When now-retired Army Gen.
Stanley McChrystal commanded In- ternational Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan and is- sued counterinsurgency guidance to his units in the field in 2009, he made clear, “Everyone should learn basic language skills. Every deployed person should be able to greet locals and say ‘thank you.’ ” In addition, he directed at least one leader in each platoon or like-sized organization be able to speak basic Dari, one of the country’s two official languages.
the DLIFLC has 26 LTDs support- ing a range of missions worldwide. A number of other programs also
say “hello”: Guten tag (German) Ni hao
How you
(Mandarin) Salaam (Dari)
McChrystal wasn’t the only one to see the need to equip servicemem- bers with basic language and cultural awareness skills for missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. When Adm. Mike Mullen, USN-Ret., chaired the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he joined with military commanders on the ground to call for enhanced training. The DLIFLC met the challenge
by adapting a system of language training detachments (LTDs), origi- nally established in 2003 to sup- port professional linguists in need of sustainment and enhancement training. Pilot LTDs, designed to serve the needs of the general-pur- pose force, were established at Fort Campbell, Ky.; Fort Carson, Colo.; and Fort Drum, N.Y., to provide foreign-language training to combat brigades preparing to deploy. Today,
have proven effective as the DLIFLC responds to DoD’s needs. Mobile training teams deliver basic language and cultural awareness training to units on location. Afghanistan/ Pakistan Hands, a three- to five-year program that trains senior officers and NCOs in Dari, Pashto, and Urdu, enhances the continuity of a mission over the course of several deploy- ments. Each year, the DLIFLC also ships more than 250,000 language survival kits (LSKs). The pocket-sized pamphlets include CDs designed to be used in the field. LSKs are produced in more than 30 languages and cover a variety of essential topics, from search and cordon to medical terminology. “Cultural understanding and for- eign-language training is as central to any overseas military mission as the equipment on a soldier’s back,” says Rep. Sam Farr, who represents Cali- fornia’s 17th district, which includes the DLIFLC’s home in Monterey. “The Defense Language Institute is playing a key role in this area, pre- paring our brave men and women in uniform to confront deployments overseas with the cultural sensitivity and foreign-language training neces- sary to succeed. As we have seen in Afghanistan and Iraq, understanding local customs, culture, and language is key to winning over hearts and minds. Therefore, investing in mili- tary installations that support these ends is vital to ensure our military personnel are ready and prepared.”
Smile when you say that Over the years, the DLIFLC has earned a reputation as one of the fin- est schools for foreign-language in- struction in the nation. Resting on its laurels, however, is not on the agenda. “We’ve always been heavily invested in what [have] been called the less- commonly-taught languages,” Fischer
says. “Now we’re getting invested in what I call the almost-not-taught-at- all languages — Uzbek and Urdu and Pashto. We’re blazing trails in devel- oping curricula for these particular languages because they’ve never shown up in any academic circles.” Army Maj. Matt Walter, who is
studying the national language of Pakistan at the DLIFLC campus in Monterey, recognizes the program’s exclusivity. “If you went down to your local bookstore and wanted to teach yourself Urdu, you wouldn’t find a lot of books,” he says. Like the other students, he attends class six to seven hours a day, five days a week. On top of that, his teachers expect him to put in two to three hours of homework every night. He’ll be at it for 10 months. “I think that the program here does a good job of not just teaching the language but [also] introducing us to the culture,” Walter says. “The teachers that we have are all natives of one of the Urdu-speaking areas. Their knowledge of the culture con- tributes significantly to our learning.” Walter served as an infantry of- ficer before entering the foreign area officer program as a South Asia specialist. As part of a three-year training program, he attended the Command and Staff College in Quet- ta, Pakistan, in 2011. When his stud- ies at the DLIFLC are completed, he’ll wrap up
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Another 35,000 students are enrolled globally, with training available in some 65 different languages.
JULY 2012 MILITARY OFFICER 59
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