Quote:
Originally Posted by The Reaper
IMHO, the chain of command has myopia when it comes to language qualifications. They talk a good game, but the dedication to gaining and maintaining the skill are not there.
First, our languages regularly change in most Groups. How many times do you want to spend the resources to train a guy to a 2/2 or a 3/3, and have to retrain him in another language, which he may not get at all?
Second, we are unwilling to take the time and resources to properly train the SF soldier in the pipeline. If you want a 3/3, accept that a large majority of your students, who happen to be otherwise great at their SF jobs, are never going to get there. You could get 100 3/3s in an SFG, if they spent most of their time doing language training, or you took a chance and brought in native speakers who might otherwise be terrible SF soldiers. If you want a 3/3 on the team, and you cannot find a native, be prepared to send the guy to DLI for as long as three years.
Time in the language class is time that your other skills are atrophying. You might need to be able to run that gun or start that IV more than you need language skills, at some point.
Next, we do not want to accept the regular absence from the unit to conduct the refresher training required to maintain the language skill.
Finally, the other SOF services have nowhere near the language requirements SF has, the number of advanced linguists, or the total number of troops who speak the language well enough to get by on the street and teach a class. No wonder SF deploys twice as much to other countries as most other SOF, who will wind up with a translator requirement to do anything, and no one on the team able to get a hotel room or order dinner in a restaurant.
If SOCOM wants to make this a priority, it is going to cost a damn sight more than this estimate, in both cash and time, and there are going to have to be a lot of sacrifices and people standing up to say "No" because the guys need their language training BEFORE deploying.
Just my .02, YMMV.
TR
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You are a man of experience.
My first language was Turkish had a 1/1 for awhile then.....
Group decided we all needed to speak Arabic and handed us disks and books to deploy with then.....Iraq ended
Next Group decided my new language would be German since Turkish was no longer critical to the Group.......
Then we started going to Africa in greater numbers and Group decided the Bn needed to know French
Funny I can still score a 1/1 in Turkish and what I learned in 6 mos at the school house I still mostly know. I wonder what it could have been speaking at if I had been able to stay with my original language without having to learn another. I have not gotten better than a 1+/1+ any any particular language.
The issue is we should have been treating our language just like P.T. or shooting if it was that important. A daily training ritual as part of the normal day instead we get a 2-4 week cram session annually and then get threatened that if we do not have a 1/1 minimum we will no longer be competitive for promotion. Reenlistment bonuses may also be affected to name the few of the pressures to maintain or gain proficiency in a language that is changing often.