DLI (Defense Language Institute)

Came across World Mentoring Academy which uses the DLI & Foreign Service Inst. materials to teach 64 Languages for FREE,,, wow technology!!! Even has ESL training for those who would like to learn English.

Now I'll never know where the word hootch comes from.

Besides Intel group and SPF, can say a corpsman sign up to go to DLI?

그래, 니 똥 굵어

Devil Doc even?

I'm taking the dlab Tuesday. I'm shiting my pants

That's understandable. Have you heard the way the average Korean speaks English? I imagine the great differences between the languages makes for some difficulty. Once deployed a linguist that is given the opportunity to interact with their language of choice normally leads to significant improvement in ability.

320 gators DLI eta.. Soon..

what happens if you flunk out of dlab

Afghani is not even a word let alone a language! Get a clue.

Flexible to choose your tutor, study time. e –Putonghua . c o m (connie)

How did you do?

sanguineel, It took me a while but I achieved the max score of 3/3/3.

The "turbo-serbo" course, or the full thing?

That's funny - @ 03:52, Gunny says, "Where they're going next is anybodies guess" - No guess work involved. You speak Korean - 2nd ID and the DMZ. MSA? The sandbox. Chinese? Hawaii or another nice little strategic assignment. Really do miss my time on the border.

Came for the DLI, stayed for the cliffhanger.

I know that you can't actually choose what language you want to learn, but is there a way of stating your preference? And, is there much hope for getting that? I really, really would love to learn either Chinese, Russian, or Korean, but I don't know if I could motivate myself to want to learn Arabic at all (no offense to you, of course).

I am a proud graduate of the Defense Language Institute!  Like this vid says, it was one of the most intense training programs I have EVER experienced!  Years later I came back to serve my last tour before retirement and became one of the Deans of the "Crown Jewel" of the Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey California and that was the "Western European and Latin American School" or affectionately known as little "WELA" to everyone on campus.  Why the Crown Jewel?  It was a beautiful building that shone in the Sun and when you went up to the rooftop where we had picnic tables where Staff would sometimes take their lunch, you could see as far as the boardwalk in Santa Cruz!  Location, location, location....We knew that we sat on what so many drooling Developers knew to be an absolute Real Estate Gold Mine....!  Little WELA as the title says taught all the Western European Languages....Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Italian and ohhh yes withing here we had a "Special Program" where We taught Sicilian to FBI Agents.  I'll never forget, the Head of our Sicilian Program was a fairly young and beautiful Sicilian Woman with long, straight black hair and all the FBI Agents would develop crushes on Her (GRIN)!  ALL new classes would traditionally begin on a Friday afternoon and when MY Students would come into our Auditorium, they would see a banner written in BIG letters which simply stated...Was mich nicht umbringt macht mich stärker (What doesn't kill me only makes me STRONGER!).  I would watch the sea of freshly washed new Faces and notice who was paying attention.  Every Friday afternoon class start would have what I would call its "crisis points", first when the meaning of the banner would start sinking in and the doubt would begin sinking in that maybe this wasn't going to be a picnic.  The next and I think biggest crisis came when after the introductions were made and course syllabi passed out for each language program starting that day I would announce that there was MANDATORY HOMEWORK due the following MONDAY......AND that there would be a critical vocabulary quiz first thing!!  The moans and literally complaints would begin like you would imagine you would hear coming from the lost Souls in the lower bowels of HELL.  HOMEWORK??!!  Some of these young People had graduated come from Hight School Districts that had BANNED HOMEWORK because it "hurt the little Kiddies self-esteem among other pussy reasons!!"....it was at DLI where we also received a lot of young People right out of basic training that I heard about "TIME OUT CARDS!!"....Apparently, while I was out in the real world and noticing just how brutal and vicious it really was, our Kiddies in Basic Training were being pampered along just like they had been when they were sucking off of Mommy and Daddy!  It worked like this....if you were being "yelled at by your Drill Instructor (DI) and you could feel the tears welling because of just how mean He/She was (SNIFF, SNIFF), you could pull out one of these "TIME OUT CARDS" and the mean DI would have to back off!!!...I SHIT YOU NOT ON THIS ONE!  You couldn't imagine how many times the little Mommy's baby boys and girls tried to pull this one right off especially the following Monday after Friday afternoon class start and they HADN'T done their first assigned HOMEWORK over the weekend!.....then they got to see me and maybe for the FIRST TIME in their lives THEY were EXPECTED to take responsibility for their actions because the TIME OUT CARD strangely enough for them, did not work at my School.  My Kids were not STUPID....faaaarr from it, to qualify for the Defense Language Institute, especially as an Enlisted Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine, you had to first test out at the absolute top of the ASVAB and then on top of that, you had to pass  the Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB).  I took the test twice in my career due to a time lapse of numerous years between....I did well the first time and even better years later on the "New DLAB".  The DLAB is an artificial slavonic based language created by the United States Department of Defense as well as Linguists from Universities like Harvard, Yale, Stamford....etc.  The test is approximately 3 hours long and You are given very rudimentary instruction on the Language's grammar and structure and as well as some basic vocabulary and then you're off!!  You have to not only learn the grammar, you have to USE IT during the test....you must absorb and make sense of the new language to the point that you must then begin answering questions.....The DLAB is a TOTAL IMMERSION Test and most people taking it crash and burn so I KNEW that my Kids WERE NOT STUPID.  The first test is always the first Monday after class start and we like to call it a "quiz".  There is a quiz/test EVERY day which dovetails into a weekly test....and every six weeks we have a major test taking in ALL instruction/vocabulary taught to that point.....there will NEVER be a day without a test you MUST PASS!  Homework is a lot of grammar and at least 50 new words be they new nouns or verbs that you must not only have MEMORIZED but also know how to use properly!....this is far more than a monkey pulling the right lever to get the banana....the new words and grammar MUST become part of your already established knowledge base.  Also, the Friday afternoon starting date will be the LAST time English gets used throughout since the following Monday our Students begin the exciting (For some) process of TOTAL IMMERSION!  I said my Kids are at the TOP of the intellectual percentile and they must be....what used to PISS ME OFF to no end is that the powers that be would stick Officers in with my Kids who were trying to survive the Program.  The thing that pissed me off to no end was that Officers "weren't allowed to fail!".....and they knew it....I am NOT saying that there weren't Officers who worked their asses off to learn but the truth is, they were not held to the same crucial standards that the Enlisted Soldiers were and I had some real problems with Officers with ATTITUDE PROBLEMS in the classroom.  They of course did not live in barracks and many of them saw being in Monterey as an opportunity to party their ASSES off!.....then they'd be in class with HUGE HANGOVERS producing some substandard dogshit effort that had they been Enlisted would have seen them packed off to some shit job like aircraft ground fuel pumper somewhere around Minot, North Dakota!  When R. Lee Ermy mentioned that YES there were even Marines involved, I hope he didn't mean it as if he were surprised, my Marines were some of my most dedicated Students and sadly, unlike Sailors, Soldiers or Airmen, they normally only got ONE chance to get through.....they would not generally be given the opportunity at retesting or recycle like their Brothers/Sisters in the other branches BUT, that changed radically when I came aboard because I would beat a path to the Marine Detachment's door with some frequency to FIGHT for my Marines.  The DET came to know me pretty well (SMILE) and in time came to realize that over 90%+ of their Marines they listened to me about actually came through and a few did so as their Class' Honor Graduates. 

Very interesting; as a person who will be joining the ROK military as an officer pretty soon, I hope to work with US personnel. However, I'm curious on how many US serviceman are fluent enough to do translating work. Most liaisons that I've met are usually 2nd generation Koreans or ROK translators and KATUSAs.

Do you get to pick what language you want to learn?

Went through this in 2013 for Dari/Farsi in the Army, great program.

Oh my God, those old Smart-boards...

Hello. I am fluent in 5 languages and I'm certified in 3 plus one being my mother language. Any words if wisdom if I want to join the Airforce as linguist or cryptologist. I have no real language preference at this point since I already speak the ones I always wanted to learn.
I also have a degree in political science. Advice is appreciated

I did Arabic starting in 97. It was tough and I love languages. The major problem with Arabic though was the fact that the teachers had to teach us Modern Standard Arabic or MSA for short. Problem is, nobody really speaks that. If they spoke to use in dialects we'd be scratching out heads. Back then the Internet wasn't really a resource available to us and we used little brown, plastic tape recorders. Ugh. I bet it has improved a lot. Monterey is absolutely gorgeous.

Why not just get Korean Americans to learn Korean rather than train someone from scratch? It would take them no longer than an English speaker to learn a category I language. This goes for Chinese as well. US has enough Chinese Americans that they shouldn't have to train someone completely from scratch. You can train more linguists in a shorter time this way. With Spanish, just use a Mexican American who already is fully bilingual.

WHERE?! WHERE DOES HOOCH COME FROM?!

I got a 122 on the DLAB and am qualified for all language categories. I’m hoping to be able to choose which language to learn, but my recruiter told me that because of my high score I might get stuck with what is needed most. I’m still excited! Learning a new language is an adventure!

I loved my time at DLI! Interesting and challenging course in a beautiful location. I'd go back now if they'd let me. :D

Graduated basic Korean in '99. I did my part to make sure that the Eagle of Sloat Monument did not fly away. You're welcome America.

What a cringey speaker

Will be going to the DLI soon. My grandmother used to teach Russian there, and my family speaks Russian at home. I don't speak it but can understand a good majority of it. I've heard that often the Air Force will not let you pick your language and will decide for you depending on there needs. Anybody have any advice on how to possibly ensure I get Russian when I go? Or at least make it as likely as possible that I will get it. I have a 99 ASVAB and 123 DLAB

MLIs are not officers. They are enlisted. I was Chinese MLI for the Navy 1986-89.

"chosen language" pffft that's a joke

I want to teach Spanish at DLI.
WHAT SHOULD I DO?

do they appoint the language to you, or can you pick?

I want to teach Spanish at DLI,What do l need to do?,please Let me know

LOL "couch commandos" 🤣💪🗽

There is no such language as Afghani.

I'm in this video! Haven't seen this in a while haha

Holy shit this place hasn't changed at all lmao

I miss the DLI so much. I still have my
“We learn Farsi so you don’t have to” teddy bear.

My brother studied languages at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in California. The pace of study was intense. Students had to master the language course in 36-64 weeks. Psychologically it was very difficult, but fortunately he was helped by Yuriy Ivantsiv's book "Polyglot Notes. Practical tips for learning foreign languages”. The book " Polyglot Notes" became a desk book for my brother, because it has answers to all the problems that any student of a foreign language has to face. Thanks to the author of the channel for this interesting video! Good luck to everyone who studies a foreign language and wants to realize their full potential!

How to contact the DLI / for example, how to get the email or Telephone numbers

But where does hooch come from?

Lovely ! People say the military is a harsh cruel place. But That's not so not true. The old soldier really seems funny as he explains how DLI works. But he doesn't seem like a translator to be honest.

I'm planning to go next year. I wanna improve my German there.

I show lots of people this haha. I'm the girl in blues. It was such a great time.

I was there early 2000s and they were just starting to get smart boards then.

Graduated Korean in 2022 and then got sent to Iraq straight out of AIT. Gotta love the army