VOA标准英语2012--US Military's Language School Draws Positive Attention

 

US Military's Language School Draws Positive Attention

It is hard to believe that the young U.S. military service members at the school are speaking the most difficult language in the world - Mandarin¹ - fluently.

They're among about 3,500 students who are learning 24 different languages at the Defense² Language Institute’s Foreign Language Center - located in Monterey, California, a small city on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

Targeting language, culture

And because of DLI's success, there is interest in expanding the concept - to provide support for the growing needs of the U.S. Defense Department, equipping service members with basic language and cultural skills for missions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Dr. Donald Fischer, the Center’s Provost, said DLI is different from any other language school in the world because of the cost and length of the learning period.

“For one thing it is free. Our students are about 18 to 22 years old and enlisted³ in military service, and then they are admitted to Defense Language Institute to study a language," he said. "The length of courses may range from six months for a language that is a fairly easy language for a speaker of English to learn, to 15 months for the languages like Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. For Persian [Farsi] for example the length of the course is 47 weeks.” 

And some are even longer. Instructor⁴ Ching-Lin Lee said it takes 64 weeks to complete the course in Mandarin - one of the most difficult languages for American students. 

“Students, most of them I think, they still are able overcome the difficulties," said Ching-Lin Lee. "It is very challenging task here for us, for students and teachers. But actually it is fun to learn and to teach a foreign language at this kind of difficulty."

Small and focused

The class sizes are small, containing about six to 10 students. DLI currently has 2,250 faculty⁵ members, but Fischer said he is short of Farsi instructors⁶.

“We have about 150 at the current time and we need more,” he said.

Shakiba Badihi began teaching Farsi at the DLI in 2000. She said the new students have almost no clue about the language and must start from very beginning.

"Our students do not know anything about Farsi language and Iran and where it is located, on their arrival. We start teaching them from alphabet of Farsi language and down the road they get familiar with Persian culture, and also national and religious holidays,” she said.

In 2009, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then Commander of the International Forces in Afghanistan, ordered every platoon in his command to have at least one leader who could speak Dari. 

By the next year, the U.S. Army had begun using a DLI pre-deployment program called “Rapport” as mandatory⁷ training for all soldiers traveling to Iraq or Afghanistan. The entire Defense Department now has made the training mandatory for all of its personnel. The online training lasts approximately six hours and includes cultural orientation⁸, as well as basic phrases and military terminology⁹. 

1 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

2 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

3 enlisted   

adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持）

参考例句：

• enlisted men and women 男兵和女兵
• He enlisted with the air force to fight against the enemy. 他应募加入空军对敌作战。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。

5 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

6 instructors   

指导者，教师( instructor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The instructors were slacking on the job. 教员们对工作松松垮垮。
• He was invited to sit on the rostrum as a representative of extramural instructors. 他以校外辅导员身份，被邀请到主席台上。

7 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

8 orientation   

n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍

参考例句：

• Children need some orientation when they go to school.小孩子上学时需要适应。
• The traveller found his orientation with the aid of a good map.旅行者借助一幅好地图得知自己的方向。

9 terminology   

n.术语；专有名词

参考例句：

• He particularly criticized the terminology in the document.他特别批评了文件中使用的术语。
• The article uses rather specialized musical terminology.这篇文章用了相当专业的音乐术语。