GS-11 after suffering a stroke!
I was a contract interpreter for NATO forces in Kosovo, and I was less than impressed with the language skills of US military interpreters there. They had a huge vocabulary, but very weak syntax and stilted, direct translation style that was often difficult for the Russians they were working with to understand. They were helpful to me, because I often lacked the direct terminology or knowledge of certain acronyms as a non-military language specialist, but they often struggled to make the broader point clear. This is the weak point in fast learning. The Russian officers gave me the most generous compliment by telling me, “You say it they way we would say it and not word for word what the other person is saying.” You can’t get that in short classes, no matter how intense.
You can get that in short classes but military classes would never to be able to pull it off. They teach things like a and b make c. Memorize. But they dont tell how that happens, when it happens or why c. And why a and b and not gh ....
@@LilyUnicorn Yeah also there is a cultural aspect of language that you'll never learn in school. Little colloquial expressions and cultural references here and there. There's no getting around it.
it's the mandatory vax that keeps me disinterested. My Russian is good but I need a speaking partner that I do not have to get up at three am to talk to.
Very interesting video. As a Finn, we have mandatory Swedish language at school for 8 years, alternative English 5 years, voluntary French 3y and German 3y. I took all of them, and after I was 16 years, I took voluntary Russian (intensive teaching) at the workers' college (cheap but efficient). When I went to the army, I was transferred to Military Academy where I was taught urban warfare, which is not taught for the infantry.
And that is why I love Finland. I am from Italy and I speak 5 languages but …that is only because I lived in multiple countries because of my dad’s job and going to international schools. Italy is one of the worst in Europe in teaching foreign languages.
I used to work with an SF guy he was a language specialist. He was an American, but spoke, wrote Arabic and Farsi. And he was learning Russian. Amazing guy, hella smart.
This was a great video. I came because I wanted to learn more about how the military teaches languages. You gave me that and even more. Great job on the interviews, clips, and editing. Thank you.
Thanks for making this video. I completed the Modern Standard Arabic course in 2010, and this video reminded me of a lot of things I hadn’t thought about in years! It was definitely intense, and I went through ups and downs academically, but I also had a lot of fun. I have such great memories from that time. Plus, you can’t ask for a better duty station than Monterey!
I was at DLI Monterey in 1971 for Japanese and 1981 for Chinese Mandarin. Back then the level 4 courses were 47 weeks. I didn't have to hope I got the language I wanted, because it was written into my contract that I would be enlisting for training in that specific language, both times. Of course if I flunked out, the agreement was null and void, and the Army could assign me as they thought best. My DLAB score was 150. There is no secret to learning languages when it is your full-time job for 11 months. Lots and lots of hard work.
I took the DLAB when I enlisted in the AF in 1981 and passed on the number (89). I started Chinese in January of '82 with a bunch of people much smarter than me. Our attrition rate was ~40%. Somehow I managed to graduate with a 96% average (did the same in Russian a few years later) while watching a lot of the big brains fall by the wayside. Fear is a great motivator, I guess. Wash trucks or be a linguist. Minimum 2.5 hours of study Sunday-Thursday evenings through the entire course.
This. I went to DLI for Dari. Like a dipshit I thought I’d get Russian because I’d studied it previously and the recruiter said I’d get it. What a moron I was. Anyway, I washed out because I hated Dari and never studied. To this day I don’t understand how I made it 6 months lol.
Persian/ Farsi speaker here. It was fun to see Persian writings and here Persian words in the simulation practices that you showed. Accents and dialects are pretty difficult to execute well. The methods suggested were pretty interesting! Good luck to anyone learning Persian! They have to learn to read between the lines very quickly 😁
I learned Spanish here. It was a nine month program. I wish I could’ve spent years here learning. Yes it’s very intense, however I had closer bond with my fellow marines, as well as my instructors, than I have anywhere else in the marine corps. That may have just been my experience, but here it was just a constant environment of service members building each other up as opposed to non stop one upping that I saw elsewhere.
When I went through DLI Russian in 1971 our classes and barracks were made up of men from all four services. Your roommate could be from any service. We lost most of our marines. They, apparently, deliberately flunked out. That was not because they were dumb. They certainly were not lacking in ability. All the rest of us thought of ourselves as Russian students first, then as soldiers, sailors, or airmen. But marines were always marines first. The seemed to feel the need to live up (down) to the stereotype--hard drinking, brawling Manly Marines. They didn't seem to want their fellow marines to think they were "smart" or "students" as that would mean they were less-than as a marine. Better to just be one of the guys and move on to infantry. I liked and respected marines (for other qualities) but we had a hard time keeping them in our classes.
Thanks for this video! My dad was an army linguist (early 2000's) and he still carries a lot of his Korean with him that he uses in some restaurants and stores with Korean workers, they love him!
DLI isn't the only intensive 3-letter language school. See how Latter-day Saint missionaries learn languages fast at the MTC 👉🏼 th-cam.com/video/Ox6MdRTc0yE/w-d-xo.html
DLI Russian grad. ask me anything!
Please make more vids like this. I loved it
In Frankfurt am Main, Germany I met some Americans who belong to Mormon Christianity
Hopefully FSI is another three letter intensive language school future video upcoming also.
@@calitaliarepublic6753 Good thing we pulled out like we did. Thats was a good idea, right?
Having studied Russian, Japanese, and Korean, I can't imagine having to learn any of those in 64 weeks. Very impressed with anyone who can stick out something like that.
The topics are focused on military and political topics mostly, I'm active duty and I know several people who have gone to the school, they struggle with daily conversation, but can translate classified documents like it's nothing
Nice assortment. My daughters and I each took Spanish in school. One daughter has studied Russian, the other has an interest in Japanese, and I’ve been dabbling in Korean. From time to time we will all have a “conversation” in these languages, with a little French and German for good measure.
@@marshingo5262 Yes, I'm at DLI now. There are definitely still areas where one can improve in even after passing the DLPT. You can speak about some high-level stuff by graduation, but you may not be able to flow colloquially like a native speaker.
@@tyunpeters3170 Nice man, what language did they give you?
When learning Russian i found that using the basic methods as language is taught in high school. If you stop to think about it... why it is presented that way you find out that language is just a tool, easy to make use of. Combined with practical experience talking to Russians.. it did miracles. That was a long time ago and i forgot a lot. But it was good to find out that methodic study makes things really easy.
Elle is my daughter! She loves everything Korean and enjoyed her experiences there. I got to visit her while she was stationed in South Korea; it's a wonderful place. Great video!
Mom stop you're embarrassing me
In 32:15 Elle gives *the* secret tip for all languages/cultures ("Find something to love about the language/culture"), which I am sure helped a lot in achieving all that progress. The story was all well told too. Thank you for telling your language learning story, Elle!
I really loved Elle sharing her experiences learning Korean - my daughter heads to DLI to learn Korean after Basic! Sounds intense but fun. You must be so proud of her!
Kam sam ni da.
I bet Elle is an ARMY in the Army:) Boraehae 💜
The quickest path to learning a language is total immersion. It is paramount that you ONLY speak the target language. You CANNOT use your native tongue. Remember, the greatest obstacle to learning a language is already knowing one.
ja, sicher. Das stimpft.
The quickest path to learning a language is to first learn all the grammar and THEN the complete immersion.
Otherwise the complete immersion method will take you years and even then with mediocre results.
@@miovicdina7706 That's an erroneous claim. Look up Stephen Krashen's comprehensible input theories for second-language acquisition. Studying grammar is never necessary unless you'd like to teach the language professionally. Immersion is the only way to acquire a language in the same way that you naturally acquire your native language.
@@taylorcandelaria3582 I don't believe that. I have some friends who speak our native language so poorly, that if a foreigner would "immerse" in their community, he would end up speaking like an uneducated person. This would affect his image and it will take longer for him to relearn in a correct manner.
I am glad that I have studied English long before I have "immersed" in the English society, because I have discovered that many people (native speakers) write and even speak incorrectly (for example, the "famous" apostrophe!).
The Peace Cors do it, but almost none of them ends up speaking the language. And this, considering that they live in families there, in the local culture and linguistic environment. So, it's a myth.
I studied Italian and on making my first trip to Italy. I was traveling on a train to Rome, when a Japanese girl entered my train compartment and asked me a question in Italian…it was my very first time actually speaking Italian in Italy…I answered her…and we went on to have a great conversation together in a language that was not our own native languages. I will never forget how amazing that felt…the world changed in my mind!!!
Great experience
That's so beautiful ❤
Fiero di te che hai scelto di imparare l'italiano. Saluti dall'Italia
@@ParoXXIV L'italiano è una lingua molto gioiosa:)!!!
I LOVE THIS!!
I studied German at DLI in the late Eighties. Here was their secret: daily testing and assessment. They’d give you lessons, tons of homework, and a test every morning on the previous day’s work. For us Air Force troops, anything under an 88 was a failing grade. Imagine a school where a “B” is a failing grade! If you failed two days in a row, you washed out. If that happened, they made you a cook or another career. Motivation was high! Throughout the course, they cranked the rigor. At first, they’d give you 50 vocabulary words to memorize daily. By the end of the course, it was 300 words to memorize DAILY! The DLI prepared me to get through college and grad school.
That sounds intense. i don't think I can memorize 300 words in one day. I'm sure college and grad school were a breeze for you compared to DLI.
@@058becs You could do it, but you work up to it gradually. I also served as a Latter-day Saint missionary in the years before I joined the Air Force. I went through the Church’s language training for French. We were there for eight weeks. It was challenging, but not nearly like DLI.
I could see how you got to have a sense of unity and fun with your teammates, just to make it, to get all that extra reinforcement of the concepts.
This is crazy and insane and whatever other word works 😂 Mad respect to you, learning a language was fun for me cus I took my time, never knew there were courses like this that prioritised speed and results first. Nuff said, the way you learnt was super efficient. Shoulda implemented this strategy or learning style when i was learning German 😂
If you can do that, college should be a walk in the park.
One of my uncles grew up in the Bronx, he spoke English, Italian, and some Yiddish...In WWII he ended working as an interpreter in North Africa and Sicily, he then learned German, then Japanese, then Korean.....and after 20+ years in the US Army he learned Vietnamese. He had a remarkable ability to pickup on languages.
Gets easier as you go along! Bravo!
Learning and even simply hearing a foreign language actually changes a person's brain, creating new neural pathways. Once a person is familiar with a second language, it becomes significantly easier to learn a third or fourth language!
@@bluegoth Gua your dad is a U.S Army , I'm too Honduras immigrant but I just speak Spanish, how did your dad get into the army? Explain me please ? I want to into too
@@bluegoth Yes of course thank you very much for this Information, I'm is studying G.E.D it's tool's to apply after continuing and improving my english. You has than parents immigrant. what advice you give me for improve my english?
Most foreign born military brats grow up speaking two languages at home. Your uncle's generation literally paved the way for my generation to learn these languages growing up. Myself knowing nine plus learning another three due to work.
My dad was almost fluent in Arabic by the time he came back from jordan, he was there for a year and a half. He has some of the language but he can still have a deep conversation with his Jordanian friends in Arabic. It’s really impressive, not a lot of people expect a Mexican guy to speak more Arabic then Spanish.
My dad was Army and learned Vietnamese at Ft Bliss Texas 71--72. I was surprised to know some of his classmates were Navy.
I am fluent in Arabic, Tagalog, Mandarin, Fench, Italian, Spanish and now I am in the process of learning tongues with your sister.
@@0000USN Fort Bliss woo! I'm a local lol
@@jimmyjohnson7883 💩🤡
@@jimmyjohnson7883 Rolling all sorts of R's
"7 hours of class a day, 2 hours of homework, and an hour of study, five days a week" Yeah I don't care what "technique" they're using to learn... the time spent is probably the biggest factor.
Well, time can be a technique if you think about it
I know, right!!!!
As someone who went there, 2 hours of homework would be an absurdly easy day, most nights were learning 100+ words
@@mikeoxbig619 Wow! For the past year I have been grinding, working hard and sacrificing to master russian. At least get to B1 level. Any advice for me now that you have hindsight?
@@nandsz_ its literally not because no matter what you do to learn a language, it will be over time. So time is not a technique but a measure
These videos about how different groups of people learn languages are so interesting, I'm really enjoying this series!
So glad you like it
agreed, unlike polyglot celebrities' methodologies, this is something you don't hear much about!
Same! Amazing content ngl.
Yeah right, it motivates me to learn new languages
fr!!!!!
Military specialist and technical training is absolutely insane. They manage to teach several years worth of knowledge in a couple months.
It really is impressive, if you know a skill set you want, it makes enlisting seem worthwhile. Pay to learn, or get paid to learn?
I just got done with Basic, AIT, and Airborne. I'm a 94E (radio & comms repairs) we learned an MOS that was originally 36 weeks in 17 weeks plus info that was added to the original course and it was cut even shorter due to holiday extended weekends. You do get through it if you keep your head up but it's an insane amount of information. We got an average of 4-6 hours of sleep every night plus they made me PG so I had to get up earlier to keep proper accountability of everyone in my platoon, I looked healthy as hell in basic training compared to AIT. I was honor graduate and I still wasn't very confident in my abilities. I just hope I can be proficient in my job since I am national guard and am only practicing my MOS one weekend a month.
By the second week I was dreaming in German... Worth it, but I used to have hair...
@@OscarMikePrecision you had me until the "4-6" hours of sleep thing. That's really dumb on their part. Sleep is the single most important aspect of improvement and learning.
@@DrGetgood Usually the military requires like 7 hours minimum each day for trainees at least. I think it's okay to get less every so often. There's a lot of strict rules for that sort of stuff, including 3 meals a day. It doesn't ways get followed, and maybe once you're a real soldier after basic, there's less emphasis. Once I got to my unit, I never heard of a sleep requirement rule or anything, but we usually got 6~8 hours of free time in between days. So, you'd work for 16 and be off for 8.
One time I did have to stay awake for 72 hours while on the radio. Had to reply for a radio check once every hour.
Edit: Actually found something on it: "The Office of the Army Surgeon General recommends that soldiers sleep at least seven hours per night, although only a minimum of four hours is required during field training exercises.May 27, 2021"
In the early 80’s I had a girlfriend who joined the Air Force as a linguist. After basic training she spent 6 months at Lackland AFB in Texas doing a full immersion Russian course. For 6 months they spent 5 days per week on a section of the base where she said they were only allowed to speak Russian from day one. They were forced to learn Russian just to function.
I tried for decades to learn Spanish, but failed. I have no talent, and no hope.
Yes you do. Just don't give up
@@LesserMoffHootkins Got to a spanish speaking country and try to speak as much spanish as possible
@@blyatifulchao7406
I already speak as much Spanish as possible- almost none.
@@LesserMoffHootkins It's all about the methodology. I thought the same about German until I came across the videos emphasizing comprehensible input. Although my speaking and writing ability is almost zero, my listening and reading comprehension reached the intermediate level in 12 months.
As a former LDS missionary and US military veteran that studied at DLI, I can attest that the language courses are intense and effective if you apply yourself and have some skills.
What kind of skills do you think would be helpful?
@@sebastianmosqueda5959 Obviously there are a couple, for example, quick and clear thinking, good memory recall, focus, etc. Some not quite apparent, but equally important for the immersion process are good visualization in your mind and forcing yourself to "think" instead of translate. You do not want to go the route of having a "translation" machine in your head all the time, you want to see objects/actions and think in the language directly.
That being said, dedication and focused hard work are irreplaceable.
@@lukenielsen8397 Great! Thank you sir. I'm currently working on accomplishing the rest of my Spanish. Eventually learning Japanese if possible seeing as how I work with many Japanese people. They learned English. I figure its only fair if I learned a bit of Japanese
fantastic summary
@@lukenielsen8397Ahhhh. Interesting 🤔🤔
👍🏿
I am active duty navy and I studied to be a military Russian linguist at DLI it is no exaggeration when I say it is definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life the stress levels of the school puts Bootcamp to shame but if you make it through the course it is one of the most gratifying experiences you’ll ever have. When you get to that point in class where you realize three months ago you had trouble pronouncing the difference between a chair and a table and now you can listen to a news broadcast and understand is just amazing. It reminds you that the almost unsustainable amount of effort you’re putting in isn’t worthless. this video was fairly accurate about the schooling structure, more so than any other video I’ve ever seen about DLI. The instructors there are extremely skilled often knowing English grammar better than most college students and being able to explain their native language grammar in their second or even third language sometimes. The school is not for the faint of heart but it is a once in a lifetime opportunity that if you’re given it hit the ground running and do your best just remember that even more than your ability to learn the language having a positive attitude can make or break whether you make it through the course.
But it certainly does not sound very encouraging to me, rather instilling fear in me, for my penchant for language learning. These days I am learning French for no set purpose and I am feeling that I am enjoying the process more in this free casual approach!
you don't even try Thai....
You are amazing!
Очень интересно!
I call bs. The military likes to make things difficult and stressful just for the sake of being difficult and stressful. Language learning is a process that involves continuous exposure over time. It is not something that can be intensely drilled into you. It would be like trying to drink from a fire hose.
I am an Army veteran and graduated the Arabic program at DLI-FLC in 2001. It really was the hardest thing I had ever done up to that time, but it is also one of my proudest accomplishments. The attrition rate for Arabic at the time was 2/3, with half of those being kicked out of DLI entirely for showing a lack of effort. The other half of those were kicked out of the language and may or may not be reassigned a new, easier language for lack of ability. The latter was always more desirable because those people either got put in an easier language class and continued in their jobs or got reassigned to another non-linguist job but usually a decent one. Those kicked for lack of effort, however, typically got chewed out thoroughly for failing to give 100% and then were reassigned to what was often the least desirable job the Army could find for them at the time - they were made an example. The two veterans you interviewed had somewhat differing experiences from mine, but things do change over time in the Army as anywhere else. For example, we actually learned exclusively Modern Standard Arabic for a very long time, and the last portion of our training was more focused on learning three major dialects at the same time while maintaining our MSA skills and preparing for our final exams. We were given about 100 new words every day for most of the course, and the next day we would have a 100 question quiz on those same words worth 100 points total at one point per word. If you scored less than 90 on a quiz, you failed the quiz. The idea as they explained it to me was that in the military, in life and death situations there is no room for error, so 90% is considered the very worst acceptable score, rather like a D- in high school. If you failed three quizzes during the course, you were kicked out of the Arabic program. If you consistently scored at or near the 90% cutoff, you were usually assigned remedial training during your lunch periods and/or after school, usually in the classroom with a teacher or MLI. To graduate with good scores and fluency you had to do a lot of extra study outside of class anyway. I practiced on my own for about six hours a day after class (stayed up late) around my military duties. It paid off, and I graduated at the top of my class, but to say it was intense is an understatement. I did not take "Jack's" advice much to enjoy Monterey. 9/11 happened during our training there and we were advised we could expect to play a crucial role in the war and that we were to be deployed pretty much immediately upon graduation. I think partly because of that, I wanted to make sure I was as close to native proficiency as I could get. I didn't want anyone dying because I mistranslated a crucial bit of information. I did make time to explore Monterey a bit on the weekends, but I also kept up on my studies seven days a week, so I went out a lot less than most. Any fun had to fit around that, because I wanted to be the best I could be in my language. I didn't want to learn Arabic originally (I hate the heat and the dessert), and I even tried in vain once to work out a language trade with a guy in Russian, but I learned to love Arabic and the Arab people in the end. My experiences there spurred a lifelong love of languages and other cultures. I now speak many languages, although Arabic is still my strongest language next to English, and I love being what I call a "word nerd". Also, something they failed to really mention is that the teachers at DLI are a HUGE part of the success of language learners there, and they deserve a serious shoutout for their dedication, patience, and excellence as teachers. Having native speakers to explain all the nuances of the language makes a huge difference, and the MLI's rounded it out with their language learning experience. I could not have graduated without all the amazing support of my MLI and الأساتذة (professors/instructors). I still remember every one of their names and faces, and I am still grateful to each of them, although I am sadly aware at least one has passed away now. Anyway, thanks for sharing this. It was a fun walk down memory lane. I hope you don't mind me sharing my experiences here.
Wonderful story, thank you! Do you believe that the intensity you describe was always beneficial? 100 words a day seems totally unrealistic, however much effort you put in.
@@storylearning I do think the intensity was consistently beneficial, at least in my language and in my specific case. The vocabulary tests were extremely hard, but Arabic has a very large lexicon of words to learn, and we had to know a very large portion of them in order to graduate. Despite how difficult it sounds a good number of us did graduate and that should speak for how attainable it actually is with enough focus and effort. I think part of the reason it seems unrealistic to many is the difference in context. As a civilian, perhaps as a college student, there is little riding on your learning a language to a very high level of proficiency in a short period of time. Under most circumstances, the worst that will happen is you could offend someone accidentally, get corrected perhaps, and one day you all look back and laugh about it. Or perhaps you order something disgusting by accident and have to either stomach it or risk offending. In stark contrast, in the Army a single mistranslation at the right moment could cost a life or even multiple lives. The accuracy simply MUST be there. That means knowing all the words, because dictionaries aren't always around in the field. There were many times I honestly thought I could not meet the high standards to graduate, but I cared a lot about my job and my fellow soldiers, so for me as for many others failure was simply not an option. We worked hard, maybe missed out on some fun here and there, and we definitely went through a lot of stressful study sessions, but we ultimately picked up one of the world's hardest languages. We went from having never even heard the language before, at least in my case, to professional proficiency in less than two years. I don't honestly believe that would be possible without that level of intensity. Because I attended just as 9/11 happened, learning the language exceptionally well and learning it quickly was being heavily emphasized in the Arabic classes, as well as a few other languages from the region. I still remember the Colonel visiting our class on 9/11 to tell us all that our jobs had just become a lot more important and we needed to study harder than ever. That is a long explanation to say that under the circumstances and at that time I do think it was necessary, but perhaps not so much under other circumstances. They change policies and approach in accordance with the times, I think. I remember being told that before we arrived things had once been much more relaxed at DLI. We got there just as Drill Sergeants were being brought back to DLI for the first three months of school for Army personnel, then we moved to a more traditional unit structure if our school extended longer than a few months. I understand they have Drill Sergeants the entire length of all schools now, and there are a lot of other changes to their routines. It is still an amazing place, though. It was hard but I have so many fond memories of DLI and would do it again in a heartbeat.
I loved your response! thank you for sharing your DLI experience. I’m one of the Arabic/Levantine instructors who developed the MSA course (2004) and the Levantine Dialect course (2011). I teach the post basic_Distance Learning now! I love my job! And I love my students! 💕☺️
@@72OliveTree I am new here to DLI and look forward to hoping having your class as I will start MSA in January :)
Love hearing this. I'm just starting here and I'm MSA, also. USAF though. Not much seems to have changed from what I understand of what's ahead of me. I won't be able to do the 6 hours extra a day you did as I'm a mom also. However, I will do all I can to have that level of proficiency as possible! Thanks for paving the roads for all of us following you.
This is by far the most interesting video I've ever seen. I'm an absolute lover of learning languages. I speak German, Spanish, Italian, and just recently Japanese. I'm almost 50 years old and I marvel when people say you can't learn a language at 50. I'm entirely self-taught and have no difficulty learning languages easily. Hearing about the process is getting me so excited. I'm going to map out a course for myself to learn these ways and I bet I'll learn new languages even better than my old process. Thank you.
Hey Crystal
I’m a flight attendant trying to teach myself French can u give me some key tips? Thx 😊
While it is true that language, math, and music are processed in the same place in the brain and people with one of those aptitudes can easily usually pick up the other two, anyone can learn a foreign language. It is *outstanding* that you are curious enough to embrace other languages. It enriches one's life by having done so.
You cab watch a lot of Japanese dramas for your learning. That indeed is a fun yet very effective way of learning!
I am 56 hopefully I can learn Spanish in a year
@kingdomprincess I would suggest adapting some of the techniques in this video. Find things that keep you interested. If you enjoy Journaling or singing then listen to French music and sing with it. Find the translation and when you sing it again, hear it also in English (in your head). I would suggest one song at a time. Maybe just the same song for a week to get pronunciation and translation down. You can re-write a poem that you love in French. Make your grocery list in French. I think the easiest way is to adapt the learned language into your daily life so it is simultaneously being absorbed. Also, when you finally visit you'll be amazed with how your brain has stored the information. The foods you normally eat will be at your verbal fingertips. You'll know how to ask for the food in French. Lastly, I believe that listening to TH-cam videos in the background or even while sleeping allows some programming. I've done this with basics such as numbers and the alphabet. During your waking hours you can practice the same information. Great process while driving simply because of how the brain runs on auto-pilot when we drive. Listen and repeat the same videos you are sleeping to. You must practice saying everything because the way the mouth is shaped and tongue lands in the face is different with each language. Haha. Sounds strange because I'm not being technical here. Nonetheless, it's factual. Good luck!
DLI is where I first learned how smart I wasnt. Hardest thing I ever attempted. First thing I ever utterly failed. Respect.
My daughter is a linguist via DLI (military) and learned Korean. She can speak it, read it, and write it. Plus they learn the history, culture, and society. I love to listen to her speak it.
Yeah, but you're not Korean.
@@nineteenfortyeight, what does that have to do with learning a language. You must not know why that school is used by the military. I’m not Russian, but I’m learning the language anyway. Any person can learn any language, that’s the beauty.
@@culby276 yes! exactly! the more you know the greater.
@@nineteenfortyeight angry nationalist spotted
@@culby276 May I test her Korean by having a conversation in Korean with her? I'm Korean and living in Korea, what's her social media if it's okay? I'm really curious! I want to know if she sounds natural or if she sounds like google translate when talking
I was a Russian DLI graduate from 1989. Your video is very accurate, and I noticed how much has changed since I went through the course. I work in an elementary school now, and there is a newly arrived student from Russia who doesn't speak English. Unfortunately, not having used Russian since I left the military 30 years ago has me barely remembering even basic words and phrases. I've been Googling those, and the pronunciation is still there, because she understands everything I say, or at least is very happy to hear an adult attempting to speak her language!
Здравствуйте, выпускник DLI.
Желаю вам удачи)
Thats good, i suppose you lucky to have experience like that, probably it can not be forgotten in the future?
Very cool! I studied there 89-90 at the top of the hill school. Air Force
We were there at the same time.
I really like these videos showing how specific groups of people learn languages
Glad you’re into them!
@@storylearning imo theyre even more interesting than the "how does [x youtuber/polyglot] learn languages" but i love both series
Remi eating a burger?!
P
@@CunnyRape yes
1965, DLIWC, Monterey, CA. Day one, hour one, minute one of Chinese Mandarin instruction, the head of the department enters the classroom and starts pounding his fist on the table, saying in a loud voice 這個是什麼? over and over until we dumbfounded students started to repeat it back to him. When he was satisfied that we were at least repeating it semi-intelligibly he stopped, changed the phrase, pointed with his index finger at the table and said
這個是桌子! We got the idea and recited back to him as best as we could. From that day onward, whenever I hear someone say, "What is this?" I have to stifle the urge to blurt out "This is a table!"
I learned the Czech language in 1985 at DLI. My sister and I eventually flew to the Czech Republic. I was shocked when the Czechs understood what I was saying! It was wonderful.
It's fun, like a superpower:)
Češtinu? Ty jo, tak to muselo bejt něco! :)
Ahoj, snad se ti tady líbilo :-)
Sta si naucio?
Wow, I am from Czech Republic and as far as I can say - every nation is very pleased when somebody is learning their language, especially the one which you can not use in other countries - like it is very different to learn spanish because you can use it worldwide but when you learn czech you can only use it in Czech Republic :)
The way diplomats learn languages to a high level is also really inspiring to me, especially as somebody majoring in International Relations the instruction even at college level is really good and intense. They also assign you a language in college and on the job depending on the government's needs
That’s quite some planning. Which country?
@@storylearning I'm from Russia! Saint Petersburg State Uni, lots of people in my class got assigned difficult languages like Farsi and Japanese/Chinese(+English) and the courses are focused on difficult vocab, pronunciation and fluency, you also have classes about politics and law all in that language
I am a portuguese teacher and very often I get diplomats from the U.S who need to work in Brazil for, usually, two years and they learn the STANDARD language very proficiently, yes! But they always go for private tutors to get the REAL language lessons. They all say the same, they are paid to learn the language 8 hours a day from monday to friday and it's a very intense course and mostly taught in the target language once they already have the basics of it. But they focus a lot on standard language, that is, content from newspaper, tv news, diplomatic vocabulary and etc. But it's very hardcore the way they study and that's why they get a good fast result!
I was a student in the Korean school which was in the Asian II School at DLI back in the 1990s. Diplomats definitely attended DLI.
Business and Science graduates need language Skiils in French Portuguese and Turkish to do well in Ghana,
I was at DLI for two years. I wish I could go back again. Life changing. And you make life long relationships with some incredible people who share the same interest in language as you. It’s incredible.
We were learning 75-100 words a day. And those that didn’t or didn’t take it seriously would fall behind quickly.
@@CosmicEngimas What language did you learn?
@@nala6846 was originally slotted for Chinese but there were too many of us with that language marker on our initial contract so we all got shuffled around. I got put into Spanish which was fine but kind of boring as I was already fluent in French so though it helped I wanted more of an intellectual challenge lol
@@CosmicEngimas I didn't take it seriously tbh. I've maintained a 2+/2+ in mandarin for 4 years now lol.
I think (at least with mandarin) your brain either gets it or it doesn't. Some peopleI knew studied for hours every day and still failed out of the course. Whereas I never studied at all and I never failed a single quiz or test the entire course.
@@CosmicEngimas Russian, 1971. From my barracks window at the top of the hill (Company C--650 men, all 4 services, all Russian students) I could look out over the Presidio and the bay, and see the red tracer bullets from the machine guns at Fort Ord--Infiltration Course. Did that once in Basic at Fort Leonard Wood--low crawling in full gear with M-16 cradled on my elbows under barbed wire through mud with the machine guns firing live ammo 3 feet off the ground. As bad as the stress of my 6 hours of class / 6 of homework was, those glowing red tracer bullets shooting over the cliff into the bay reminded me of how much worse it could be. Wash out of DLI and be in infantry AIT the next day then Vietnam.
I trained in Taekwondo with a man entering the Navy. Possibly the worst at speaking the Korean we used in class (Korean instructor). He came back 12 months later after linguistics training and my instructor was BLOWN away. He said he sounded just like a native speaker from North Korea. He was shocked. It was very impressive.
north korea is crazy maybe im too young but how does anyone know how north koreans speak havent they been closed off for a while?
@@zaywop5978 North Koreans and Chinese citizens can visit each other's countries
This goes with my theory that you SHOULD focus on a particular accent/regional dialect from the beginning of language acquisition. The more accustomed to accents and phonics in a language, the more intuitive and fluent you can become. People always say "accent is not as important", but I've met too many people who speak a language fluently with absolute unintelligible pronounciation.
I'd say, it depends. People study languages for different purposes, and some of them may require as subtle accent as possible, and some may not. If you just want to communicate, accents aren't important. You may even notice them (for example, I can notice major features of Argentinian or Andalusian Spanish) - but mimicking them is a separate task, and many times it isn't necessary at all.
pronunciation ≠ accent
@@BallisticaMetal indian join to chat say how much they glad.
Worked in Iraqi with a graduate of DLI with a Navy Seal Team, the native speaker interpreters had trouble understanding her as she had no "accent" in her Arabic. My self taught arabic they had no trouble understanding what I spoke as I always listened very carefully to native speakers Arabic.
Technically one isn't considered fluent unless one can speak a language without any discernible foreign accent, but to do so often means a bit of accent from the second language creeps into one's first language.
One of my highschool teachers was in this program for spanish. The way he described it was insane, it sounded so so rigorous. He learned spanish entirely in like six months
I have spoken Spanish my entire life. I grew up in Puerto Rico. I went to DLI for Russian (12 months), but I had friends in the Spanish course (6 months). You are correct. I saw many students come in who could barely say "Taco", and they were having full conversations with me by the time they graduated.
@@bilcarterHow is your Russian?
@@bilcarterwhat's the secret of their success?
As for communication skills I learn whole sentences saying them aloud. 5 days - 300 repetitions per day at least. Later I don't need to translate. I know the meaning of words straight away like in my native language. And also I remember the meaning longer than by learning separate words. This method is called: chunking. It was a real game changer in my learning process in English and other languages.😊
I had a high school teacher that was in the program too but for Russian. All he told us was that he intercepted and translated messages. He wouldn’t tell us about any of those messages said obviously. He was a communications and English teacher, so he did like freshman level, English classes, and journalism and media classes, so he was in charge of lake, our media program, and the program that we used to create our own little news broadcast. It was really cool. I learned a lot from him. but once, every once in a while, he would take on a student to do an independent study in Russia. This could only happen during one of his prep periods. You had to basically prove yourself before he would take you on. You already had to have one language under your belt and have a plan and reason for why you wanted to do this. I think it was to meet some sort of state requirements. One girl in my graduating class learned German, and then for whatever reason Spanish, and then he accepted her independent study Russian. She did the class, and he must’ve written her a letter of recommendation or something because she later gotten into Westpoint and was trained in Arabic. She worked for the military for years translating Arabic messages, and then retired at like 30 and opened a dance studio.all this to say: this is how teachers change lives, and how important both of this program is to people and our military, and our national security, as well as two citizens later down the line, a generation or two later. Learning about what these people go through has been really fascinating.
The language aptitude test was really fun. Didn’t want it to end. Spent about 2 years at DLI studying Russian in the 70s. I’m impressed with the improvements made to the program, especially the immersion and simulation exercises.
That's exactly why Russian is not a pseudo international language. Because you always can talk with spies or representatives of foreign military. [someone, bring the Sarcasm sign]
@@worldoftancraft hehe, that was a good one
I did the ASVAB back in 1984 and based on the results, they pushed me towards learning Chinese. Being that it was the Cold War, I told them that I wanted Russian and got it.
@@Zipperneck. wait, one question. So my mother signed me up for the ASVAB because she thought it "would act as a practice test for the SAT." She didn't even know it's an army exam...So am I fucked or no?
Curious if you knew Kevin Kelly (my brother) . He was also studying Russian there in the early 70's. He went on to spend his life as a Russian Language Specialist in various capacities, working for DLI as an instructor (after serving in the army in Germany), as an interpreter and translator for the US State Dept and NASA, and at the Marshall Center in Garmish-Partenkirchen in the Bavarian Alps in Germany. Enlisting when the draft came out and ending up having the opportunity to study at DLI formed an amazing pathway for his life. I had the highest respect and admiration for his expertise and profound understanding of language learning and communication in all the languages he eventually mastered. DLI is a fine program.
In brief:
The video is about the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monterey, California, where the US military trains its personnel in foreign languages. The DLI offers an intensive language learning program that lasts between 36 to 64 weeks, depending on the complexity of the language. The video provides an in-depth look at the training process, the daily schedule, and the experiences of the students.
Here's a summary of the main points:
1. **Admission**: To qualify for the linguist job in the military, candidates must pass the Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB), a test that assesses their ability to learn new languages. The test is based on a made-up language to ensure fairness.
2. **Language Assignment**: After basic training, recruits are assigned a language based on their test scores and the military's current needs. They don't necessarily get to choose the language they want to learn.
3. **Training**: The training is extremely intensive. Students spend up to a year and a half immersed in their chosen language. The instruction is initially in English, but as students progress, teachers use less English and eventually switch to teaching entirely in the target language.
4. **Instructors**: The instructors are either civilian native speakers or highly educated military language instructors. They come from over 90 countries.
5. **Classroom Experience**: Classes are held from Monday to Friday, with six hours of language learning each day. The course is divided into three semesters, each focusing on a different theme such as history, geography, or culture. The instruction includes grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension work.
6. **Self-Study**: Students are expected to do a lot of self-study, including memorizing vocabulary words, making recordings of themselves speaking the language, and transcribing recordings.
7. **Immersion**: The DLI has an isolation immersion facility where students can live for up to three days, interacting in an environment where only their new language is understood. They also have simulations to prepare them for real-world situations.
8. **Assessment**: To graduate, students must reach level two, which means being able to understand the gist of a conversation or accurately pick out facts from a news broadcast. Some jobs require a higher level of understanding.
9. **Advice**: The video ends with advice from former students, who emphasize the importance of finding something to love about the language and appreciating the unique opportunity to learn a language intensively.
The video also mentions some resources available to the public, including the Global Language Online Support System (GLOSS) and a practice DLAB test available on Amazon.
I learned Dutch to an advanced level in about 3 months or 300 hours of study as I focused on it for about 3 or 4 months, and I didn’t even try hard, and still watched mostly entertaining videos, because Dutch words are so pretty, and one’s hern tends to remember prettier and more distinctive words faster, and I’m learning pretty languages for fun, so it’s a hobby for me, and I am also intermediate level in Norwegian / Swedish / German and beginner level in Icelandic / Welsh / French / Breton / Gallo / Hungarian / Galician / Old Norse and most other Germanic / Celtic / Latin languages and a few other pretty languages, and I also discovered Slovenian a few days ago, which also seems to have a lot of pretty words - I noticed that, after learning Dutch, learning German has magically become so easy, and I find that I can understand lots of sentences in German now, just because some of the words have the same root as the Dutch words, and I can tell what they mean in that context, and I can even remember new words in German faster, so this makes it even easier, plus the sentence structure is the same in German as it is in Dutch, so I don’t even have to worry about it because I am already used to it!
Thank you GPT!!!
Thank you, my AI overloard
I highly recommend the learning method of transcribing recordings.
This is a quick way to check if your hearing and pronunciation are correct. This method also trains learners to adapt to the pronunciation of gernal native speakers, rather than what a teacher with standard pronunciation speaks.
the Latter Day Saint do it, Too!!
My military son went to the DLI to learn a language straight out of Basic Training. Now, five years later he is back at the DLI learning another language (they needed more linguists and he volunteered). I went to Language Day in 2019 and it was an incredible experience! The DLI opens its doors to the public only one day a year (unfortunately I can’t go this year because it’s on a work day). There is native music and dance, poetry readings in different languages, food trucks with many different cuisines of the world…the students get to show some of what they are learning and it felt like a celebration all day! If you ever have the opportunity to go, don’t miss it!
I learned Spanish quickly by moving to Costa Rica and finding a girlfriend. I moved in with her family and I was fluent in a couple months. Everyone in town was shocked. Now I surprise Spanish speaking people in the states all the time by striking up a conversation in Spanish.
I miss Costa Rica, it's a beautiful country with lots of awesome people.
That’s how I became fluent in German in 9 months. After 3 months I was speaking and laughing along children audio books. Business level took me a few extra months. At the end of the 9th month I was writing college papers.
@@sumairymendez6936 I loved Germany and I took some classes because I thought I'd move there. But when I learned Spanish and didn't use the German I forgot most of it.
@@comfortablynumb9342can you tell more about how you picked up language that quick, and how you travelled without plan, what job you had ? Very interested
@@oliverneborachko4552 I needed to get away from some people and habits in FL and I had always loved Costa Rica and wanted to live there since I was a kid. I went a couple times on vacation with my family and some of them moved there. So they had some friends in Pavones and they set me up down there. I rented a cabina and before long I hooked up with one of the owner's nieces. I moved in with her family. They spoke a little bit of English and I spoke a little Spanish. And I intended to stay so I wanted to learn. I can learn languages pretty easily so it didn't take long. I fished and farmed there too.
I'm assuming y'all broke up?! Which part of CR were u at? Limón
I studied Mandarin Chinese here in 2000-2001, Despite not having taken any formal classes in the past 20-ish years (just a bit of self-study now and then to brush up), and not being exposed to the language regularly, I still feel very comfortable speaking it when the opportunity arises! DLI is literally the only thing about the US military that I can speak positively of.
so is everything else crap?? like what do you mean exactly, what are you saying about the army?? curious as an outsider
@@darthvader3910 just another liberal, ignore them.
@@Yurzys If you need to result to (1) assuming someones political alignment and (2) attempting to insult them as if their opinion & personal experience is someone less valuable than yours, then what you have to say has about as much value as you attributed to them.
@@Yurzys accurate, people need to realize language in absolutes is telling of political/philosophical leaning.
@@Dirty20 thought you did something? 🤨
My brother studied French from Alliance Francaise. The did a similar thing, the instructor spoke in French the moment they stepped in. They know you are beginner so they did a lot of body language to make you understand but never used English in a sentence. They did movie days where they watch movies and review them, game days when they play children games, all the while only speaking in french. Helped him a lot and he learnt french enough to have a conversation within 6 months.
How can I enrol for Académie Française
Hey! Tagalog Language speaker at DLI from 2010's. Never thought I was good at learning the language, but when I passed the language exam and heard about the bonus (10k if you complete the school) I was in! I think the schedule is not as harsh as you explain here, at least during my time there and in the Marines which is the most disaplined of the branches (dont let anyone tell you otherwise). Most of the time we were drinking and studying, I remember one of my neighbors would always get drunk and listen full blast to filipino music for his "study time". It was the closest think I ever came to a frat house or sorority. 8 hours a day, all together just trying to learn tagalog.
The teachers were also super harsh, I laughed when the guy got the response that his russian was shit, because that is so true. The teachers let you know when you sound like a 5 year old. But they also care about you and are equally proud when you do well on exams. My teachers at least never spoke slowly and always gave us a hard time when we tried to use english to explain. Every DLI learner will remember when they started dreaming in their targeet language, and breaking that fourth wall when they start thinking and joking in that language, when they start to prefer the target language over their native one, and finally they feel just as natural speaking that language as they do the english.
Thanks for sharing your experience
@@storylearning No problem! your video was a great blast from the past and I enjoyed watching :D
@@ashleymiller4318 very interesting. I've always been curious about the DLI Center in Monterey every time I'm in the area. I didn't know they teach Tagalog as well. Growing up in the Philippines, I hated learning Tagalog in school. Grammar was a pain. Learned more by reading Filipino comics. Marunong ka pa bang magsalita ng wikang Tagalog? Whew! That was a mouthful 😂
@@teban6560 Oh yes, there is a reason why even filipinos like to mix in english and spanish to their language. We were forced to read some of Jose Rizal works in pure tagalog and it was mind numbing
@@ashleymiller4318 yikes! I dreaded the required reading of his 2 books. I remember having more fun memorizing the Gettysburg Address in speech class and reciting it in front of the whole class. Nerve-wracking but so much easier. I don't know how Abraham Lincoln's famous speech became a requirement in our curriculum. This was back in the 80's.
I learned Korean in 64 weeks in DLI in 2011-2013. What a time! As for "sound and script", we didn't have that. We had an "optional" headstart program before the 64 weeks started to learn the sounds in an afternoon and a few phrases for a couple of days. Week 1 of official class was hitting the ground running with introductions/salutations + vocab study.
I honestly don't consider 64 weeks "fast". I studied Korean, and recognize it to be among the half-dozen _hardest_ languages offered, but given the density of daily training, I think the time could be cut to under a year if some of the old-school drill and kill, and delayed-speech, etc. methodologies were re-introduced in modern CAI audio-visual garb.
What I'm getting from this video is that you guys have been run through nothing more than a super-intensive version of what I went through in university Korean; and as dumb as that was, if I had to do it morning to evening I'd have wound up speaking like a native in year. If I had to do it leading-edge on the other hand... 6 months. Granted I live where there is a large Korean population, and an all-Korean big supermarket/cafe where you could spend 10 minutes and never hear any English at all.
@One Two Three Incorporated bruh s&s was definitely NOT semester 1. I still have my books any sound and script learned was done in 1 day in head start before the start of the course. How are you going to tell me what i went through?
@One Two Three Incorporated except i never said a damn thing about what YOU did you ding dong. If you read either comment i wrote, you'd see it's of MY experience at a specific time in a specific schoolhouse. So no, we NEVER called it s&s and if we spent semester 1 on that, we'd never get anything done. Hell, even the DLI transcript doesnt call semester 1 anything remotely resembling s&s. But please go off.
64 weeks?? You totally earned your name.
Sweet!!
As a functioning bilingual whose second language was, at first, a learned language, I am convinced that the key to this type of language learning is the acceptance of discipline. Any method works, when the students are this disciplined and dedicated.
You've obviously done a lot of work to put this video together. It was very interesting to see what has changed and what's still the same since I graduated from DLI in German in 1970. It was a wonderful experience!
❣
I graduated the Korean course in 1991. It appears that their training and school have become more intense and immersive since then. It was truly amazing and the friendships you form with your fellow linguists will last your entire life. Great video and trip down memory lane.
I am creating Arabic language learning lessons in English for beginners. Your support, suggestions and advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks a ton
I attended DLI to study North Vietnamese in 1973. 45 years later I was talking Vietnamese at a nail salon with a woman who told me my Vietnamese was very good, “elegant.“ I have had formal studies in eight languages and since DLI I have found all the commercial language learning products to be too slow. We learned a high-octane method of study, and we learned how our minds best absorb a language for memorization and conversation. I learned as much about myself as I did the language. PS-I may be the only person on earth who speaks both North Vietnamese and Swahili! :-)
i think commercial language products are too slow for most people! i used to teach classes, and then later i taught private 1-on-1 lessons and the latter was so much more effective because you could go at the pace of the student. fast or slow!
If you learned the Northern Dialect in the 1970s, it would definitely sound elegant compared to today.
😎🤗
Jambo!
thats awesome!
I wish a school like this was available for civililians
Students are already suffering 😂
From laziness and indoctrination @@ilv839
I went to DLI. There are civilian programs that we were allowed to attend if we wanted to get additional immersion time after graduation. Middlebury College in Vermont was one of those options. I never did that, I did an in-country immersion, but by all accounts Middlebury is very good.
@@PteromandiasI’ve heard great things abt middlebury overall, underrated college
@@TheInterestingInformeri was just about to mention this. literally my dream to attend and the fact that you can’t speak ANYTHING other than your target language (unless in certain personal circumstances i think but don’t fully remember) sounds so challenging but so intriguing as well cause everyone is going through the same struggle
Fantastic! I love this video. I am sending it to my friends and family now. I am a US Army honor graduate of the Arabic program at DLI from 1987. It was a grueling experience that I love to this day. It laid the foundation for a career that has lasted for decades. It opened doors for me in media, diplomacy and of course, security and defense. I worked all over the Middle East and Africa and was able to pass as a native speaker. The skills I learned put me in harms way, but also saved my life. I worked solo on the streets of Baghdad in 2003-2005. I was able to pass valuable intelligence to our allies from conversations I heard on the streets. I am so glad to have found this video. Thank you for your wonderful work!
Awesome comment... it was a pleasure reading this.. thank you for sharing!
I was in German class at DLI when the wall came down in fall of 1990 (yeah, I know--it was reunification, not wall--addressed in comments but editing to avoid more comments 😁). It was an amazing experience. Our instructors used almost no English from the start, but of course that's easier with German than for some other languages. We were housed with fellow German students and encouraged to use the language even when not in class. I knew no German at all when I arrived and could communicate at a pretty high level at the end
Do you still use your German? How much have you retained since then?
@@Herp234 I read and listen some still, but have lost so much of it from infrequent use. It's been thirty years!
Stabil
I was there in 1998, for Russian
I went through the Russian DLI in 1984-85 which was at San Antonio.
I've found over years teaching - and learning myself - is that motivation is the driving force to persue languages (and anything for that matter). It's hard to imagine a bigger motivator than not dying.
Pain.
The only thing worse then death is constant unending pain.
100% disagree. Learning under duress is not conducive to retention. Think about the when you were in college cramming for an exam, how did you do, how was the retention?
I would die
Yeah, if someone told me I needed to learn Mandarin to say a C1 level in 18 months, and they said there's a $1m reward if I were to manage it, I'm farily certain I'd acheive it. The trouble is, you can't fake that kind of motivation. A _genuine_ drive has to be there, and that usually requires a genuine reward, which 99.9 times out of a 100 isn't, "It would be really cool to be fluent in Mandarin." For one person in a thousand that might be enough, but the rest of us will give up because it's nowhere close to enough of an incentive for the amount of work it takes.
@@gfuentes8449 Procrastinating and cramming is not conductive for learning, but learning under stress with enough time is effective. To this day I can still solve kinematic equations from memory even a decade later.
Fluently speaking two foreign languages (Mandarin Chinese and English) I've learned that one of the best ways to learn a language fast is to involve your emotions. You memorize new words quickly when you're in a native environment, so when learning on your own you can try to curate that exiting or stressful feeling by learning new vocab from movies about traumatic experiences (example: "tangshan earthquake" for mandarin) or reading erotic novels (manga/manhua for asian languages works great too). And watch tiktoks in that language! It works wonders, really helps to get that native feel in your speech.
huh， 这是有意思的。你可以把漫画发给我推荐吗？我要试试你说的方法。
I speak 14 languages and i came to the same conclusion. You have to use emotions and feelings then you talk to yourself by imagining talking to someone else but still feeling the feelings like in an actual conversation
@@befalanguageschool1919 that is sound, in neuropsychology it is known the importance of the amygdala with the formation of memory.
If you are capable of mixing emotions with information, it will definitely help to retain it faster.
That is why it is better to teach languages with comic books and fun stories, meeting people and dating. The more fun you have, the better and faster retention.
I graduated from DLI in 1971, German language. Scored a 4 in the course, at that time the highest score attainable. A 5 would indicate native speaker. I can still read German pretty well, 52 years later. That was a GREAT way to learn. We had two teachers over the 8 months, one from Vienna, the other, from Hamburg. The process described here is much advanced over the training we received.
DLI '73, Deutsch. Ich frage mich, ob Sie Herrn Trautmann hatten? Und ich erinnere mich ehrlich gesagt nicht an meinen anderen Ausbilder, aber er hatte einen Arm. Er war ein Veteran der deutschen Armee aus dem Zweiten Weltkrieg und verlor seinen Arm im Krieg.
Und wie bequem fühlst du dich deutsch zu sprechen?
My grandfather went to Monterey in the military and learned Russian during the Cold War. He worked as a codebreaker during the korean war in Japan breaking and translating soviet code. He didn't speak much of his service, and always fought tooth and nail for my family to never join the military but i'm proud he was able to study one of the hardest languages at the DLI.
I’m sure you grandfather is proud.
Why did he not want you to join?
I went through DLI for Korean from 2002 to 2003. Full disclosure: I was a washout from the course. I was fortunate enough to be already be multilingual, so I was able to go on to be a military linguist. My main criticism with the DLI method is that they tend to focus heavily on syntax and grammar at the front rather than learning expressing basic needs. I believe that learning a second language as an adult should mirror how one learns their first language: express basic needs and build on that. DLI works because they force a large volume of people through it with the hopes of getting certain percent out. It’s sink or swim there.
You might have found it interesting that the Chinese program did not follow that method at all. Our first phase was Mandarin Chinese, a Modular Approach, and within the first three months we were conversant with precisely what you addressed, namely all the basic needs. So from directions to clothes, food, and all the structure needed to be able to navigate in the language, we had that all up front, then we started building vocabulary and of course working on characters.
How long were you in the course? I thank you for your service.
@@busterbiloxi3833 I think I got through six months.
@@busterbiloxi3833 The Chinese course was only 47 weeks, but for most of those weeks it was all day in class, average of 2-3 hours homework, and same on the weekends.
Testing multiple times a week, and if you failed more than a few rapid fire drills or tests, you were dropped. All grades were posted publicly to increase the pressure on performance, but on the bright side, there was no forced curve, so in theory, everyone admitted to each class can graduate provided they do the work and pass.
It's easy to brag on your amazing results if you wash out a good fraction of your students.
My brother studied languages at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in California. The pace of study was intense. Students had to master the language course in 36-64 weeks. Psychologically it was very difficult, but fortunately he was helped by Yuriy Ivantsiv's book "Polyglot Notes. Practical tips for learning foreign languages”. The book " Polyglot Notes" became a desk book for my brother, because it has answers to all the problems that any student of a foreign language has to face. Thanks to the author of the channel for this interesting video! Good luck to everyone who studies a foreign language and wants to realize their full potential!
Hi Matilda. That's where my brother went, too, to learn Russian. He was there maybe 1978/1979. I believe from there he went to Goodfellow to study some more.
Thank you for the book recommendation. :)
Studied Russian at DLI, graduated in 2020. Was super cool to hear you talk about it. My course was 52 weeks, and luckily plenty of people in my class passed, thanks for the cool video!
I attended DLI for German immersion as a military spouse, but it was a special program as we were getting set to move to Germany as part of an exchange program. The experience in the program laid the foundation for my eventual fluency, and it has also helped me learn other languages. Very great video.
Das heisst du sprichst jetzt fliessend deutsch?
Hey my parents both work at the DLI! One thing thing to note is that they learn these languages because they are completely immersed into the language it’s honestly pretty cool to see them improve at the languages
well its as close as they're getting. I would say it is immersion. The teachers talk only in the language they're learning. The entire school day (8 hours) is nothing but Farsi.@RetreadPhoto
When I was in Marine Corps bootcamp, I was pulled out one day to see how well I did with languages, something about how I did on the ASVAB.. It was all audio, and a made-up language. We were supposed to figure out what they were talking about based on what we heard. I apparently didn't do so well and continued on with basic training. It was a cool experience though. Probably why I still suck at hearing and understanding Russian after 5 years 🤣
Interesting anecdote!
@Vadim Mikhailov Да, я согласен на сто процентов! Но мне очень нравится его изучать. Я могу говорить чуть чуть, но когда дело доходит до понимания русской речи, мой русский отстой 🤣
*It was A cool experience... 🤣
@@BassandoForte ? a shouldn't be capitalized?
@@laur-unstagenameactuallyca1587 - I capitalised it because before the edit he missed the a out... 💥
So fascinating to hear about this language instruction. I studied language both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and in between I joined the Peace Corps where I was able to learn the indigenous language Guarani in Paraguay. Part of the challenge was that we had a limited amount of formal training. After that, I continued acquiring the language in my site learning as best I could through daily interactions and situations. Although it was most certainly difficult, it was also greatly rewarding.
Yes, I was disappointed when I learnt how short the Peace Corps language programs were before they advanced their volunteers to their respective assigned countries. I had once considered joining the Peace Corps for, amongst other things, the language training. I chose the War Department instead.
One of my best friends at the DLI was a Peace Corps alum. He is now dead, having been felled by the enemy in Afghanistan. (Note: Former Peace Corps volunteers can join the U. S. military with a waiver. Well, practically anyone with a pulse now can, to include the entire crew of "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome," but that is another matter. Project 100 has been resurrected. 😂)
There is a reason for everything.
For American learners, I highly recommend Middlebury College's summer language programs.☮️ 🕊
I'm a '72 graduate with honors, tied for 2nd in my Spanish class of DLIWC. One of the best experiences of my life. I really enjoyed the video; excellent job.
This one and how the Mormons learn languages have been my favorites so far. Thanks for gathering and curating this info - your generosity is astounding!
I’ve done both DLI and MTC, MTC was more effective overall for me.
Cool, did you train for the same languages at each or for different ones? Do you mind saying which languages?
As an argentinian whose half of the family are former mormons I am quite impressed when I hear these boys speak spanish.
Very interesting video! A lot of this is very similar to how my Japanese language school taught Japanese. I studied for 72 weeks at a language school in Japan and by the end of it I was able to apply for, test, and get into a University in Japan. Between language school, University, and later work, I ended up living for 10 years in Japan which was a fantastic experience. The idea brought up in the video a few times about also learning the culture hits home a lot when thinking about Japanese as a language since it's a very contextual based language, so having that knowledge background goes a long way.
Which school?
@@ericeverettpearson3980Intercultural Institute of Japan.
@@RozalinGaming thanks
I spent two years at DLI. They were some of the best years of my life.
I completed the Arabic language course at DLI in 1993. We studied Modern Standard Arabic and then Egyptian, Iraqi, and Lebanese dialects. Very intense but well worth it. I used it when I went on the U.N. Multinational Force and Observers tour in the Sinai Peninsula.
10/10 WOULD RECOMMEND! 😃👍
can you now understand arabic or you have forgotten since that was 30 years ago
@@mahmoudsalah2626 Good question! When I completed the course, I tested out very high at reading, listening, and speaking. However, I noticed over the years that the vocabulary gets lost very easily if I don't use the language regularly. As it is, I don't have the opportunity to keep the proficiency at a high level with work and other responsibilities. This disappoints me because I love the language!
مشاءالله!!!!
In 1967 I studied MSA and then Iraqi dialect the last few weeks. For 2 1/2 years my target country was Yemen. Had to learn a new dialect on the fly in Asmara, Ethiopia (Eritrea). Left the Army, became an attorney, and forgot 99% of my Arabic.
Wow 99%? I suppose with any new language that is not your native day to day language you will forget the language if not used daily
Olly, I just want to say that I was taught Spanish at the MTC and after my mission to Buenos Aires, I went to DLI and first learned Czech. After the wall came down and peace broke out, I changed to Arabic. I also was an MLI (Military Language Instructor) at DLI. I agree with all of what they said and I was there for 6 and a half years after the year and a half of studying and four years of working with the language. Thank you for your video. It's great. Oh, and by the way, my recruiter was a cook and he knew nothing about DLI, Linguists and my MOS. I would like to add that in Spanish, I learned the religious part of the language. In Czech, more military rather than religion. But in Arabic, the language is so tied with the Koran and Islam that learning religious language goes hand in hand with learning Arabic. Still, I read the Book of Mormon a couple of times through in Spanish, one time in Czech (though Slovak languages are hard because of cases) and several times in Arabic. I now translate certain books from English to Arabic...a skill I learned at DLI.
As enlisted Navy, I graduated from the basic Mandarin 47 week course in 74-75, and came back as an MLI in 86-89. Worked in the signal's intelligence field. Retired in 1994 and did an MA in Chinese in Hawaii. Qualified as a graphic language analyst at the NSA in 1990 while still on active duty with the Navy. The AVERAGE graduate of DLI in Asian languages is not really fluent, but they do have a solid foundation in the language. Most would be placed at the start of the 3rd year level at a university (CHN 301). University students have a better knowledge of literature and the written language. DLI grads tend to have better listening comprehension.
I was there in 89.
@@ronhunt40 I left in August of 89.
There in 77. Arabic. Unless it's changed significantly, this video is a mix of hype and nonsense. Unless you live in a country where you can use the language - Korea, maybe a Middle Eastern nation - you're at best a buzz phraser. No one I knew, including NSA guys, were fluent. In my day, the Navy and Air Force guys used their Arabic more than the Army guys. That's probably changed given the last 20 years in the Middle East. I was actually never stationed at a Navy base after bootcamp. DLI is Army, Goodfellow is Air Force, and we flew from an Air Force base. The vast majority of the Navy guys were 4 and out. Most of us had some or a lot of college before we joined the military. Linguists are an odd bunch - ex-seminarians, a college grad who majored in French. With college, you started as an E-3, got promoted for staying out of trouble, made E-5 and left.
I can't imagine anyone I was in school or served with interrogating someone in Arabic. Including the Army guys. Finally, the history of the USS Pueblo is interesting. Navy linguists went to naval headquarters in Japan and told the brass they couldn't speak Korean. They were told, you passed Korean at DLI, you're qualified. Later they pulled over a Korean fishing boat. The fisherman warned them that North Korean warships were in the area. The sailors had no idea what they said. Unfortunately the Pueblo was captured.
The chief benefit was learning from native speakers. When I hear Modern Stardard, I recognize words, could probably transcribe it, but had zero idea what they said in real time. After 9/11 I called the FBI when there was a need for Arabic linguists. They never got back to me. I probably would have been useless, but I definitely would have been more motivated.
My advice if you go to DLI? Play golf and learn to sail. Monterey was amazing. I had friends that went to Monterey Pop and saw Hendrix on their first time at DLI. We went to see the Grateful Dead at Winterland. No idea what the curfew stuff is all about. I had friends in all the branches and we were out late and often crashed at off base apartments. Never heard of open door studying.
@@mikem668 I retired almost 30 years ago and can still read Chinese newspapers, but I was one of those nerds who would sit on watch studying open-source materials. Most linguists wanted nothing to do with the written Chinese language. "Characters? Characters? Are you nuts!".
@@philgainey2663 I hear this and wonder how you all memorized the vocabulary words? Just in pinyin then? Or rather most don't really want to put even more into learning characters and whatnot
My husband, son, and brother were at Monterey. The experience may not be fun but the experience will mold you into a person who can set your mind to anything and accomplish it. There will be tears, but the rest of your life you will have this amazing experience that has helped shaped the incredible person you've become.
One of my best friends learned Arabic for the military, he met his wife in Monterey and it was crazy to see how fast he got fluent in the language. I took 5 years of German in high school and he became fluent in Arabic in like a 3rd of the time while I never really got close.
It says on 3.41 that the students get taught 4 types of Arabic; modern standard, Egyptian, Levantine and Iraqi Arabic. I thought that those people would be able to understand each other's Arabic without having to learn about the others.
@@gerardburton1081 based off what my friend tells me it has a lot to do with more cultural things, since after all if you are a translator for these people misinterpreting things could have some pretty big consequences depending on what it is
@@gerardburton1081 no, Egyptians find it very hard to understand Moroccans. An Egyptian can understand Moroccan about as well as a Spanish speaker can understand portuguese. They are different languages really, not dialects.
@@firebanner6424 if that is the case then the Egyptian Arabic should just get called Egyptian and the Moroccan Arabic just Moroccan. Spanish and Portuguese are two of the four Latin languages so maybe it should be known as Egyptian and Moroccan.
Do they learn the 4 dialects on those 64 weeks?
Hey thanks for making this video! I'm an Air Force veteran that was trained as a Pashto linguist at DLI. Pashto was particularly difficult, even with our native speaking teaching team. Our entire career was riding on mastering the language in just 64 weeks, so the pressure was high. From day one in our course, English was banned from the classroom (though this rule couldn't be fully enforced). I do fully subscribe to the immersion method of learning, as it accelerated my understanding at a pace I didn't think was possible. The course was mostly focused on vocabulary that we'd have to recognize in our missions, not necessarily all things that a native would talk about on a daily basis.
However there was also the misconception among our instructors that it was our only priority. At DLI, it's military duties first, education second. You could get in serious trouble for things like not marching to class (if you're in the first couple phases of training), forgetting courtesies around your superiors, or not passing your physical test. And if one person really messes up, we all get punished. Punishment often included standing in formation for hours or scrubbing the dorms top to bottom. All of this affected performance in learning our language and none of the leadership was very understanding of how much we had to juggle just to pass our exams.
Language day was a good time, I loved going around to the various tents and tables and looking at their respective cultural items. Our own contribution was a traditional dance that some of our students participated in with full traditional garb as well. We also enjoyed a an Afghan potluck back in our classrooms, and one of our teachers played a bayan accordion while another drummed on his tabla.
I became enchanted by Afghanistan's rich culture and poetic language, which kept me going. But if I had to do it again, I'd probably pick another profession.
I had a similar experience. The ATAs and MLIs had been there, done that, so they were much more understanding. But the MTLs all came from different career fields and had no idea the kind of pressure the students were under. I can still remember having to stand in formation at zero dark thirty, while in service dress, getting yelled at for some stupid shit or another. Meanwhile, for many of us the most important test of our careers at that point, and out entire reason d'etre for being at DLI, was just over the horizon. Just clueless leadership.
My dad went to DLI in 1964 to learn Vietnamese. I was very young but remember how fascinated he was with the culture and the language. Thanks for sharing this with us!
I am creating Arabic language learning lessons in English for beginners. Your support, suggestions and advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks a ton
I met many u.s military linquists when I worked abroad. I loved them and was amazed by them, partly jealous at their opportunity and fluency. Great video!
Graduated from DLI's Mandarin course in '19. Absolutely radical experience, and every bit as intense as Olly describes.
@@firephoenixgamers8590 Air Force, so my AFSC is 1N3.
Aye fellow Chiling!!
@@whytesakura1 Eyyy! Scale from 1-10, how much do you miss Compagno's? Hahaha
@@Bobobobobob741 like a 6, I spent a lot of time going to Duffys. I even got my name on the ceiling. Bennett is definitely awkward af still lol.
do you even opsec, bro?
Iso-immersion is intensive, but necessary. It's easy to get discouraged, but keep going. At some level, osmosis does occur even if you're passive in learning. Medellín has humbled me in these last few weeks
I went to DLI in 1980 and the Russian Language course ran 46 weeks. I can confirm that the DLI experience is extremely intense. After week 9 you are not allowed to speak English in the classroom complex and most days have you studying between 10 and 50 new words -- which you must be able to understand, read, write and conjugate properly by the next day -- when you'll get a new vocab list to study. When I first reported there, I was issued a reel-to-reel tape player, a two-foot tall stack of tapes, and a stack of forty text books -- that was just for weeks 1-9. At week 10 I got another issue of about the same size. It was insane. It continued like this for the whole 46 weeks -- after graduation it was off to Goodfellow Air Force Base for further training.
If you want to be a military linguist -- whether as a transcriber, a translator, an analyst or an interrogator -- just know that by the end of the process your brain will be bent and you'll have a massive superiority complex. You won't actually be any smarter than a non-linguist, you'll just think you are.
Week 9????!!! Day 1 in Turkish. With many pencils being thrown around and out of windows to explain locative and motion terms.
@@Kitsaplorax çok şükür zaten almanca ingilizce ve arapça yanında türkçe de konuşuyorum
I just want to look into the eyes of those who decided to make the word "кого" sound like "каво". Russian language consists of thousands such cases when u spell words with completely different letters compared to form u write them
Any suggestions on proper ways of interacting with such people in civilian work place? Thank you 😅
@@Kitsaplorax😂
Leils Paldies! I am currently learning Latvian and initially researched the fascinating, deeply moving, history and culture. I have since been using songs, politics, and many many other genre of Latvian content (also Russian). Your video has provided additional valuable tools for my linguistic journey. I plan to be in Riga next year and hope to help with refugees. My emotional connection has also driven me to learn Latvian. I exist due to my infant father and grandparents leaving Riga during Stalin's "Red Terror"
I'm Deaf, and a full-time ASL user and I've either been teaching ASL or teaching Deaf kids English for ... 20-25 years. More recently I have been picking up bits and pieces of JSL (Japanese Sign Language), BSL (British Sign Language), and AUSLAN (Australian Sign Language) and the cultural and developmental qualities of a language absolutely require background information about the day-to-day life of the people who developed it.
For example: Western cultures tend to say "me/I" by pointing to the chest - we see our central emotions and aspects of the self as being in our chest/heart. Most Eastern cultures, when signing "me/I" will point to their nose or forehead, as they view their central identity (the self) as being in the head/mind or in the center of the face.
On the other hand (ha!) sometimes the basic signs (like the sign for book - two hands flat up against each other, like a prayer, then, keeping pinkie fingers on each hand together - like a book spine - pull the thumbs apart until both hands are flat, palms up, like an open book) are almost 100% universal.
I come from a long-standing military family (at least back to the Revolutionary War - and beyond), and I would have VERY MUCH liked to have an opportunity to serve my country, and access the cultural and linguistic education that goes with it!
That's so interesting. I noticed that in korea too
The cultural differences are very interesting. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for taking the time to write this! Very interesting.
This is very interesting to me as an American. An uncle of mine spent 20 years as an Arabic interpreter for the army, and he’s described how intense the process was, but never to this extent.
I am creating Arabic language learning lessons in English for beginners. Your support, suggestions and advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks a ton
The DLI and the Foreign Service Institute language courses (which you can find for free online) are probably some of the best language courses I've ever used for gaining a foundation in a language. Most of them are from the 70's so there is a lot of outdated vocabulary, but as far as grounding you in the essentials of the language they're some of the best material I've used.
They are even considered really dry, but getting through and finishing the no frills course is already a testament of the discipline a learner has and how much they want to truly attain that knowledge.
@@alanguages Absolutely! Dry is an understatement lol But they are amazing resources
I am creating Arabic language learning lessons in English for beginners. Your support, suggestions and advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks a ton
Graduated Spanish in 91, and this seems far more rigorous than when I was there. There seemed to be a lot more partying going on amongst my group at least. I remember the poor group that was halfway through German when the Wall came down and they got moved into Spanish. I think they lost 1/4 of their students within a month because the change was so extreme.
Yeah, it's not that extreme. I graduated Russian in 2000, and spent the last 5 years of my career heavily involved in the entire language learning program, before I decided to retire. No one is studying as much as this video claims, the formation requirements, lights out, curfew etc are only really applicable to brand new folks right out of basic.
It's still intense but nothing like the implications in this video.
Interesting. Graduated Korean in 2002 and this was fairly accurate with the exception of that final hour of study hall until 2200.
That era was the stuff of legend when I was there. I went there in 97-98 after they did some major house cleaning (there were stories of people smoking weed in the barracks.) My commander there - who incidentally was the candidate for Pennsylvania governor last election - represented the new breed of leadership who brought in strict enforcement of standards and regulations after the partying 80s and early 90s.
@bigheadface Depends on the culture and your teachers. Russians are pretty chill. I'm sure you've heard about how kids suicide by train in Japan and Korea because they didn't pass their college entrance exams? That culture is very pervasive in Japanese, Korean, Chinese people and it will most likely apply to your instructors as well. It was common for us to receive 3-5 hours of homework a night and 8+ on weekends.
High school kids in those countries ROUTINELY go to cram school every day after regular school AND on Saturday. The culture that fosters this behavior often is ingrained in the instructors from those cultures.
Having learned something about Arabic culture and subsequently studied Russian I do not doubt that the instructors of those languages were probably not that intense, but not everyone's DLI experience is the same.
@@RobotDCLXVI You're absolutely right. The Chinese instructors would label someone who didn't spend at least 3 hours studying at night a "lazy worm."
I learned Farsi in 2013 and Spanish in 2015-2016. Loved every bit of it, it was some of my best memories in my life. I even recognized one of my Persian teachers in this video. It's good to see she's still there, she was so sweet.
My wife and I completed the German language program in the late 80s. We were privates. I didn't have officers in my class, but my wife did. Once we entered the classroom, rank seemed to disappear. When interacting with the other students, we never got hung up on rank ... it was all about learning the language. To that extent, we were all equals and that's the way the classes were conducted. The funniest thing was what the Germans through was funny versus what we thought was funny. There was certainly a sense of humor gap!
Na was geht wie war es so?
Am Anfang habe ich gedacht,dass es eine schwerige Sprache wäre.
@@danislavevtimov5984 English is extremely close to German linguistically due to the migration of the Angles and Saxons to create England after the fall of Rome. The only languages closer to English reflect the migratory route that the Germans took to get to England (through the Netherlands) …therefore the closest living languages to English are Dutch and even more than Dutch to take the trophy is Frisian.
Modern German speakers can even understand Old English (spoken by the original settlers) better than modern English speakers can understand it. There’s plenty of TH-cam videos of Germans recognizing Old English.
When I was in high school (1984), I grew up in California and got to visit the school. I found it really exciting and almost signed up for the marines, because I was really interested in languages, since my dad is from Norway. But, I went a different direction. However, I ended up spending 3 years in Finland and learned Finnish and Swedish there. Now, I have lived in Germany for 20 years. So, with my background, I can testify that an intensive immersive program is the best way to learn a language. If the options are sink or swim, most people will swim. I am sure that the program is good, but being in the country is critically important, since that is where you are exposed to the many dialects and cultural aspects that are hard to simulate remotely. Now, I have a daugher, who is 19 and she was fortunate to go to a Gymnasium (German for High School) that focuses on languages. She grew up learning German and English at home, then at school she learned Latin, Chinese, Russian and French. She even got to spend 6 months as an exchange student in Shanghai and 2 weeks in St Petersberg. I know that this seems amazing for folks growing up in the US, but this is not uncommon for people growing up in Europe.
the erasmus program is awesome.. 😎
I like learning in general, but there are so many hours in a day. I learned Spanish, but that was basically by accident because I worked my way through college in an auto parts store in California. To each there own, but I'm not sure it's worth learning a bunch of languages. Some, and I have to stress not all, Europeans are rather snotty that most Americans only know one language. I think it comes down to opportunity cost. Time spent learning a language is time not spent learning something else. So learn more science, engineering, math or learn German when most Germans speak English anyway?
@@Anon54387 I totally understand the issue of limited hours in a day. For me, I do as much as possible to do my learning in a manner that is part of my day-to-day life. My entertainment (videos, books) I try to have a healthy 50/50 mix of English and German or Norwegian. For example, I really enjoyed the Harry Potter books, so I reread the series in German and Norwegian. That was huge boost to my language skills.
But, for me the benefits go way beyond just being functionally able to communicate with people who don't speak English. First and foremost, it is exercise for your brain. Like a muscle, if it is properly exercised, it will stay strong and healthy into old age. Language learning is also known to improve problem solving, decision making and multi-tasking. It also exposes you to nuances of other cultures, which is important to living in a world with so much diversity. People who speak multiple languages tend to be more accepting of others, because they have been exposed to diverse cultures and points of view. For example, in German there is a formal and informal form of the word "you". In Finnish there is only one word for "he" and "she". In Norwegian, people say thank you for so many reasons, that are uncommon in other languages, "Thank you for buying from me", "Thank you for the last time we saw each other". These languages have their culture integrated into them and by seeing them, we get new ways to reflect on our own cultures.
Love this comment!
That's almost exactly my experience.
Living / being immersed in the country, I found to be extremely important.
Great video, also Olly is extremely well-spoken and articulate, the way he emphasizes certain words and puts pauses at just the right moment while he speaks is fantastic. The entire video just had a lovely flow to it and was easy on the ears. A great orator - probably one of the best I have heard on youtube.
Really well done, I graduated DLI back in 2012 and this was a definite trip down memory lane. Great vid!
I am creating Arabic language learning lessons in English for beginners. Your support, suggestions and advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks a ton
I was recruited by the US Army to be an interpreter as my DLAB was extremely high. I decided to go into the USMC, who did not have a DLI job available at the time. My 6 years in the USMC was invaluable but the "what if?" factor absolutely tortures me even 30+ years later, especially since learning languages has become my number one personal hobby. If you're young and have the chance to attend, don't pass it up!
I will offer a counterpoint, I was offered several jobs (non linguistic- just nuclear stuff/Intel) for other branches, but went with USMC Infantry.
This was hands down the best decision I’ve made. While I might have enjoyed other jobs, nothing really is a fulfilling as being in a sucky job in a tough branch with a bunch of other guys.
The “What if” ‘s do occasionally pop up, but I’ve heard more “what if” ‘s from my non-infantry friends than my infantry ones.
@@Smile4theKillCam456 agree. Imagine telling your grandkids experiences sitting behind a desk. The suck is worth it.
I learned Arabic at DLI when I was in the Air Force. I was definitely fluent in Arabic after the program. I’d say I’m semi-fluent now, but I’ve moved on to an unrelated engineering career so I rarely get a chance to use the language. It’s neat to see a video about the school! Definitely a cool experience, and a part of my life I remember fondly.
Hi, I’m leaving to bmt next month and going in for airborne linguist. I got tempted to take the job because of the top secret clearance. Is being a linguist worth it in your eyes?
@@Josetoowavvyy Hey, I'm a former Airborne Linguist going through a re-class. To answer your question if being a linguist is worth it: It depends on your values. I'll just give myself as an example, I joined the military right out of high school mainly because I didn't want to go to college and didn't know what in god's name I wanted to do with my life. I just threw myself in the deep end of the pool. High ASVAB Score and no health issues, they pressed me to be a linguist and I accepted. Over the next two years I experienced BMT, DLI, Survival School, and other trainings and man I wouldn't take it back. I've learned a lot about myself, met people who've become great friends and people who challenged me in a positive way.
But as I was going through the LONG training pipeline, I was figuring out who I was and what I'm passionate about. I found myself to be super passionate about health, nutrition, meditation, and general spirituality. I'd read books in those categories all the time, even during DLI when studying ought to have been the better use of time. And as I reached the end of my training pipeline, I learned that (for me personally) passion is vital to my work life. If I'm not passionate and don't like what I do, then I either won't do it or I'm miserable doing it. So slowly but surely, I completely stopped studying arabic and lost all interest in the language and the career. So I talked to my supervisors about this and they did a wonderful job working with me, and now I'm in the process of a career change. So according to my values, no being a linguist was not worth it.
BUT there are others who are go-getters. They love flying, the action of a high paced mission, love that they're going after X target country, etc. It's fulfilling for them. For a peace-oriented guy like me, not so much. So it really depends. DLI is a great place for learning about yourself. The challenges you face from people, military leadership, and the intense curriculum are akin to the stress a caterpillar faces when they are in their cocoon going through metamorphosis. So really utilize that! Monterey is beautiful, you can have lots of fun with dating (Desperate Love Institute HAHA), and all this fun stuff.
Last thing I do want to point out; this could be a military or linguist thing (both most likely), but man throughout the whole pipeline even to my operational duty station, people are super negatively oriented. There's gonna be lots of complaining, shit talking, and gossip. And you'll habitually join in because that's what everyone else is doing. But after a certain point, I realized all that negativity was super draining to engage with. I often isolate myself just to not be around that because 9/10 people around me are focused on complaining. It's not a high morale career field. So take that into consideration as well.
I wish you luck with BMT and DLI, feel free to ask any other questions!
Good! At least you won’t go around wreaking havoc in other countries!
مشاءالله
Immersion is the best teacher with the intensive instruction on top of that this is a winner.
It was interesting to watch this video, Olly. I'm a native Korean speaker who's working as a Korean language teacher in a university in Egypt. When I was serving my mandatory Korean military service time about 20 years ago, I was one of the KATUSA soldiers. KATUSA soldiers are Korean soldiers who work and live with US soldiers in Korea with their language skills. So, I have both military parts and language learning/teaching parts in me. This was very intersting. The video itself is well thought out and organized.
Thank you for your service. 한국어를 할 줄 알아요. 솔직히 유창하게 한국어로 말하지 못해요 하지만 언젠가 한국어 전문가가 되고 싶어요.
I am creating Arabic language learning lessons in English for beginners. Your support, suggestions and advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks a ton
I love that they mention the culture aspect of language learning. My Latin teacher in highschool would always say "you can't learn language in a vacuum you must learn it's people and history as well".
They prefer latinx now
@@LucasFernandez-fk8se I have not met a single Latino who actually likes that and he is referring to Latin the language not the people.
@@LucasFernandez-fk8se nadie que tenga cerebro dice latinx, sólo los imbéciles que no tienen idea de gramática y ortografía.
@@LucasFernandez-fk8se I believe they were refering to the Latin language, spoken by the Romans. They would not care about Latinx.
While the course as a whole is obviously too intense, the language day and the iso-immersion rooms are absolutely awesome! I wish they were avaliable for the general public
Too intense for you?
@@Make-Asylums-Great-Againyeah, 7h a day is a bit too much imho)) but ofc that differs from person to person and might be fine for others
@@Make-Asylums-Great-Again Considering DLI has the highest suicide rate of any military base, yes, it can be considered too intense.
@@suzannesimmons4204 That's really interesting because no resource that I can find agrees with you in the slightest. Do you happen to have a reference for that?
@@orionweiss5418 Someone who graduated from there recently. He was instructed about it when he enlisted and was aware of many who died while he was there. Not something they want to publicize.
Possibly the most well structured, executed and fun informative tutorial on a very useful topic
Hi, I am actually currently at DLI. When it comes to the schedule specifically it is very branch specific. From what I have seen Air Force has it alot more relaxed. After school and PT (if you have PT that day) the time is yours. Theres not really bed checks or things like that. They give you alot more autonomy in the Air Force than other branches. I highly recommend coming to DLI it is an amazing experience.
I think I know you from somewhere....
Amazing experience? You were Spanish huh?
@@matthewramirez3374 LMFAO fuckin got him with the spanling
The Air Force has it easy as fuck lmao. The Army has loads of extra bullshit attached to it.
Learning Japanese in the 1960s, I wasted a lot of time in the first few months asking “why?”. Once I accepted that there was no answer to this question, I started to make some progress.
I am creating Arabic language learning lessons in English for beginners. Your support, suggestions and advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks a ton
I learned english in 1.5 years with a self developed system, much akin to this one (congeniality really is a thing) After that I managed to learn german in 1 year and spanish subsequently in 6 months. Things like "100 most needed phrases" and "1000 most needed words" speed up the learning process immensely!
Can you please elaborate on the whole process? I'm currently learning Spanish and I feel like I'm stuck at lower intermediate level.
How many words did you learn a day?.. I'm currently studying Russian and it would be interesting to hear your input!
I'll also echo the others. Would really appreciate some details!
@@Betty-jp7sw No, they cant because most people like this are full of $hit. I have met many many people that say they know a bunch of languages fluently but in reality they have basically no ability to speak, read or write it. I speak one other language well, I wouldnt say fluently, and a few others at a very very basic level and my basic, bordering on not knowing the language, level is almost always as good or better than their ability which they said was fluent.
@@Betty-jp7sw TBH intermediate level (B1-B2) is all you need, unless you apply for a philology professor position at Ivy League school. 🤣 Most locals never go above B2. They just pronounce impeccably - therefore one should put the most effort in pronounciation improvement from day 1.
Myself personally lack in speech department. See, I reached IELTS 8-9 in consequent reading, understanding and writing, as well as reading aloud, since I have no accent anymore, I even can mimic various english dialects, when reading aloud, but as soon I start to speak freely, I begin to stutter and the accent is promptly reverting to my native pronounciation.
This is a common issue, so spend more time with speaking to an imaginary conversation partner or straight look for locals to exercize speaking with. Should you want to improve, try to pinpoint the areas, your vocabulary is still lacking and delve into that. This is really all you have to do yet - since all the inevitable grammar should be in your head by now. Spanish is really the easiest language ever. Especially regarding grammar. Thus they picked it as a base for Esperanto.
One of my closest friends of nearly 50 years was a young Marine, a high school drop out who as a SNCO became a Vietnamese Linguist after a course at DLI Monterey, by the time he finished his 30 year career in the Marines, he had attended and graduated as a Japanese, Korean, and Spanish linguist from DLI and ended his career as the Non Commissioned Officer in Charge of the Marine Barracks at DLI, Monterey! From there he went on as a DIA Agent at the Post Graduate School in Monterey where he retired as a GS-11 after suffering a stroke!
I was a contract interpreter for NATO forces in Kosovo, and I was less than impressed with the language skills of US military interpreters there. They had a huge vocabulary, but very weak syntax and stilted, direct translation style that was often difficult for the Russians they were working with to understand. They were helpful to me, because I often lacked the direct terminology or knowledge of certain acronyms as a non-military language specialist, but they often struggled to make the broader point clear. This is the weak point in fast learning. The Russian officers gave me the most generous compliment by telling me, “You say it they way we would say it and not word for word what the other person is saying.” You can’t get that in short classes, no matter how intense.
You can get that in short classes but military classes would never to be able to pull it off. They teach things like a and b make c. Memorize. But they dont tell how that happens, when it happens or why c. And why a and b and not gh ....
@@LilyUnicorn Yeah also there is a cultural aspect of language that you'll never learn in school. Little colloquial expressions and cultural references here and there. There's no getting around it.
@@LilyUnicorn §§ §
@@tedroscourt1205 he did say they learn that in this video. The two guys trying on the hanbok
it's the mandatory vax that keeps me disinterested. My Russian is good but I need a speaking partner that I do not have to get up at three am to talk to.
Very interesting video. As a Finn, we have mandatory Swedish language at school for 8 years, alternative English 5 years, voluntary French 3y and German 3y. I took all of them, and after I was 16 years, I took voluntary Russian (intensive teaching) at the workers' college (cheap but efficient). When I went to the army, I was transferred to Military Academy where I was taught urban warfare, which is not taught for the infantry.
Please can you explain "worker's college "? Is it like Folk High School? Can foreigners attend? Ta.
@@nineteenfortyeight Yes, workers' college, intensive Russian language course. Foreigners can attend, but teaching is in Finnish.
And that is why I love Finland. I am from Italy and I speak 5 languages but …that is only because I lived in multiple countries because of my dad’s job and going to international schools. Italy is one of the worst in Europe in teaching foreign languages.
I used to work with an SF guy he was a language specialist. He was an American, but spoke, wrote Arabic and Farsi. And he was learning Russian. Amazing guy, hella smart.
This was a great video. I came because I wanted to learn more about how the military teaches languages. You gave me that and even more. Great job on the interviews, clips, and editing. Thank you.
I’m currently at the DLI for Arabic. Yeah, it’s not easy. It’s a ton of work and my mind is fried by the end of the day.
Why did you choose Arabic?
@@imjustvisiting5397 I didn’t get to choose, it was the air forces decision. I’m glad I got Arabic though, it’s pretty fun!
How’s it going? Considering being a linguist when I enlist.
الله يعينك حتى حنا ك متحدثين اصليين صعبه علينا فما بالك بمتحدثين غير اصليين!
@@Potek53 🤢MSA yuck
Thanks for making this video. I completed the Modern Standard Arabic course in 2010, and this video reminded me of a lot of things I hadn’t thought about in years! It was definitely intense, and I went through ups and downs academically, but I also had a lot of fun. I have such great memories from that time. Plus, you can’t ask for a better duty station than Monterey!
I was at DLI Monterey in 1971 for Japanese and 1981 for Chinese Mandarin. Back then the level 4 courses were 47 weeks. I didn't have to hope I got the language I wanted, because it was written into my contract that I would be enlisting for training in that specific language, both times. Of course if I flunked out, the agreement was null and void, and the Army could assign me as they thought best. My DLAB score was 150. There is no secret to learning languages when it is your full-time job for 11 months. Lots and lots of hard work.
Wei Xiansheng …
I took the DLAB when I enlisted in the AF in 1981 and passed on the number (89). I started Chinese in January of '82 with a bunch of people much smarter than me. Our attrition rate was ~40%. Somehow I managed to graduate with a 96% average (did the same in Russian a few years later) while watching a lot of the big brains fall by the wayside. Fear is a great motivator, I guess. Wash trucks or be a linguist. Minimum 2.5 hours of study Sunday-Thursday evenings through the entire course.
This. I went to DLI for Dari. Like a dipshit I thought I’d get Russian because I’d studied it previously and the recruiter said I’d get it. What a moron I was. Anyway, I washed out because I hated Dari and never studied. To this day I don’t understand how I made it 6 months lol.
@@mikex3909 Russian AND Mandarin???? MUCH respect!
@@Empa-qk5np Thanks, but once you learn the DLI system, learning other languages becomes much easier.
Persian/ Farsi speaker here. It was fun to see Persian writings and here Persian words in the simulation practices that you showed. Accents and dialects are pretty difficult to execute well. The methods suggested were pretty interesting!
Good luck to anyone learning Persian! They have to learn to read between the lines very quickly 😁
Im heading to Monterey next year for this program, im pretty exited 😊
I learned Spanish here. It was a nine month program. I wish I could’ve spent years here learning. Yes it’s very intense, however I had closer bond with my fellow marines, as well as my instructors, than I have anywhere else in the marine corps. That may have just been my experience, but here it was just a constant environment of service members building each other up as opposed to non stop one upping that I saw elsewhere.
When I went through DLI Russian in 1971 our classes and barracks were made up of men from all four services. Your roommate could be from any service. We lost most of our marines. They, apparently, deliberately flunked out. That was not because they were dumb. They certainly were not lacking in ability. All the rest of us thought of ourselves as Russian students first, then as soldiers, sailors, or airmen. But marines were always marines first. The seemed to feel the need to live up (down) to the stereotype--hard drinking, brawling Manly Marines. They didn't seem to want their fellow marines to think they were "smart" or "students" as that would mean they were less-than as a marine. Better to just be one of the guys and move on to infantry. I liked and respected marines (for other qualities) but we had a hard time keeping them in our classes.
They have soanish there? How? I thought they didn’t need it
L
Thanks for this video! My dad was an army linguist (early 2000's) and he still carries a lot of his Korean with him that he uses in some restaurants and stores with Korean workers, they love him!