Language Learning on the iPad

I'm always on the lookout for language learning resources, and have tried just about every program I can find to make my Arabic learning more efficient.  Here are some of my favorite apps to derive maximum benefit from an iPad or smartphone.

1) TuneIn Radio Pro.  This app lets you listen to radio stations all over the world, in virtually any language.  I've logged countless hours on BBC Arabic, and enjoy listening to Arabic music from across the region.  If you pay for the Pro version, you can even record and playback.  This is perfect for language learning, when repetition is necessary to build comprehension.

2) Franker.   I am a big fan of translation plugins for web browsers, which let you translate individual words or sentences.  Once you have the comprehension to understand the majority of an article, these plugins let you quickly identify the words or phrases you don't know.  Instead of trolling through a dictionary, you can spend the majority of your time actually reading in the native language.  Look-ups are instantaneous.  Unfortunately the closed nature of iPad apps means that translation plugins don't and can't really exist.  However, Franker is the next best thing I've out.  The app has a self-contained web browser, in which you can highlight text and get an instant translation.  My only gripe is that the formatting for right-to-left languages gets messed up, although it is still intelligible.

3) Tap Translate.  This isn't really an app; it is a pricey means of installing a bookmarklet in Safari, which then lets you translate a single word instantaneously by clicking on it.  It does more or less what I described above, but only for single words.  The advantage is that works seamlessly with Safari.

4) Vocabulary management.  I have spent years looking for a vocabulary app that I actually like, and have yet to find it.  There are some very powerful tools out there, but each one has a critical weakness, which is why I've spent years trying to write my own.  Unfortunately I don't have the time to finish it, so I'm stuck using the imperfect tools already in existence.  Here are a few of the best ones:

4a) Byki.  Byki is the civilian version of RapidRote, which is the vocabulary software that the DOD utilizes.  It is an atrocious piece of software, suffering from all the bloat and the lack of innovation that you would expect from a company with a lucrative government contract.  It is slow and cumbersome, does not sync between devices, has no spaced repetition system (SRS) for reviewing past vocabulary, and forces you to pay for a separate copy of the software for each language you want to learn.  However, it has the best algorithm I've encountered for learning new lists of words.  As much as I despise RapidRote/Byki, I've never found a better solution for learning vocab.  Also, military members can download vast amounts of vocabulary lists for free from the company website (which you can access from Joint Language University).  Unfortunately, it is expensive and time-consuming if you want to get this vocabulary onto your mobile device.  You must buy Byki Deluxe (the expensive civilian version of RapidRote), go through a cumbersome browser-based process to upload each list to Byki's servers, then re-download them onto your mobile device.  I still use Byki to learn new wordlists and study new languages.

4b) Mental Case.  Mental Case is an elegant program for Mac OS/iPhone/iPad that hints at what Byki/RapidRote should be.  Syncing could be improved, but is far better than with Byki.  The interface is attractive and inputting new words is easy.  My complaint is that the scheduling and quizzing of words is confusing, and is designed to fit the programmer's very specific vision for how his software should be used.  I don't particularly like the quizzing interface or algorithm.

4c) Anki.  Most hard-core polyglots who use vocabulary software seem to prefer Anki.  Instead of teaching you individual lists of words like Byki, it is designed to manage enormous, constantly-growing vocabulary sets using a spaced repetition system.  It has versions for almost any hardware platform you can imagine, and the syncing works well once you set it up with Dropbox.  The software seems extremely powerful, but I've never felt comfortable with it for two reasons: (1) the interface was designed by an engineer and feels like a complicated machine, not an elegant piece of software and (2) although its algorithm is excellent for retaining words, it is poor for learning new words.  Most people who use Anki for retention use a different solution for learning new words.

4d) Numbers.  I've gotten so frustrated fiddling with SRS software that I've just started logging new vocabulary in Numbers, the spreadsheet app that is part of Apple's iWork suite.  It is a simple and elegant app, syncs seamlessly with iCloud, and makes it easy to export vocabulary into SRS software later.

5) Easy YouTube Video Downloader.  This isn't an iPad app, but a Firefox plugin for your computer.  It adds a "Download" button to every YouTube video, which allows you to save the video in an .MP4 format that you can save onto our iPad.  I have built up a large collection of Arabic clips this way.

6) GoodReader.  This is one of the best PDF readers out there, and is perfect for reading foreign texts or parallel texts.  

7) iQuran HD.  This is a great app for Arabic, because it lets you view multiple English translations of the Quran parallel to the Arabic text.  It also allows you to hear various various recitations.

On Disruptive Thinking

Small Wars Journal has done us all a tremendous favor with its recent series on "disruptive thinking."  Navy LT Ben Kohlmann's original article obviously struck a nerve, because it has spawned long comment trails, response articles, and debates throughout the military blogosphere.

I appreciate the debate, because I'm one of those junior-officers-rising-into-leadership who the articles are for and about.  This quote from Peter Munson's response article made me cry, "Yes!  He gets it!"

Today’s military is facing a significant crisis.  This crisis has several dimensions.  The rank and file of the military who have made or witnessed the massive efforts and sacrifices of the past decade, and who have seen so very little in the way of satisfying results in return, are puzzled by the self-assuredness of their leadership.  They question the slogans and the continued assurances that things are “on-track” and that we are accomplishing the mission.  They are disappointed by the failures of leadership and imagination that have yielded toxic commands, a rash of firings in some services, and a breach of trust with our most vulnerable servicemembers.  They wonder about the future of the weapons systems that support and defend them as they read tales of acquisition woe.  They question the growing focus on bureaucratic minutiae.  They question how they can be trusted so completely in a combat environment, but are treated as children in garrison.  They wonder how a military system that prides itself on justice will reward the generals that have presided over failure, whether at the operational and strategic levels on the battlefield, to the continued failures of the institution in the realms of personnel, acquisition, and budgetary policies, while at the same time eroding the autonomy and discretion of junior commanders with a creeping campaign of bureaucratic centralization.

This discussion has helpfully surpassed the usual cliches about innovative junior officers vs. stale bureaucracies and ignorant senior leaders.  It has raised prudent questions about what kinds of disruption are actually constructive and effective.  Several commentators have noted that plenty of "disruptive thinkers" are really just disruptive non-thinkers.  These individuals can be loud and immature at worst, and sadly ineffective at best.  Unfortunately, I know a thing or two about that; I've had a couple bruising experiences where my attempts to be a disruptive thinker backfired badly.  Sometime I will tell those stories.

That is why today's SWJ article, The Disruptive Poets Society, is my favorite so far.  The article reads like a history of my intellectual journey as a loyal dissent within the U.S. Air Force.  I've gradually learned that constructive criticism and innovative ideas are not enough; ultimately, the only thing that counts is causing institutional change.  Martin writes, "It is a rare gift to find a person who can both think against the grain AND get the institution to change" and asks how the DOD can better leverage the disruptive thinkers it already has.  Martin lists ten principles for disruptive thinkers.  The first is so vitally important that I will repost it in its entirety:

Be effective. Learn to work within the system. The system won't change any time soon, if ever. Develop informal networks, build rapport, work behind the scenes, let others take credit; find those who are gatekeepers and facilitators. In short, use UW and COIN doctrine and TTPs in getting around the bureaucracy within our own commands.

Read the rest here.

Arabic Resource: "The Arabic Student"

One of the reasons Arabic is so difficult is that most schools teach formal Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), but Arabs almost universally speak in dialects that are substantially different.  Quality resources for these dialects are hard to come by.  If you're a visual learner who needs to see explanations laid out on paper, likes to understand grammar, and looks up new words in dictionaries, Arabic dialects pose a formidable challenge.

So I was thrilled to stumble across a blog called The Arabic Student, which offers mini-lessons in Levantine dialect by walking through audio or video clips.  Each lesson contains a transcript with a glossary of new words and, more importantly, how they are used.

The most recent post is great, and might be of interest even for the non-native speakers: a study of an anti-Bashar al-Asad chant/song that is circulating in Syria.  Bonus: learn some useful nuts and bolts of the Arabic language, like the difference between "screw you" and "F*** you".

Language and personal resilience

As I resume blogging, one big change will be more posts specifically about foreign language learning--and Arabic in particular.  Why?  Arabic is now one of my main professional competencies.  Given that my goal with Building Peace is to multiply the impact of my education, it only makes sense that I share what I've learned about foreign language.

In the past I've refrained from writing language-learning posts, because they aren't relevant to many of my readers.  I used to maintain a separate blog specifically for discussing Arabic, but it was too difficult to maintain two websites and a fragmented online identity.  I'd rather just put everything in one place.  So if these posts aren't of interest you, please just bear with me.

However, the more I think about it, the more I think that readers should be interested in these posts.  Why?  There are many reasons to learn a foreign language, but here is another one.  If John Robb and others are right, our political, social, and economic systems are in total upheaval.  The 2008 financial crisis was only the beginning, and the Occupy Movement is a harbinger of worse things to come.  Wealth is mostly flowing to the upper crust of society, income disparity is worsening, and jobs are disappearing.  Unfortunately, there is no going back to the carer model our parents and grandparents grew up with.  To make things worse, the super-empowerment of individuals and small groups means that they can disrupt the systems and networks that we depend on every day, adding to the volatility.  In such a sink-or-swim world, resilience is a vital characteristic of both individuals and communities.  People can thrive in such a turbulent world, but only if they have the resilience to recognize change and quickly adapt to it.

Robb has had a great series of posts recently about developing personal resilience, such as this one about building a global brand.  Critical to personal resilience is continuous education.  Resilient individuals need to acquire and develop multiple skills that will strengthen their personal brand, generate income, meet needs in their local communities, and help them stand out in a fiercely competitive job market.  The ability to speak a foreign language is just such a skill.  Not only does it have intrinsic value, it can multiply the value of your other professional skills: business, technology, military service, you name it.

I hope these posts will be useful to those who are already undertaking the long journey of learning a foreign language.  But I also hope they provide some guidance and encouragement for those who would like to learn a language, but have never taken the plunge... or who feel that a foreign language is beyond their reach.

Blogging with caution

Despite grand plans to rejuvenate this blog after its year-long closure, I haven't accomplished much except for a couple false starts.  In addition to simply being busy, there are specific reasons for this:

1. My return from Jordan has been disorienting.  During that year when the blog was closed, I had so much that I was burning to write about: my interaction with Jordanian reformers who were beaten up by police, my studies at an Islamic school, and my thesis on different narratives about Islam in the United States, just to name a few.  Returning to the flying world was an abrupt change.  Instead of worrying about constitutional reform in Jordan, I needed to worry about the C-17 electrical system and the Emergency Engine Shutdown checklist.  And I quickly realized that my strategic and regional studies would count for very little at this particular stage of my career.  Successful officership at the moment means, first and foremost, being a skilled pilot and hardworking contributor to the squadron and wing.  Of course my informal strategic/regional education is vital to me, and I know it will pay dividends later.  But for now, I'm still puzzling through how to balance these tasks.  That has affected my ability to write.

2. My standards have risen.  Over the past three years, I've had the joy of engaging with some of the country's finest national security thinkers.  I've read and studied more than I ever have in my life.  As a result, I've realized just how much excellent thinking and writing is going on out there... and the incredibly high quality standard of thinking and writing that is necessary to hang with them.  My blog was never intended to be "expert" analysis, and was more about having a conversation.  Still, my rising standards for myself have made it increasingly difficult to blog.

3. I'm not sure how much I should say.  I strive to maintain a high level of professionalism on this blog, and often reflect on what that means.  But as I'm getting older, the stakes are rising.  My next assignment will most likely be a Middle East-related staff position, and within a few years after that I could be in higher leadership positions or even command.  I don't want to eliminate myself by writing something stupid.  I had some negative experiences in Jordan, when my outspokenness got me in trouble.

Even more importantly, I am struggling to find the right tone for my writing.  Sound strategic thinking requires cold pragmatism, a frank willingness to discuss uncomfortable truths, and a healthy dose of cynicism.  Our country is in dire straits.  Our economy is broken and our government is paralyzed.  We have spent the last decade waging two catastrophic wars, which we need to learn from.  These are the issues I mull over every single day, and these are the issues I like to write about.  But effective military leaders need to exude confidence and optimism about the mission.  How do I balance that?  What does it mean to be an optimistic leader in a war that was lost before the first shot was fired?  How does one inspire and motivate subordinates, without resorting to the cheesy and completely groundless optimism that caused me so much disillusionment as a young officer?  I know that inspiring but sober leadership is possible, because great wartime leaders like Churchill and Lincoln pulled it off.  Unfortunately, I'm not Churchill or Lincoln, so I need to proceed with caution.

Despite these concerns, I do want to keep this blog going.  I got a kick in the pants from Admiral Stavridis' NDU speech Read, Think, Write: Keys to 21st-century Security Leadership.  He says nothing particularly new, but it was an encouraging reminder that there are senior leaders out there who want younger officers to write and contribute to our collective knowledge.

Twitter

I suppose I shouldn't be too flattered, since it's his first day on Twitter and he is following approximately half the people who follow him, but this is still priceless.  Prince Hassan is the late King Hussein's brother and one of the most respected public figures in Jordan.

Salma

A couple weeks ago, at the recommendation of a Jordanian blogger, I discovered a great Jordanian rock band called Jadal.  Today I’d like to share one of their music videos with my readers.  The song is Salma, and it is a prayer and blessing for the guitarist’s niece.

What does this have to do with national security?  Those who study national security issues can fall into a dangerous trap: by focusing so intensely on those issues, we can lose sight of everything else.  This is especially a danger when we study regional affairs from afar.  We lose perspective on the lives of ordinary people, viewing an entire country and its people through the lens of national security concerns.  In actuality, these issues may be of only marginal importance in the lives of citizens.  To cite one example, Islamic terror was so far removed from my experience in Jordan that it almost seemed irrelevant.

Understanding the lives of ordinary people is an important corrective to this bias.  The big national security issues obviously matter, but we need to place them within an accurate human context.

I like this video because, in about three minutes, it beautifully captures so much of ordinary life in Jordan.  This is a society where the country’s top rock band writes a song of blessing to a sister and niece; where a group of shabab (young men) who are out cruising will take along a three-year old niece; and where enjoying the happiness of children is considered one of the highest pleasures in life.  So next time you read dire news from the Middle East, think back to Salma and realize that she represents 95% of what I saw and experienced in Jordan.

LYRICS (translation found online and is a bit rough in places)

Call her Salma, oh sister!
Give it up and go for it!
Baby Salma, if she cries, she would complain the first second!

Salma, I wish your eyes see good things, see your mommy praying, see and hear everything good just don't worry or care... your uncle is singing!

Baby Salma will cry, will fill our homes with joy , and with the loudest voice she will say " I LOVE YOU MOMMY "

Salma, my eyes are waiting...to see your eyes and wish you.....
Wish you long life , oh Salma!...
Life that i wish for you!
Life that i wish for you!
Wish you long life , oh Salma!

Salma, I wish your eyes see good things, see your mommy praying , see and hear everything good just don't care... your uncle is singing!

Salma, my eyes are waiting, to see your eyes and wish you.....
Wish you long life , oh Salma! Life that I wish for you!
Salma, my eyes are waiting....to see your eyes and wish you.....
Wish you long life , oh Salma! Life that I wish for you!
Salma! my eyes are waiting!!