User Panel
Posted: 1/11/2005 9:11:25 PM EDT
Will they stick me in some small room translating crap all day? Or would it be better to never tell them that I do speak it untill I am assigned to a regular unit? I do not speak arabic yet but i am going to take classes and I am about 78% sure I am going to join up after I finish college. Yeah I know 78%, I have alot to think about in the next couple of years.
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Dont know, but the Navy has one of the best language schools in the world at Monterey. Why not let them teach you? A few of my classmates enlisted in the Navy after graduating college, just for that program.
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I wouldn't think so, they'll proabably just send you over there as a translator
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Yeah well I just dont want to get stuck behind a desk. Because common, if I wanted to work behind a desk i could do it outside of the army with a college degree and get alot more money.
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Dont want to go Navy. |
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MY GUESS is that they'd have you running all over hell translating in the field. and NOT in an office.
Remember, that's a guess. ETA, IIRC, fluency in a foriegn language is a requirement for SF duty. |
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You might also want to think of a fed job. If you're fluent and don't have any past you can get a job with a snap of your finger. Everybody is looking for Arabic speakers. You'll be expected to prove your fluency. |
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Yep. The army pays you extra for every foreign language you're proficient in. |
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I have looked a little bit into that but the only jobs i saw that they offered was stay at home and translate page after page after page. And I wouldnt get benifits. |
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With the Military, there are two types of translator. One is the kind you speak of. The other's on patrol every day, "herding cats" (dealing with the locals), getting your ass shot at, etc. They go through a lot more of the latter. |
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I heard about the shortage of arabic speaking/reading capable persons and the demand skyrocketing from the alphabet gangs who are paying big time for people who sign up. Problem is though, arabic is especially hard to become proficient at as a 2nd language and I heard it can take upwards of 10 years to become "really good" at it.
S.O. |
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I know that it is hard as hell but with all of the jobs i could get (in or out of the army) it is worth it. My cousin speeks it very well and he has been working on it for 2 years. He now lives in Sudan as a missionary. He is working with a film crew as cover though. |
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My brother in-law was a Marine in the mid-70's, he went to Parris Island and OCS and spoke Russian fluently. He became a interrogator and did some stuff that is still classified.
His old man was also a Marine and OSS in WWII, he never talked about what he did. |
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4 years of college arabic and you probably won't be fluent.
When you go to MEPS, ask to take the DLPT for arabic - then you'll konw how you stack up. DLI is run by the Army and it is a DOD school, not Navy. But all services attend DLI. Army MOSs to look at if you speak a language: 98G, 98C, 97E, 97B - unless you have an intel MOS, your knowldege of arabic probably won't have anything to do with your assignements. |
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Arabic is tough. The Neutral Observer hasn't been able to obtain any level of proficiency in it yet.
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Best way to learn any language is to emerse yourself in it. If you get really good you can wright your own ticket for all practical purpouses. S.O. |
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Green Berets? NSA? CIA? Secret Service? you speak arabic, and you can prob. take your pick.....
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Dont ask dont tell. |
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There is also the possibility of being sent to sunny Sinop by the sea. Depending on what the needs are.
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Even if you take Arabic in college, it will be very difficult for you to acquire the skill necessary to be fluent enough to actually become a translator. I wish you luck. However, I will say this much. I have know people that have taken such classes, and when they tried to have a conversation with people who were native speakers, they couldn't tell what the hell the native speakers were saying , nor could the native speakers understand what the hell they were talking about. College doesn't prepare you adequately to be a translator.... it can only give you the basics. You would probably need live in an Arab country for an extended period, speaking the language everyday, for several years to be any use as a translator. The American University in Cairo has one of the best programs in the world for training people to speak Arabic, but I doubt you're that interested to want to live in Cairo |
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Just shout "speak english Goddammit" at them and if that fails a rifle butt round the ear works well Seiously though, getting back on thread… Arabic is hard, it's spoken by quite a number of people in the British .Mil… and pretty much 100% of them get sent to the sandy places… So unless you like sand and heat… stick with English. ANdy |
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You could go into any branch of service and you'd go to Montery to learn one of many languages if you so choose. It's called DLI. It's a joint service school.
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You forgot the 18 and 37 Series MOS's |
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It all depends on what you want to do. If you want to be a linguist, you can be in an intell job, which, may, or may not have you on a desk. If you want to be a trigger puller, just sign up for 11 (infantry) or 19 (Armor) series, and, drive on.
You only get language proficiency pay if you are a linguist. |
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That changed back in 1999. Anyone who has at least a 2+ 2+ in any language can get paid for it. Not as much as someone in a Linguist slot, but at least get paid. I received 200 bucks for Being a 3/3 Portugese Linguist 50 bucks for a 3/3 in Spanish and another 50 bucks for being able to guess real well and get a 2+/2+ on the french test. Thats an extra 300 tax free bucks I got each month. |
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If you end up in a line company (Im thinking combat arms) your CO/1SG will probably yank you into HQ to be their translator. Lots of Iraqi translators in the sand box working for line combat units, not too many Americans.
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No they don't. It's not a Navy school. It is the Defense Language Institute, a joint service school commanded by an Army Colonel. It is located on the Presidio of Monterey. |
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I'll accept that 'cause it's not my area of expertise. I didn't know that. Hrmpf. I shoulda tested for German. |
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Probably because it's several orders of magnitude more difficult to talk about yourself in the third person in Arabic. |
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wasnt FORT ORD closed down? is there another military base in Monterey? |
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Presidio of Monterey. That's where DLI is located. |
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But guys. I found a web site that says i can learn it in 10 days!!!! Just 10 days!!!
Just kidding. I know that it will be hard as hell but it would be worth it for many reasons. And if the army doesnt give a crap even if i speak the language I will still be able to yell out "Jihad this you efers" in Arabic so they understand real well what is about to happen to them. |
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Read "The Interrogators"...that'd be a cool job.search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=a11IcHgAmq&isbn=0316871125&itm=1
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Just shout "speak english Goddammit" at them and if that fails a rifle butt round the ear works well
"Their just like cue balls. The harder you hit them, the better their English." |
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wasnt FORT ORD closed down? is there another military base in Monterey? There was Fort Ord out on the Beach, Presido of Montery up on the hill and the Naval PostGraduate School in Downtown Monterey. The Fort is closed, but Post Housing is still open as well as the PX and Commisary/Clothing Sales (at least it was back in 99 when I was at DLI) |
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If you have proficiency in a the "hot" foreign language when you hit MEPS...
You will be forcibly rebranched into another MOS, most likely one starting with a '98'... You will spend the majority of your military career in a darkened room with really odd hours. It will probably have very, very good air conditioning, though, where everything will be cooled to about 50 degrees, cold enough to get you sick from time to time. You will be working with the strangest, geekiest people on earth. Some will even be chicks, though you will probably never sleep with any of them... You will never be able to tell anyone what you do. Your officers will be either great but clueless about what you are doing, or idiots who are clueless about what you are doing. If you go to DLI, and flunk out (most do), you will still get a slightly less boring job, most likely with a '98' at the front, and work with slightly stanger people in dark room with really odd hours. The air conditioning won't be as frequent or as good (sometimes there won't be any at all). You will spend as much time maintaining trucks and preparing range cards as you do on your "real" job. You will marked for life and somehow wind up in "intelligence" jobs even after you get out of the Army. You will be permanently paranoid for life. |
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Didnt you mean 96 or 97 in front if you flunk out of DLI? If you really screw up you might end up with a 37 mos and have to go to Airborne and Ranger school and hump a bullet magnet loudspeaker in your ruck, jumping into places like Kandahar Afganistan with Delta and the Rangers, hot miking surrender appeals in Arabic and Pashuto.......................... |
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maybe they'll make you write those surrender leaflets they drop all over the place
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Things may have changed. 15 years ago, most of the DLI flunkees got sent to a certain AFB in Texas...though some did become 96 something-or-anothers in Arizona. |
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I did the army linguist thing for 6 years. the only people i ever came across who the army considered "proficient" in arabic before joining were native speakers. Just 4 years of college won't cut it. Classroom time i spent over TEN years in school.
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Hey Natez, I gather you have worked in a field station somehwere. Your description was spot on. I saw more of the latter description of officers of what you described.Big Will You really don't want the MOS of ditty bop chaser,those people were far too weird. You will be very very paranoid for the rest of your life. It is a uniqu experience and one you will not forget.
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www.dli.army.mil/index.asp |
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this kid is asking how he can learn arabic, join the army, and keep it to himself. I figure, if he doesn't get a 98-series MOS he can seriously reduce his risk of falling into a windowless airconditioned well of headset hell...
heh, when I was there, if you rocked out they sent you off to be something fun like 13B or 94B. They made sure you wished you were still in that class-room. |
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I was tactical, except for that one time I was strategic, and it was in Korea, so it was tactical. Tactical is the same as strategic except everyone smells worse, the hours are longer, the food and coffee are worse, there is manual labor, and everyone is crazier, both in and out of the field. And after a mid, instead of going back to the barracks and getting hammered, you go on guard mount and get bored and try to scare cows by landing 40mm smokes underneath them from 100 meters without waking the Major up because you have had four hours of sleep in the last week and are borderline psychotic from sleep deprivation, and your NCOs encourage you and join in... My buddies got field stations, I got CEWIed. |
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Natez, Your was probably more fun. We had the added bonus of the brits working with us in Field Station. The Brits and our mudpuppies were about the only thing to keep things interesting where we were. I'm not sure about the food and coffee being worse,we had turks working in our mess hall. Ever have your coffee taste like cigarette ashes....or apple pie that could be used as super glue. C-rats usually looked better than what was being served as a main meal. About the only excitement we would get is when the East Germans decided they were going to try to come through our gates,and them sitting outside our gates trying to do headcounts on our buses as we pulled out. Some of the ops were very scary in both of our branches of service.(Army and AirForce) It was definately a unique experience,glad I got to experience it.
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being fluent in a second language is not obtained by studying the language. There are too many idioms and cultural translations you will never understand. I have attended 2 years of Russian classes, spent a lot of time in Russia, and am married to a Russian woman. understanding words and grammar is difficult enough you will never be truly fluent unless you live in the native environment for an extended period. Simple comminications and understanding is easily obtained, the next level is very difficult. When Achmed tells a camel joke, you think you are going to understand the humor? It is amazing the number of people who think they are "fluent" in a language.
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Dude, go 97E, counterintel. I'm a 96B, and the 97E's in my company do some cool shit, they're probably our company's greatest asset. They definitely don't have desk jobs. They mostly interrogated and investigated when they were downrange. Of course, that's in a tactical unit, in a strategic unit, they're "agents", civilian clothes, live of post, they deal with threats to security(which could be a boring desk job). So, if you enlist, try to get a guarnteed unit assignment.
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we had a guy in my class at DLI on a 98G contract. He was borderline academically the whole time but managed to survive Korean Basic.
he DLPTs ad gets a 1/1 so they make him into a 98C since it isn't language dependent. he bolo's 98C school at Ft. Goodbuddy. they make him a 97B. the more he failed, the better his job got. i hate that dude. |
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