Comments on Building Peace: How to Improve Language Training? Put DLI Curricu...

JD, many thanks. I've been hoping the idea wo...

2010-02-24T06:55:03.630+02:00

JD, many thanks. I've been hoping the idea would find traction somewhere. It tried elevating it up my chain at DLI but ran into roadblocks.

If you send me your e-mail address, I wrote a paper about the idea, which I can gladly send for the USMA sup and his colleagues to read.

I mentioned this idea to the Superintendent of the...

2010-02-24T01:26:21.645+02:00

I mentioned this idea to the Superintendent of the USMA on Monday night. I gave his aid a link to your blog, and he indicated that he would talk to his General peers about making it happen.

All the Best,

JD Kristenson
Olmsted, 2009
Beijing, China

When I was at DLI we wer lucky to get godo cassete...

2009-12-15T20:23:25.209+02:00

When I was at DLI we wer lucky to get godo cassetes. Now it's great they have flash drives and MP3s. As far as puting the materials on the web--you know you're going to have to get that cleared all the way to the Commandant. I have heard that the Army is still making it the hardest on learners there (same time constant skills training BS, and now live in DI's--this is AT).
So what are the percentage of people in Arabic? CHinese and Korean these days? (Those were the largest when I was there)

This is a good idea. DLI could stand a bit of an o...

2009-10-15T03:48:10.131+03:00

This is a good idea. DLI could stand a bit of an outside review and, Lord knows the US military would enjoy the good press.
The cost of administering the website would be the only drawback -the FYDP would have to be adjusted for the cost.

To respond to Brian Barker; While it would be admi...

2009-09-07T05:13:43.522+03:00

To respond to Brian Barker; While it would be admirable to include Esperanto in the DLI program, the simple fact is that there is no real point to it. Firstly, as you say it is an international language, meaning that it's a second language to everybody. While this sounds like a strong selling point at first, the fact is that very few people even know about the existence of Esperanto, with even fewer knowing how to speak it. With no native speakers, and little pressure to learn the language, one could more accurately describe it as the world's youngest, most dynamic, dead language.

Secondly, the purpose of the Defense Language Institute is to train soldiers up to fluency in languages that are frequently used in areas around the world where the U.S. Military operates. Again, since there are no native Esperanto speakers, very few people speak it, and those who do learn it typically do so out of hobbyist curiosity more so than a desire to communicate across language barriers with it. Additionally, anyone who speaks Esperanto is as a nearly uniform rule more fluent in another language typically dependent on the region they grew up in. Thus, there is almost no strategic merit to learn Esperanto for the U.S. Military, or any other military for that matter.

Esperanto does have it's merits, don't get me wrong. The fact that Esperanto doesn't have any innate ties to any region or race can help it get past certain judgements that would hinder others, but this is at the extreme detriment of practical usability. Also, it is true that learning languages helps one to learn other languages. However, this is true of any language, not just Esperanto. Even if Esperanto is more effective at facilitating the absorption of another language than all others, it's extreme niche adoption more than negates this benefit several times over, especially when one considers that DLI operates on highly accelerated time frames that barely leave students with time to rest, let alone learn multiple languages simultaneously.

Maybe if Esperanto sees a sudden massive surge of active speakers and real world application over the next decade this could be a possibility, but it's just not there yet.

Great idea. Lack of language skills and the knowle...

2009-04-04T03:57:00.000+03:00

Great idea. Lack of language skills and the knowledge of cultures is one of our greatest security weaknesses, not to mention the impact on our ability to compete economically in the world. DLI would be adding more to our national security than many new weapon systems by offering this kind of language resource.

I have a student in one of my college classes right now who is teaching himself Arabic. He cannot afford expensive courses

As far as learning another language, is concerned,...

2009-02-22T17:06:00.000+02:00

As far as learning another language, is concerned, can I put in a word for the international language, Esperanto?

Although Esperanto is a living language, it helps language learning as well.

Five British schools have introduced Esperanto in order to test its propaedeutic values. The pilot project is being monitored by the University of Manchester and the initial encouraging results can be seen at http://www.springboard2languages.org/Summary%20of%20evaluation,%20S2L%20Phase%201.pdf
You might also like to see http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8837438938991452670

Confirmation can be seen at http://www.lernu.net

Not to mention that hundreds of eyes viewing the c...

2009-02-22T04:04:00.000+02:00

Not to mention that hundreds of eyes viewing the course material, including (most likely) native speakers, would act as a gigantic editing pool to fix simple errors that do not get noticed in-house.