Posted on 12/12/2004 6:22:39 PM PST by SandRat
"Morse code is MUCH easier than Arabic, and can land an enlistee automatic NCO status. Yet how many can do it?"
Boy Scouts used to it was a requirement to earn the 1st Class Rank and there was a Signaling Merit Badge requiring 10 characters a minute in Morse Code but even those have been removed from Scouting.
Pete Shaver is an old bud of mine and knows what he's talking about. The real problem is that the Army has never managed its linguist resources well. I was a Korean linguist for twenty years. I avoided stateside assignments like the plague since most had no use for linguists.
Same with most tactical assignments overseas. Your usefullness was measured by how well you could maintain a twice-and-a-half or type a memo. My training cost the Army more than the Air Force pays for a fighter pilot, yet I spent 60% of my time twiddling my thumbs in totally unrelated duties.
My formula for success? Get a long-haired dictionary. You learn more language horizontal than you ever will while vertical. Get several long-haired dictionaries. I had one who was fluent in German and another who was fluent in Russian; languages I had learned long before the Army decided it needed me to learn Korean.
My final tour in Korea was in 1996, but I can still read, write, and speak the language well enough for any situation.
Yep that will do it! Just so long as you don't already have a long-haired law giver at home.
I have taught myself about 15 to 20 languages. I'm fluent in Spanish (among the best Anglo Spanishi speakers in the Nation), Italian, French & Portuguese. Mid-level Chinese, Russian, Japanese, & German. My Arabic is getting real good. Not quite at the 40 to 50% level yet, but gaining fast.
What opportunities are there for poly-linguals such as myself?
Plenty. Apply to the FBI, CIA, DOD, any one of the military services (if you're young enough). You'll need to have a background that is clean and that would allow you to be granted a Top Secret security clearance possibly even Special Compartmentalized Information caveat.
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