How U.S. Military Linguists Learn Languages Fast — Transcript

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1. 0:00u.s military linguists are known for
2. 0:01being among the fastest language
3. 0:03learners in the world and they need to
4. 0:04be good because in any number of
5. 0:06intelligence gathering or hostile
6. 0:07situations knowing a language can save
7. 0:10lives and in the u.s military linguists
8. 0:12get trained here at the defense language
9. 0:15institute where they use techniques like
10. 0:16iso immersion and scream and scribble to
11. 0:19teach foreign languages in incredibly
12. 0:21intense programs with some seriously
13. 0:24impressive results
14. 0:26sergeant james call
15. 0:28to tennessee
16. 0:36[Music]
17. 0:38this is a serious operation so i tracked
18. 0:40down two retired soldiers to find out
19. 0:42exactly how language learning happened
20. 0:44in the military and what lessons you can
21. 0:45steal from this for your own language
22. 0:47goals oh and say to the end when i'll
23. 0:49show you how you can take a mock
24. 0:50entrance exam to see whether you have
25. 0:52the brain power to make it onto a
26. 0:53military language program
27. 0:56this is the dli the defense language
28. 0:59institute foreign language center and
29. 1:00it's right here in monterrey california
30. 1:03it is the biggest most efficient and
31. 1:05effective foreign language institution
32. 1:06in the u.s that trains more than 350 000
33. 1:09students each year or nearly 4 000
34. 1:12students at any given time now there is
35. 1:14also a smaller dli school in washington
36. 1:16dc that specializes in 65 less commonly
37. 1:19taught languages as well as an english
38. 1:21training center at the air force base in
39. 1:23texas but most of the action takes place
40. 1:25in california now to attend you must be
41. 1:28a member of the armed forces or be
42. 1:30sponsored by a government agency so to
43. 1:32all of you language dreamers out there
44. 1:34sorry it probably ain't gonna happen so
45. 1:36who makes it to the dli well let's start
46. 1:37with federal employees that's fbi dea
47. 1:40border patrol coast guard and so on
48. 1:42linguists in these government agencies
49. 1:44do intelligence jobs and they're mainly
50. 1:46jobs that are closer to home
51. 1:47investigating drug trafficking for
52. 1:49example if you watch tv i'm sure you
53. 1:51will have at least some idea of what
54. 1:53these guys do but the military also
55. 1:55trains interpreters that it sends all
56. 1:56over the world and these linguists work
57. 1:58to translate highly classified documents
58. 2:00and connect with troops and allied
59. 2:02forces and of course on the front line
60. 2:04this ability to communicate can be
61. 2:06crucial and that's where the armed
62. 2:08forces come in soldiers who may have
63. 2:10been deployed to afghanistan for example
64. 2:11would have gotten intense language
65. 2:13training at the dli with native afghan
66. 2:16instructors our students initially are
67. 2:18department of defense service members
68. 2:20they come from all the different
69. 2:21branches of the military
70. 2:22as volunteer citizens a lot of them have
71. 2:25recently come from basic training
72. 2:27as military members they come from
73. 2:29throughout the united states very
74. 2:31diverse we have young service members
75. 2:33but we've also got careerists who return
76. 2:35back for advanced language training as
77. 2:37well as officers for advanced training
78. 2:40by the way if you're new here welcome my
79. 2:41name is ollie richards and this channel
80. 2:42is all about helping you learn a new
81. 2:44language and explore the world through
82. 2:45the power of story now do you want to
83. 2:48see inside the school but i certainly do
84. 2:52for seven hours a day five days a week
85. 2:54young men and women in uniform are hard
86. 2:56at work in very intensive language
87. 2:58classes and when they knock off at the
88. 3:00end of the day they still need to get
89. 3:02through two or three hours of homework
90. 3:04and somehow also fit in an hour or two
91. 3:06of study time but that's not all this is
92. 3:08the military after all and soldiers have
93. 3:10pt schedules and other duties now as i'm
94. 3:13sure you can guess the school has a
95. 3:14reputation for excellence after all
96. 3:16they've been successfully training
97. 3:17soldiers in foreign languages since 1941
98. 3:23[Music]
99. 3:30uh
100. 3:32so what languages can soldiers learn
101. 3:34here well because it's the defense force
102. 3:36the list is very specific 17 languages
103. 3:39and several dialects of those languages
104. 3:41are taught and depending on the
105. 3:42difficulty of the language the courses
106. 3:44can last anything from 26 to 64 weeks
107. 3:48and i'll tell you which languages take
108. 3:49how long in just a second i spoke to
109. 3:52elle whose target language was korean
110. 3:54language program itself is 63 weeks long
111. 3:58and so we
112. 4:00in that time frame
113. 4:02we cover about three years of college
114. 4:05level language so by the time we're done
115. 4:08in our 63 weeks then we're
116. 4:12pretty fluent in a lot of different
117. 4:14areas
118. 4:15and it moves by really fast at great
119. 4:17intensity there's a saying among
120. 4:19students that sums up the experience
121. 4:21drinking from a fire hose and perhaps
122. 4:23unlike a lot of other language courses
123. 4:25the cultural aspect of the language is
124. 4:26taken very very seriously we teach
125. 4:29language to a very high proficiency
126. 4:31level near native proficiency
127. 4:34and we teach it in a very short period
128. 4:35of time it's very intense class very
129. 4:39difficult academically
130. 4:41and part of that is to learn about the
131. 4:43culture because you really can't
132. 4:46operate at high levels in a language
133. 4:48unless you understand the culture how
134. 4:49can you understand the humor read
135. 4:51between the lines
136. 4:52understand current political affairs
137. 4:54what are the some of the tensions and
138. 4:56challenges in that region politically uh
139. 4:58geopolitically
140. 4:59it's essential to know all these things
141. 5:03so first things first if you've been
142. 5:05accepted into the military and hope to
143. 5:06be a linguist or your job requires you
144. 5:08to be a linguist you go to the dli
145. 5:11you'll be between the ages of 17 and 35
146. 5:13and most likely from the army but you
147. 5:15may also be from the navy marine corps
148. 5:17or air force you may perhaps also be a
149. 5:20green barrier sent here from fort bragg
150. 5:21for additional language training but
151. 5:23before you get anywhere near the dli you
152. 5:25first have to take a proficiency test
153. 5:27and it's called the dlab the defense
154. 5:29language aptitude battery if you pass
155. 5:32you'll be put in a language category
156. 5:33based on how well you did it could be an
157. 5:36easier category like french or a more
158. 5:38difficult category like russian now this
159. 5:40bit is interesting even if you already
160. 5:42know a language or you've studied it to
161. 5:44a decent level before or even you're
162. 5:46fluent in a second language there's no
163. 5:48guarantee that you'll pass the dlab test
164. 5:51why
165. 5:52because the test itself doesn't test
166. 5:54your ability in a specific language it
167. 5:56tests your brain's ability to learn a
168. 5:57new language on the fly and it's very
169. 5:59clever the test is based on a made-up
170. 6:02language
171. 6:03at least you can't cheat talking it over
172. 6:06with my recruiter at the time i took a
173. 6:09second battery of tests
174. 6:12called the d-lab which is the defense
175. 6:15language aptitude battery and that tests
176. 6:17your
177. 6:18ability to
178. 6:21learn languages so it's all
179. 6:24made up
180. 6:25language type things that they're asking
181. 6:28questions about
182. 6:30and they're looking for
183. 6:31pattern recognition and whether you can
184. 6:34work out grammar structures and word
185. 6:36recognition and that sort of thing
186. 6:39and if you have a high enough score in
187. 6:41that test then you qualify for the
188. 6:44linguist job
189. 6:46interesting right the logic of this will
190. 6:48become clearer as you watch the rest of
191. 6:49the video and as i mentioned earlier you
192. 6:50can take this entrance test too even as
193. 6:53a civilian i'll show you how you can do
194. 6:54that later and the other thing that
195. 6:56civilians can do is subscribe to this
196. 6:58channel see it's quite a bit easier than
197. 7:00the entrance exactly click one button
198. 7:02and remember why you're here why you're
199. 7:04learning a language
200. 7:05you're in the military you're not here
201. 7:07to just pass get your certificate in
202. 7:09your diploma
203. 7:11one day someone's gonna be relying on
204. 7:12you and the intelligence you provide to
205. 7:14shape their operations
206. 7:19so you pass the entry test you're in
207. 7:22what happens next well it's time you met
208. 7:24our second soldier jack not his real
209. 7:26name and who has to remain anonymous for
210. 7:27this video you basically sign up for
211. 7:29some kind of language related job it
212. 7:32varies a little bit branch to branch you
213. 7:34go through your initial basic training
214. 7:36and then while you're in basic training
215. 7:38they give you a dream sheet and they say
216. 7:40these are all the languages currently
217. 7:42being taught rank your top six
218. 7:45and you don't find out what language you
219. 7:47get until the end of basic training
220. 7:50sometime in the middle you fill out some
221. 7:53paperwork
222. 7:55you explain your language history what
223. 7:57languages you are interested in learning
224. 8:00and they look at those and then they
225. 8:02look at what the air force needs
226. 8:05and they assign you so hopefully you
227. 8:07will be given one of your top three
228. 8:09choices but just like the missionaries
229. 8:10in utah there is no guarantee that
230. 8:12you'll get the language that you want
231. 8:14you'll be assigned the language based on
232. 8:16two things how well you did on your test
233. 8:18and what the army's current needs are
234. 8:20and those needs obviously change with
235. 8:22world events so they always have to be
236. 8:23looked at a few years ahead
237. 8:25remember this is not about you active
238. 8:27service members in particular that don't
239. 8:29get to choose jack was hoping to get
240. 8:31russian but he was actually aside farsi
241. 8:33but in a lucky break he actually ended
242. 8:35up suffering a delay and he ended up
243. 8:37getting on the russian program after all
244. 8:39how about l did she get what she wanted
245. 8:41yes actually um before joining i had
246. 8:45discovered
247. 8:46um
248. 8:47korean music and i had really fallen in
249. 8:50love with the sound of the language and
250. 8:52everything and so that was on the top of
251. 8:54my list and i was just lucky enough that
252. 8:57they needed
253. 8:58a korean linguist and so that's what i
254. 9:00was assigned to nice one hill now here
255. 9:02are those language categories from
256. 9:04earlier
257. 9:05you'll see here how more familiar
258. 9:06languages like french and spanish are 36
259. 9:08weeks in length while these category 4
260. 9:11languages like arabic or chinese take
261. 9:12the whole 64 weeks almost double the
262. 9:15study time i've got to tell you 64 weeks
263. 9:17is intense i've learned eight languages
264. 9:19but the longest i've ever done an
265. 9:20intensive language project for was three
266. 9:22months which i'll link to up here and i
267. 9:24have to say i was ready to stop after
268. 9:26three months and it was nowhere near as
269. 9:27intensive as well these guys do as
270. 9:28you'll find out in just a minute now
271. 9:30remember most students arrive with only
272. 9:33minimal capabilities in their target
273. 9:34language but that changes very fast
274. 9:37indeed dli is an extremely intensive
275. 9:39program a lot of the young people coming
276. 9:41through here
277. 9:42in fact sometimes even experienced
278. 9:44service members careerists who come
279. 9:45through here for language training will
280. 9:47often say it's the hardest thing they've
281. 9:49done in the military or as a civilian
282. 9:51before they join the military
283. 9:53for up to a year and a half the students
284. 9:55at the dli eat sleep and read their
285. 9:59chosen language and make no mistake you
286. 10:01can get kicked off the course if you
287. 10:03don't measure up but by now i bet you're
288. 10:05wondering what kind of frightening drill
289. 10:07sergeant teacher will be instructing you
290. 10:09right
291. 10:11well not to worry your instructor will
292. 10:12be either a civilian native speaker or a
293. 10:15highly educated military language
294. 10:17instructor or mli then you have your
295. 10:19mlis military language instructors like
296. 10:21me guys in uniform been through the
297. 10:23course and we've done the mission
298. 10:25remember how hard it was to learn a
299. 10:26foreign language
300. 10:28if you can make it here you can make it
301. 10:29through anything
302. 10:30and there are about 1900 of these guys
303. 10:33where do they find them we have
304. 10:35linguists instructors from over 90
305. 10:37countries that come here to monterey
306. 10:39to support that training institute
307. 10:43[Music]
308. 10:45first class international staff
309. 10:46musicians even it's really impressive
310. 10:49but let's not pretend that it is all
311. 10:50smooth sailing at the dli the atmosphere
312. 10:52in the classroom can get tense in the
313. 10:55early days it's high stress with the
314. 10:56fast pace of learning cultural clashes
315. 10:59happen as well even between students and
316. 11:00teachers different political views
317. 11:02different outlooks on life it certainly
318. 11:04isn't straightforward
319. 11:06well here's a good example of it i was
320. 11:08like a month into the course and my
321. 11:10instructor said
322. 11:11read this passage and it was in russian
323. 11:14so i read it in russian and she said all
324. 11:16right what is it saying
325. 11:18so i swapped to english because i was
326. 11:19going to translate it but she said no no
327. 11:21no no say it in russian explain your
328. 11:24idea in russian and i was like frick all
329. 11:27right cool
330. 11:28and i'm trying to piece together some
331. 11:30things my grammar's awful and so on i
332. 11:32start speaking and the moment i started
333. 11:35talking
334. 11:36she started
335. 11:37putting her head down in her hands on
336. 11:38her desk and rubbing her face and i
337. 11:41finished and she said that was absolute
338. 11:45then i said i'm sorry i mean i'm 19 and
339. 11:47i've never learned a language before
340. 11:50so let's find out more about what
341. 11:51actually goes on inside the classroom
342. 11:53including that scream and scribble that
343. 11:54i mentioned earlier
344. 11:58no matter what language you are learning
345. 11:59it is going to be insanely fast paced
346. 12:01and difficult classes are monday to
347. 12:03friday and pretty much all day long so
348. 12:06because we were
349. 12:07military then our day always started
350. 12:10really early in the morning and we'd
351. 12:12have morning formation
352. 12:13where we could do uniform inspections we
353. 12:15have announcements that sort of thing
354. 12:17and then we'd be in the classrooms by
355. 12:19about
356. 12:207 30 8 o'clock
357. 12:23and we had
358. 12:25um six
359. 12:26total hours of
360. 12:29um
361. 12:30language learning throughout the day
362. 12:32thankfully you do get a 10 minute break
363. 12:34every hour and you knock off at 3 30 in
364. 12:36the afternoon but there's no relaxing
365. 12:38yet in fact that is not even half of
366. 12:40what the day looks like just wait and
367. 12:42see another interesting thing that
368. 12:44happens is depending on your language
369. 12:45there may also be a lot of different
370. 12:46ranks in your class so if you are a
371. 12:48private you could easily have a captain
372. 12:50or even a sergeant sitting right next to
373. 12:52you which has got to be fun right never
374. 12:55mind the mix of different branches all
375. 12:57learning together in the same room i
376. 12:59wonder what this was like it was always
377. 13:01interesting um
378. 13:03navigating the different military
379. 13:06cultures there was air force army
380. 13:09marine and we had one navy most of the
381. 13:12time
382. 13:13and
383. 13:14each branch has different
384. 13:17standards
385. 13:18and you know different things they have
386. 13:20to do during the week to fulfill their
387. 13:22military purpose
388. 13:24and so
389. 13:25it was interesting
390. 13:27seeing everyone try to balance that with
391. 13:29the language learning
392. 13:32so first day first class first lesson
393. 13:34what's that like
394. 13:35it's your first day the teacher comes in
395. 13:38we're all nervous we're sitting in the
396. 13:39class and i've never spoken to a russian
397. 13:41person before
398. 13:42the teacher comes in speaking russian
399. 13:44and i'm like i have no idea what you're
400. 13:47saying
401. 13:48like i don't know what to do
402. 13:50but initially they switched to english
403. 13:52because they know that you don't
404. 13:54understand anything
405. 13:55you go over the alphabet you practice
406. 13:57your handwriting and they teach you all
407. 13:59the cursive and all that
408. 14:01after two days they say okay we bless
409. 14:04you with the alphabet and make the craft
410. 14:05symbol
411. 14:07now let's start learning things
412. 14:09we were expected to know everything now
413. 14:11so we started learning words and grammar
414. 14:14but it depends if you have arabic they
415. 14:16spend more time on that they call it
416. 14:18sound and script it's an initial
417. 14:20three-week course where you go over the
418. 14:22arabic alphabet yeah so for languages
419. 14:24with a different script like arabic
420. 14:26they'll spend up to a month on basic
421. 14:28alphabet and sounds before even getting
422. 14:30to the vocabulary if you caught that
423. 14:32thing jackson sound and script this is a
424. 14:34daily session before classes where
425. 14:36students are introduced to the most
426. 14:37basic vocabulary to get used to what the
427. 14:39script actually looks like apparently
428. 14:41this class is in the nickname scream and
429. 14:44scribble you can i'll leave it to your
430. 14:45imagination to figure out why but the
431. 14:47idea is to prep the soldiers for success
432. 14:50in the challenging weeks to come because
433. 14:51at some point even the instructions in
434. 14:53the class are going to be all in arabic
435. 14:55and we'll see some examples of what
436. 14:57actual classroom activities look like in
437. 14:59just a second okay so an important
438. 15:00question from me at this point what
439. 15:02percentage of the time are you hearing
440. 15:04only the target language versus getting
441. 15:06taught actually in english because if
442. 15:07you remember from my video on the mormon
443. 15:09missionary training center those guys
444. 15:10have a very strict no english rule right
445. 15:13from the beginning the majority of the
446. 15:15instruction was
447. 15:17um in kind of a mix of english and
448. 15:20korean when we first started it there
449. 15:23was a lot more english but as we learned
450. 15:25the language we got more korean all of
451. 15:28our professors
452. 15:30would speak in korean
453. 15:33and then explain in english again and so
454. 15:36the grammar fits
455. 15:38every day we had
456. 15:40maybe a paragraph or a little dialogue
457. 15:42piece that was in korean that we were
458. 15:45studying from and there would be new
459. 15:47pieces of grammar new verb endings um
460. 15:51new ways of saying things that
461. 15:55are talked about in that paragraph and
462. 15:58we would learn from that and all the
463. 15:59vocabulary for that day would be
464. 16:02in that paragraph so they would be
465. 16:04teaching from these paragraphs
466. 16:06every day in the beginning they do speak
467. 16:09a decent bit of english to us just to
468. 16:11make sure we're understanding these
469. 16:12grammar concepts they would explain the
470. 16:15concepts in english and then switch to
471. 16:17russian and they'd say
472. 16:19let me show you how this looks in the
473. 16:20actual russian so the instruction aspect
474. 16:23would be in english to make sure you
475. 16:24understand it and then all the practice
476. 16:26and application they would switch to
477. 16:28russian but then we would do things
478. 16:30where we would have
479. 16:32okay wait let's take a step back
480. 16:34the course itself was divided into three
481. 16:36semesters and in each semester you'd
482. 16:38have a main theme
483. 16:40so the first semester for russian we did
484. 16:42history the second semester we did
485. 16:43geography and the third semester was
486. 16:46culture
487. 16:47so take the history class the entire
488. 16:49lesson was in russian and we really
489. 16:51didn't understand anything
490. 16:53i learned how to say the pencil is on
491. 16:56the desk and the teacher started telling
492. 16:58us about soviet history
493. 17:00and they know you don't understand most
494. 17:01of what's being said but it would get
495. 17:03you familiar with hearing the language
496. 17:06you have workbooks with the text in
497. 17:07front of you so you're trying to match
498. 17:09what you're hearing with what you're
499. 17:11reading yeah so having the context for
500. 17:12that would obviously be helpful knowing
501. 17:14the topic i like that as you progress on
502. 17:16the course the teachers speak less and
503. 17:17less english and eventually no english
504. 17:20there will also be an hour during the
505. 17:21day with a military instructor talking
506. 17:23about military-specific things i imagine
507. 17:26the vocabulary in general to be quite
508. 17:27specific in the military i wonder are
509. 17:29there any constraints on what's taught
510. 17:31there was a little bit
511. 17:34for example we didn't talk a lot of we
512. 17:36didn't learn a lot of religious words
513. 17:40but we did a lot of political words the
514. 17:43language program itself is 63 weeks long
515. 17:46and so we
516. 17:49in that time frame
517. 17:50we cover about three years of college
518. 17:54level language so by the time we're done
519. 17:57in our
520. 17:5863 weeks then we're
521. 18:01pretty fluent in a lot of different
522. 18:03areas politics
523. 18:05communication
524. 18:07media there's a lot of things that we
525. 18:10did learn that was specific for our job
526. 18:13but
527. 18:14not as much as you would think
528. 18:17at dli we had a second school
529. 18:20in texas where we did more job related
530. 18:22language and that's obviously the air
531. 18:23force school in texas i believe they
532. 18:25break the day's lessons into one hour
533. 18:27blocks for reading listening and
534. 18:29speaking skills so how do these lessons
535. 18:31work
536. 18:33we'd have one hour with one teacher who
537. 18:35would teach us about a specific grammar
538. 18:39point
539. 18:40and then the next hour would be about
540. 18:43like how in english we have
541. 18:45um
542. 18:46latin roots in korean there are chinese
543. 18:50roots it's been in whole our
544. 18:53learning specific roots so that we could
545. 18:55expand and
546. 18:57have an easier time recognizing words
547. 18:59okay so this start you off with simple
548. 19:01sentences and important words eventually
549. 19:03talking more and more about word roots
550. 19:05conjugations noun declensions and so on
551. 19:08when we learned korean we started with
552. 19:10basic words and phrases like hello how
553. 19:13are you um
554. 19:15nice to see you again and that sort of
555. 19:17thing and then
556. 19:19built on that and learned the grammar
557. 19:22bits later
558. 19:24and kept adding more vocabulary to what
559. 19:27we already had and learning whole
560. 19:30sentences rather than individual words
561. 19:32and phrases you can learn grammar much
562. 19:34better
563. 19:35by learning the whole
564. 19:37and then breaking it down i obviously
565. 19:39completely agree that starting with full
566. 19:40sentences is the best way to learn a
567. 19:43typical exercise they're given at this
568. 19:44stage is something like this here is
569. 19:46your root word now here is a sentence
570. 19:49figure out what form of this word is
571. 19:51correct for the sentence and with a
572. 19:53language like arabic it's really
573. 19:55important to choose the right prefixes
574. 19:56and suffixes or the meaning in a
575. 19:58military context at least very often
576. 20:00changes to something quite different and
577. 20:02you certainly don't want to be saying
578. 20:03the wrong thing out in the field now the
579. 20:05method is known for making heavy use of
580. 20:07structured repetition so if the students
581. 20:09are given 25 new words to learn for a
582. 20:12test then all day those words will come
583. 20:14up in the grammar lessons over and over
584. 20:16again and it goes like this constantly
585. 20:18with lots of reinforcement now here's
586. 20:20something that you won't get a lot of
587. 20:21other language schools and it's pretty
588. 20:23cool
589. 20:24dialects in a language are taught right
590. 20:26from the beginning in the classroom so
591. 20:28if you're learning arabic for example
592. 20:30you'll get one to two hours of
593. 20:31foundational modern standard arabic each
594. 20:34day for example but then you'll get
595. 20:36trained in various dialects of arabic
596. 20:38mind you a lot of soldiers these days
597. 20:40are first learning the dialect in the
598. 20:42field and then picking up standard
599. 20:43arabic at the school afterwards and
600. 20:45learning these dialects is so important
601. 20:48picture this
602. 20:50you're supporting ground operations and
603. 20:51you get some intelligence that says your
604. 20:53unit is about to walk into an ambush
605. 20:55you're not gonna have time to use a
606. 20:56dictionary consult the internet or run
607. 20:58it through a whole chain of command to
608. 20:59qc your work it's just you the
609. 21:02confidence in your abilities you are of
610. 21:03course in safe hands all these
611. 21:05instructors are bilingual and know how
612. 21:06to explain even the most difficult
613. 21:08grammar or idiomatic expressions for
614. 21:10those dialects so let's explore the
615. 21:12structure and goals of the program
616. 21:16at the dli there are four levels to
617. 21:18reach native speaker fluency although
618. 21:20you can go even higher if you want to
619. 21:22but in order to pass and graduate you
620. 21:24just have to reach level two which means
621. 21:26being able to understand the gist of a
622. 21:27conversation or accurately pick out the
623. 21:29facts from like a news broadcast for
624. 21:31example who what when where why at level
625. 21:34three your understanding has become far
626. 21:36more intuitive and you can pick up on
627. 21:37someone's intent and motive and so on
628. 21:39whether you reach that level or not what
629. 21:41is up to you but certain jobs are going
630. 21:43to require that level of understanding
631. 21:45like cia for example so what is the
632. 21:48primary skill that most people in the
633. 21:50program focus on is a lot of speaking
634. 21:52practice yes there was a lot of speaking
635. 21:54practice in class our tests were always
636. 21:59listening reading and speaking the goal
637. 22:01was always to
638. 22:03improve speaking alongside of the other
639. 22:06skills but our
640. 22:08final test at the end of
641. 22:11the course um was
642. 22:14more weighted towards listening and
643. 22:16reading than speaking and this makes
644. 22:18sense for l obviously because her future
645. 22:20job is going to entail mostly listening
646. 22:22in korean but guys will be operating in
647. 22:24military attaching capacities for
648. 22:25example will naturally need a lot more
649. 22:27speaking practice to prepare themselves
650. 22:29so it really depends on what they're
651. 22:31going to be doing in the field and then
652. 22:33as you progress you do more and more
653. 22:35comprehension work looking for meaning
654. 22:37in texts making deductions based on
655. 22:38things that are said and this kind of
656. 22:40work will be familiar to my students in
657. 22:42my story learning programs because
658. 22:44working on understanding and uncovering
659. 22:46the language from from a context is the
660. 22:48main priority using story in our case
661. 22:51but i am interested to see how they
662. 22:52balance speaking versus comprehension at
663. 22:55the dli because i can see how learning
664. 22:57to say stuff can be absolutely critical
665. 22:59in the field from the beginning you can
666. 23:01imagine the need to give very clear
667. 23:03commands in another language but being
668. 23:05able to understand what's going on read
669. 23:07a difficult situation
670. 23:09all together with cultural nuance i mean
671. 23:11that's the really difficult and really
672. 23:13important stuff you can't win hearts and
673. 23:15minds after all if you don't understand
674. 23:17how the hearts and minds themselves work
675. 23:20so next question what does your
676. 23:22self-study time look like so self-study
677. 23:25we had a lot of homework that we had to
678. 23:27do
679. 23:28we had anywhere between 20 and 80 new
680. 23:32vocabulary words to memorize every night
681. 23:35usually longer over the weekend
682. 23:38we had
683. 23:40some sort of recording we had to make of
684. 23:42ourselves speaking in the language
685. 23:46oftentimes we had transcription homework
686. 23:49where we would listen to a recording and
687. 23:52then transcribe what we heard
688. 23:54i think there were some other smaller
689. 23:57types that were less common but those
690. 23:59were the three
691. 24:00big ones and a lot of the professors
692. 24:04recommended um also
693. 24:07watching
694. 24:08the news in korean watching dramas tv
695. 24:12shows and listening to the music and
696. 24:13that sort of thing
697. 24:15and me in particular since i was already
698. 24:18interested in the music that's what i
699. 24:20did a lot sometimes instead of homework
700. 24:23and i have to do it early in the morning
701. 24:25i spent a lot of time
702. 24:28listening to the sounds of the natural
703. 24:30speakers and
704. 24:32i have stacks and stacks of books in
705. 24:35korean that i
706. 24:37have read or i'm trying to read ah
707. 24:39reading books in korean of course i
708. 24:41strongly approve although i have no idea
709. 24:42whether they use this at the dli
710. 24:44probably not but actually there's a huge
711. 24:46library of free military training
712. 24:48resources that you have open access to
713. 24:50and we'll get to that a little bit later
714. 24:51but first you're going to love this
715. 24:55now check this out at the dli they have
716. 24:56what they call an isolation immersion
717. 24:59facility or iso immersion for sure where
718. 25:02students can live for up to three days
719. 25:04sometimes up to five days it's basically
720. 25:06a chance to interact in a more realistic
721. 25:08environment this is very cool there are
722. 25:10kitchens sleeping quarters and things
723. 25:12like that you'll be isolated in a world
724. 25:14where only your new language is
725. 25:16understood and you'll have to practice
726. 25:17real world situations like haggling at a
727. 25:19market for food for whatever you need or
728. 25:22or going through customs making hotel
729. 25:24reservations on the phone quite cool for
730. 25:26russian the teachers would set up
731. 25:28scenarios like
732. 25:29one time they made it seem like we were
733. 25:31going through an airport we had to go
734. 25:33through that speaking russian
735. 25:35but there'd be some kind of variable
736. 25:36that would get thrown in the security
737. 25:38guard would be angry because we were
738. 25:40missing some documents or something they
739. 25:42build little scenarios they're kind of
740. 25:44like many speaking days to practice
741. 25:46using the language so even if you don't
742. 25:48get to travel to those countries they
743. 25:50still set up those kind of opportunities
744. 25:52and all of this is designed to help
745. 25:53bring an appreciation for the culture
746. 25:55obviously there are cooking days
747. 25:57dressing in traditional clothes
748. 25:58storytelling days where you hear about
749. 26:00legendary warriors and heroes it's
750. 26:02really quite something all in all each
751. 26:04graduating class goes through three of
752. 26:06these immersion events during their
753. 26:08course see maybe that's what we've been
754. 26:09missing out on all along we should be
755. 26:11dressing up and cooking exotic food i
756. 26:12think that's the secret but seriously
757. 26:14going the extra mile like this really
758. 26:15does wonders for not just absorbing the
759. 26:17language but understanding the culture
760. 26:19too because remember that some of these
761. 26:20recruits are only 17 years old they've
762. 26:22never left home i mean when i remember
763. 26:24back to what i was like when i was 17
764. 26:26and when i i knew nothing at 17 it
765. 26:28certainly knew nothing about the world
766. 26:29so it's not just about the language
767. 26:31there's a lot more that you need to
768. 26:33prepare these kids for and i'm fairly
769. 26:35sure that's what the military had in
770. 26:36mind when it introduced this next
771. 26:39feature
772. 26:40simulations
773. 26:42now imagine that you've been deployed
774. 26:44and your task is to go out and hire
775. 26:46interpreters to help troops in the field
776. 26:48or maybe negotiate at a border crossing
777. 26:50well that is what simulations are
778. 26:52designed to prepare you for here's a
779. 26:55role-play scene in a mock village see if
780. 26:57you can figure out what's going on
781. 27:01[Music]
782. 27:09those serious faces were no joke they do
783. 27:11take it very seriously don't they so i'm
784. 27:13curious how do you think that you would
785. 27:15get on with this kind of training in
786. 27:16your classes let me know in the comments
787. 27:18and by the way i know that we do have
788. 27:19military people watching this channel so
789. 27:21if there's anything here that you feel
790. 27:22i've not quite got right or
791. 27:24misrepresented in any way please do let
792. 27:25me know in the comments
793. 27:28for some languages you can even do an
794. 27:29immersion trip abroad in fact 15 of
795. 27:32students are selected for an overseas
796. 27:34trip of some kind which is going to be
797. 27:35extremely motivating going to korea was
798. 27:38always a big motivation for me and i did
799. 27:40get to go in the middle of training
800. 27:42oftentimes they send students for six
801. 27:45weeks to study at one of the
802. 27:47universities there
803. 27:49as a foreign exchange program
804. 27:52and that was a really great experience
805. 27:54and
806. 27:55made me even more
807. 27:57enthusiastic about completing
808. 28:00the course and returning what about
809. 28:02jack's experience
810. 28:04so about halfway through the course
811. 28:05there was a small group of us that got
812. 28:07to go on a language exchange to latvia
813. 28:10and being there walking around not
814. 28:12hearing english anywhere
815. 28:14like the first time going to a
816. 28:16restaurant communicating an idea and
817. 28:18having them understand it was like wow
818. 28:20we actually know what's going on
819. 28:23before that you're constantly doing
820. 28:25grammar and exercises you have all these
821. 28:27worksheets and homework and all that and
822. 28:30so you're kind of in this little box the
823. 28:31entire time and so on our first
824. 28:33opportunity to go out and use the
825. 28:36language we were thinking this is kind
826. 28:38of cool it's not bad
827. 28:40it was good motivation moving forward
828. 28:42and this language exchange was five or
829. 28:44six months in how did the soldiers do
830. 28:46it takes more than five months to get
831. 28:48really comfortable but i could get
832. 28:51around i could travel go get a bus go to
833. 28:53restaurants have basic conversations you
834. 28:56know but yeah it was nice motivation to
835. 28:58move forward from that
836. 29:00cool so i thought i'd quickly show you a
837. 29:01typical day's schedule at the dli just
838. 29:03to get an overview of what it's like and
839. 29:05a hint here if you think the only work
840. 29:07after class is a healthy run around the
841. 29:09track in army boots well you're gonna be
842. 29:11wrong
843. 29:13first of all remember this is proper
844. 29:14military which means all military rules
845. 29:16apply at 5 30 a.m or should that be oh 5
846. 29:2030 i don't know anyway you wake up you
847. 29:22make your bed yep just like this then
848. 29:25you have to do chores take out the trash
849. 29:27and all before breakfast you have to be
850. 29:29at the parking lot by 7 a.m for revelry
851. 29:31and formation and when formation ends
852. 29:33you have 25 minutes before class classes
853. 29:36then go on till 3 30 in the afternoon
854. 29:38with a lunch break of course you get
855. 29:40that and at 3 30 when the day's classes
856. 29:42are over you must quickly get into your
857. 29:44pt uniform and hustle to get to the
858. 29:46proper venue for an hour of physical
859. 29:48training then of course it is dinner
860. 29:50time
861. 29:517 p.m is mandatory study hall time you
862. 29:54can go to the library if you want but
863. 29:55otherwise it's in your room with the
864. 29:56door open studying yeah so this is
865. 29:59probably also a good time to finish your
866. 30:01homework now it might be 9 p.m by the
867. 30:03time study time ends but then you have
868. 30:04to go to iron your uniform and get your
869. 30:06boots clean because at 9 45 there is bed
870. 30:09check formation and if you think you can
871. 30:11get to sleep after that not a chance it
872. 30:13is study hour again
873. 30:15see i bet most of you are now
874. 30:16appreciating the absolute luxury of
875. 30:18learning a language from your living
876. 30:19room right anyway where were we curfew
877. 30:21is at 10 p.m but by this hour i have no
878. 30:24doubt that these guys and girls are
879. 30:25pretty much passing out but only if
880. 30:27their homework is done of course and
881. 30:28then it is sleep and repeat and i bet
882. 30:31they are looking forward to saturdays
883. 30:33because wait you do get weekends right
884. 30:35guys
885. 30:36on the weekends
886. 30:37usually people are pretty good with
887. 30:39trying to go blow off steam go travel
888. 30:41somewhere do something good but also you
889. 30:43have this cloud over you at all times
890. 30:46like i could be studying my verbs or
891. 30:48something like that
892. 30:50you feel guilty not doing homework
893. 30:52because that's all you do all year i am
894. 30:55all for blowing off steam and not just
895. 30:57studying verbs on the weekend let me
896. 30:58tell you but before you decide that this
897. 31:00is definitely not for you let me tell
898. 31:02you about one really fun aspect of the
899. 31:04training at dli which is
900. 31:07the students will prepare for an annual
901. 31:08open house in may which is called
902. 31:10appropriately enough language day
903. 31:12several thousand visitors come to this
904. 31:14event and you may even have been to one
905. 31:15yourself in which case i want to hear
906. 31:17all about it in the comments
907. 31:24i think that looks absolutely awesome i
908. 31:26would have a language day too can we get
909. 31:27a language day for for story learning
910. 31:29how would that work i've got no idea
911. 31:33now after all the grueling work pt
912. 31:35struggles bonding the final day comes
913. 31:38the day where it all comes down to two
914. 31:39words pass or fail and the nerves are
915. 31:42pretty high obviously especially for the
916. 31:44speaking part
917. 31:45the stress of that oh
918. 31:47the nerves were pretty high especially
919. 31:49the speaking one because you go into
920. 31:51this room and two native russian
921. 31:54speakers are sitting there with a
922. 31:55microphone and you just start talking
923. 31:58you know so what words of advice can our
924. 32:00soldiers offer for someone about to go
925. 32:02to dli
926. 32:03finding something about the language
927. 32:07to love
928. 32:08something that you can be enthusiastic
929. 32:10about
930. 32:11um that
931. 32:13will help you get through
932. 32:15learning the language because it is
933. 32:17really hard and
934. 32:19the
935. 32:20language
936. 32:21program is
937. 32:23meant to push you really hard and lots
938. 32:27of students get washed back or get
939. 32:30dropped out and sent to another job so
940. 32:32if you
941. 32:34find something
942. 32:36that you can
943. 32:37love about the language or about your
944. 32:40target country
945. 32:41then that will really
946. 32:43help you
947. 32:44definitely true for any language
948. 32:46learning mission and jack you're there
949. 32:48for a while so have fun
950. 32:50the big thing to do is and this is what
951. 32:52i tell people even now like when we get
952. 32:54a new person into our squadron who's
953. 32:56just coming out of training appreciate
954. 32:59where you are
955. 33:00because first off
956. 33:02there's so many people who would love to
957. 33:04have the opportunity to go to dli and
958. 33:06learn a language and on top of it you're
959. 33:09getting paid to learn a language so
960. 33:11appreciate being there you know
961. 33:13it's such an amazing thing the fact that
962. 33:15when you're in class there's this native
963. 33:17speaker who's personally teaching you
964. 33:19this language that's a very very unique
965. 33:22opportunity so just enjoy it think about
966. 33:25how cool it is that you're there right
967. 33:27now
968. 33:28the fact that it's tied to our career
969. 33:30adds a bit of pressure to it but
970. 33:32ultimately you're studying a way to
971. 33:34explore new aspects of the world
972. 33:38relax enjoy it and be grateful i like
973. 33:40that now i know a lot of people watching
974. 33:42this will be saying man i will i would
975. 33:43happily pay whatever it takes to be able
976. 33:46to take this amazing intensive training
977. 33:47so as promised here are two resources
978. 33:49that you are going to love direct from
979. 33:51the defense language institute itself
980. 33:53firstly you've got gloss this is a
981. 33:55global language online support system
982. 33:58and recruits from the dli can use this
983. 34:00to listen to a weather forecast in
984. 34:01honduras go through a spanish accent
985. 34:03library listen to recordings of albanian
986. 34:06conversations it is an incredible
987. 34:08resource best of all anyone can tap into
988. 34:10this online the link is in the
989. 34:12description below but there is more
990. 34:13because remember the dlab test i told
991. 34:15you about earlier the one in the made up
992. 34:17language the entrance exam well if you
993. 34:19want to experience that you can actually
994. 34:20buy a practice d-lab test right off
995. 34:23amazon again link in the description but
996. 34:25remember that the us military are not
997. 34:26the only ones teaching languages
998. 34:28intensively like this mormon
999. 34:30missionaries are also doing some
1000. 34:31incredible stuff over in utah and if you
1001. 34:33click this video you can see exactly
1002. 34:35what it is