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Originally Posted by Solumina
Yep, I believe that all top tier languages are 18 month courses, the lower tier languages start at 6 months (I think).
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I want to say that, normally, they would but the army and I think the marines have been experimenting with trying to churn out as many people with a little bit of language skill as possible. Like, the Pashto course I took was a last minute decision to be funded by my unit, so they had to condense it from 6 months to 3, but still maintain the same standards for completion as opposed to the Dari course before that which was only 5 months.
It's probably more likely all that is a branch specific decision, though. It makes sense, given the level and type of interaction that you expect from a platoon of infantry in rural Afghanistan versus a US/South Korean training exercise, for example. It's just not necessary for the soldiers to build and retain their language because they won't need it after 12-15 months when their deployment ends and the hearts and minds bullshit goes out the window. The guys that stay at DLI for a year or more, however, are given that opportunity because those skill sets in information technology are projected to be needed by that level of command for a good while.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Solumina
Unfortunately he would only get that pay for additional languages.
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Bummer! I wonder if he'll get that opportunity? I know that you can't just pick up anything and get paid for it (it only applies to languages with a military significance) so I expect it would be pretty difficult to learn another of those languages with work's support or even being self taught.