![]() ![]() In the military, languages are ranked in categories by how difficult they are to learn. ![]() But even in non-active zones, service members have to be trained in the local language in order to respond quickly if tensions arise, as well as to perform routine intelligence gathering. Often, it’ll be languages spoken where ongoing conflicts are occuring. Languages are assigned based on military need. “I didn’t even know Serbian/Croatian was an option, nor would I have probably thought about it, because this is a few years after the big Bosnian conflict that was happening in the late ’90s,” Westleigh explained. (Note: though they are technically considered separate languages, many linguists say they are actually mutually intelligible variations of the same language.) Shortly after, he was told he’d be learning Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian - none of which were on his short list. He arrived with a few other recent recruits and was asked to list the languages he’d most like to learn, with options that included Arabic and Korean. So he set off for the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California. ![]() The AssignmentĪfter completing Marine Corps boot camp and combat training, the next step was for Westleigh to find out which language he’d be tasked with learning. Westleigh did well on this test too, and was assigned to the role of cryptologic linguist. The goal of the DLAB is to measure a service member’s ability to understand grammar, sentence structure and other components of language. It’s a completely made up language that they use.” “It’s not based on whether you know any foreign languages. “It’s a really cool test, actually,” Westleigh said. Westleigh scored high on the ASVAB, so his recruiter asked him if he wanted to take another test, the Defense Language Aptitude Battery, to gauge his natural linguistic abilities. military has to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a standardized test that determines how qualified new service members are for specialized positions. But a combination of post-9/11 world events and a desire to delay starting college led Westleigh to meet with a recruiter, and he joined the Marines in 2003.Īnyone who wants to join the U.S. Besides taking some French classes in high school, he had very limited exposure to foreign languages, and didn’t expect to join the military either. Westleigh grew up in a small city in Maine. Marine Corps, to get an inside look at how the military recruits and trains its polyglots. We spoke with Christian Westleigh, a cryptologic linguist for the U.S. But the United States Armed Services has one of the most comprehensive language programs out there and a surprisingly creative way of determining which service members should pursue linguistics jobs.Ĭonsidering the amount of work the armed forces conduct overseas, it makes sense that they would have a robust way of teaching foreign languages. When you think about bilingual career opportunities, military service might not be one of the first options to come to mind.
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