Why learn Italian???  (I mean, besides the great food, beautiful country, beautiful people and culture…..)

While military-speak is famously so acronym-dense and incomprehensible to non-military people as to constitute a foreign language to anyone outside of active service, we’re talking about real foreign languages here…

I doubt that the fact that foreign language study is important to military personnel is lost on anyone, but the degree to which linguistics and translation has come to be prioritized by the modern military bears talking about…

I’m not connected to the military in any way other than having a multitude of friends who are in active and reserve service, so those who know better feel free to correct any inaccuracies here, but to the best of my knowledge, there are actually two “types” of language learning that the military encourages.  First, in active combat scenarios, the military recommends general language learning by all soldiers.  The illustration at the beginning of the above-linked article shows this effect — that learning a few phrases, besides making life a bit easier for the actively-deployed, can really make the difference in life-and-death scenarios.  The other type are language specialists, usually known as military linguists.  Military linguists are not much like the linguists that I encounter in the halls of academia.  They are not typically allowed the luxury of spending their time investigating and arguing over the minutiae of rules and overarching concepts that regulate human language in abstract.  Military linguists are well-trained to speak and understand a certain language, and then used as code-breakers, interrogators, translators, and the like.  It’s a rather plum-position throughout the branches (as one friend told me, it falls just under “fighter-pilot” in most recruits’ aspirations) as it involves some rather expensive training, and –depending upon the language one learns — can even earn the recruit a bonus.

The Army pays an incentive to soldiers who are proficient in certain languages. The amount depends on the difficulty of the foreign language.

One has to take an aptitude test before being eligible to become a military linguist, and one’s score will determine what languages one can choose from.  My understanding is (mind you, this is one of those areas where I’d love to hear back from those who have served) that typically one has some choice in which language one learns, but that, depending upon need, the military can ultimately assign one to whatever language they want.  The language training typically takes place at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA (nice place!), where in 25-63 weeks of training (length variable according to the language being studied), students try to go from zero to an intermediate level of fluency.  Apparently, wash-outs are not uncommon in certain languages — the competition is stiff — but the payoff at the end is a usable skill and a pretty well-respected position in the military.  Not a bad way to be…

Totally unrelated to language learning, I know…  But still impressive…  To cop a phrase from Dave Barry, “Parachuting Attack Dogs” would be a great band name!

When my dad was a youngster, he was built a parachute and tested it by strapping in the neighbor’s cat and sending the cat off the roof (the cat was unharmed, but kept a wary distance from my dad thereafter).  I guess Dad could have had a brilliant military career….

“The question isn’t so much whether the United States should be a bilingual nation… it’s whether the United States should be a multilingual nation – and therefore a nation united under English.”

The Exponent reports that a student has received a Critical Languages scholarship to study Arabic.  Good for her!  That’s awesome!  I don’t question reporting that fact, but the title and thrust of the piece “Senior studies three languages” is beyond ridiculous.  While uncommon in the general public, can this really be so uncommon on a college campus?  “Wow, this person is studying three languages at once!  Stop the presses!”  I studied three languages in my undergrad days…  I know quite a few people who have.  Tap the shoulder of any Indian exchange student and they’re likely to speak four or more languages.  Once again, my most heart-felt congratulations to the scholarship recipient, Miss Dawes.  I don’t want to diminish her accomplishments at all, and I hope that she enjoys her time in Jordan.  I wish her continued success, but really…  The writer could have come up with a better title, at least…

I found this to be hilarious…

Apparently, there is good money to be made in coaching actors and actresses to be able to convincingly deliver their lines in other accents.  I had heard before that Renee Zellweger’s British accent in “Bridget Jones’s Diary” was simply amazing, but never having seen the film (and, to be frank, not really ever planning to), I had no opinion — besides, I’m no judge on British accents…  Still, it’s a bit jarring to think that, likewise, there are people who study hard to attain an American accent.  I have read of accent training for tech support associates in India and Philippines, but I haven’t knowingly come across the results yet…  Which is to say, that I can usually pretty accurately identify where the agent is from (although I was thrown by a Vietnamese agent before, because he was located in Canada).  I’d love to see that training sometime, though.

Click the above link and check out the video.  There are lots of “do I really sound like that?” moments.

Also, I’d have to echo the complaint of one of the commenters on the article — most foreign actors, when trying to “speak American,” tend to opt for the well-known Southern drawl, instead of the much more commonly spoken mid-western accent.  What’s with that?  Additionally, I’d like to complain that most actors (even Americans) really need some coaching on their Southern accents.  Just about everyone has to do one eventually, and the vast majority of the non-natives simply suck…  There’s nothing worse than hearing some California or NY actor dropping “y’all” in a script… Makes my skin creep — seriously…  So, Hollywood, please start taking American regional accents as seriously as you do foreign ones… 

“But I already learned that…”

Any foreign language teacher will be quite familiar with this complaint — usually delivered in a whiny voice which grates like an “Urkel” catchphrase…  Teaching ESL again this last week (in lieu of my academic-year teaching of English composition to both international students and native English speakers) has quickly reacquainted me with the perils of students’ attempts at self-assessment.  Language assessment is a rather inexact science, at best, but all of us in my profession try our best to place students in classes where they have the best opportunity for growth and development.  Inevitably, however, there will be students who object to their placements — and 99% of all such complaints are from students who think their placement is too low.  There are a variety of ways by which students come to decide that their placement is much too low for their liking.  Many students get upset at perceived level differences between themselves and their classmates.  Often, they will decide that because they cannot understand (or be understood) by classmate from “country X,” they must be waaaay higher in level.  Sometimes this is the source of some high comedy, as the student that they are basing this comparison upon may, in all reality be the superior student.  More typically, it’s a matter of what skills they choose to base such comparisons on.  For example, the student may think because his/her oral fluency is higher than anyone else in the class, that he/she should be bumped up, but the student remains grossly ignorant that his/her grammar skills are amongst the worst in the class.  I once had a student who made that exact argument and was chastised to discover that the student whom he was using for comparison had consistently outperformed him in grammar and reading tests by a factor of nearly +50%.

The most common means by which students try to assess their own level, however, is usually the criterion of what the teacher is covering in class.  Namely– is the teacher covering new material or not.  Ever so many students become almost personally offended whenever a teacher tries to cover a subject that “we already know that..”   The important thing to realize in language study is that language proficiency is not merely the sum of acquired knowledge….  Indeed, if it were, all one would need to do to learn a language would be to read one good-sized manual on the rules and constructions of the language.  Clearly this is not the case in the real world.  There is a sizable difference between “studying” a language and “learning” a language.  There is an even bigger difference between “learning” and “knowing” a language.  In order to “know” a language — or even an isolated grammar point — one has to drill the point again and again to the point of automaticity.  It takes a long time to be able to productively use grammar points and phrases — hence in formal lessons, one can reasonably expect to retread the same exercises and points again and again.  For example, when I was in 5th year Spanish, we certainly upon occasion were expected to perform exercises that were straight from 1st and 2nd year texts.  There was never any question of whether we had seen the material before, but until the points came automatically when speaking, they were well worth practicing.  The funny part is that students will often make multiple errors in a certain grammar point while complaining that they “already know” it.

So, a little advice to all people doing formal FL studies…  Don’t fret if you find yourself covering points that you’ve seen before.  Copious and frequent review is imperative if you truly expect to ever “know” the language.

Internet fraudsters are making increasing use of small job boards — such as those advertising jobs teaching English as a foreign language — to practice their scams.

Job seekers beware….

I get so caught up in the possibilities of online language learning that I have given books rather short shrift on this blog.  LeTutor comes to the rescue, with this handy list of in-print language learning guides…

Today, during the course of my teaching, I came across three young, bright-faced, fresh college-grads who were doing a TOEFL certificate course, and were interested in observing a class. While talking with them, they mentioned that they planned on moving to South Korea to teach English after they finished the training course. I’ve never been to Korea (or, at least, I never made it outside of the airport), so I’ve got nothing to say from first-hand experience, mind you, but I thought I’d talk about it in abstract, as Korea is one of the premiere locations for budding new English teachers.

First, let’s get it out of the way — why do so many people go? Most people who go there are interested in travel in general, and they’re certainly excited to see Korea, but most have not been dreaming of kimchi since their wee days. Quite a few admit that they had never really thought much about Korea before going there. What then sways people into hopping planes to Seoul to try their luck at English teaching??? The answer: jobs… and lots of them. Korea is one of the biggest hirers, at least at the early stages of the TEFL game (i.e., they hire more young, inexperienced teachers than anyone else — at least in terms of per capita). English in Korea is apparently BIG BUSINESS… It’s practically a national obsession, and true to form for an Asian-Pacific country, the general assumption is that the only way one can ever learn English is via classes with a native speaker. The number of positions open far exceeds the number of qualified applicants who go, so it seems practically impossible to be in the country for more than a day without landing a job (this high demand also results in some unsavory business practices — see this recent story). One sees the same trends on Taiwan and Thailand — but to a much smaller degree. Now note: there are a lot of jobs in Taiwan, Thailand, and Japan, as well. Mind you, lots of budding teachers go to those places (myself included), but what is it that attracts people to Korea? Well, noble or not, it mostly comes down to finances. Simply put, at the beginning stages of TEFL-teaching, most people can save more dough in Korea than in any of the other places. One of the key perks of jobs in S. Korea is that they often come with a comped apartment and often reimburse flight as well. See here and here for side-by-side comparisons.

It’s not all roses, however. S. Korea actually has the ignoble distinction of being the only country that has an official US State Dept. warning about teaching there due to the prevalence of shady schools with equally shady contracts where the teacher’s money “never quite comes.” Still, most friends who have taught there assure me that, if one exercises a modicum of good sense when looking for a job, one can reasonably expect to avoid the out-and-out crooked establishments. The travel and financial benefits make it a promising way to try one’s hand at teaching. It’s apparently a gorgeous country with friendly people (for the most part) and awesome food (having lots of Korean friends, I can certainly vouch for that one), so if you have a travel bug, try checking out Korea….

Links

Jobs

Korean Job Forum

General Info