language training for 1st group

[Go For Broke]

Gentlemen,

How many of you listen to you iPods or other MP3-type players in the car (passenger only ), waiting for the wife to finish shopping, sipping your latte over at Waller Hall , etc...

If I may make a suggestion, burn those language CDs (DLI / Living Language / In-Flight, Language/30 / Berlitz / Pimsleur / Instant Immersion / you get the picture) to MP3 format. Takes up little room on the player, and it is always available - plus you can label the tracks so you know what you are about to hear e.g., Greetings and Salutations, Numbers and Counting, etc...

I personally would not recommend it for when you are working out, but helps to kill a few hours on the flight from SEA to NRT / BKK / CMB or parts otherwise.

There is one company out there that markets a program specifically for the iPod Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, and Cantonese - but good luck finding other non-business oriented / CENTCOM languages.

Realize that this has also been brought up in other posts, but thought it worth reiterating the info.

Also, check out "odd places" like other have suggested - I managed to work my Bahasa Indonesia at a Thai restaurant in Tampa, FL during a TDY...go figure. What better way to practice than to use it / listen for it - which is how I was able to strike up the conversation with the waiter, they fell over themselves to work with me on my Bahasa Indonesia. Another place is the yahoo chat rooms - get a throw away account, and just observe for a while - you learn a lot of the colloquilisms / "bar (insert name of target language)", and the current trends in that country (to a much lesser extent, but helps you to establish rapport - who would have thought that a P-Pop version of Tom Jones' "Sex Bomb" would be popular in the Philippines...)

Just my humble $0.02

V/R,

[FearMonkey]

Here's a good resource:

Skype
http://www.skype.com/helloagain.html

Skype hosts international chat rooms (audio chat rooms) which are basically nothing more than worldwide conference calls. Do a search on their database for a chat room in your target language and in under 30 seconds you're chatting away with native speakers from all over the world in your target language. It can't get any easier than that. Oh, and it's totally free... Sha-wing!

Besides, it's over the internet so it's not nearly as embarrassing when they laugh at your stupid accent.

[sleepyhead4]

DeanWells and GtCrispy,

You're 100% correct about the test being the same. However, when I was thinking about testing out of Korean, I talked to my instructor about the DLI vocab list...well let me tell you...after looking at the vocab list for Korean, I'm surprised I can speak Korean at all. Out of the 1500 vocab words that they want you to know (most are sino korean and not spoken by younger generations), I know less than 20%. With that being said, even though I am a native speaker, my understanding of the language is at a 4th grade level. I can speak, read, write and understand Korean but not enough to carry on a intelligent and professional conversation with a Korean officer/NCO counterpart that I might have to deal with in the future. So I'm going to play it extra safe and learn whatever I can. Also, my fiance can't move to Ft. Lewis until after July because of work and school. So in the end, it worked out.

Sleepy

P.S. I received an email few days ago from 2nd BN/1st GRP S1 so at least I know which BN I'm headed to.

[deanwells]

Okay,

Have fun!!!!

[leif]

Fearmonkey, just got skype last night, and was chatting with a thai chick in no time, definetly a good program. Does anyone here happen to have any good advice for a thai student?

[Go For Broke]

Originally Posted by leif

Does anyone here happen to have any good advice for a thai student?

Make sure you understand that their is a difference between the way males talk and the way females talk...sounds like stupid advice, but there was one Thai class that graduated from SWC that talked like females (sawadee ka vs. sawadee khrup) There are also differences between the Bangkok Thai speakers and speakers from other, more agrarian regions - depends on what "accent" you wish to talk with.

Most importantly, don't worry about sounding foolish...they will correct you (especially if you ask them to) so you sound less foolish the next time. I personally am still working on my English

[leif]

thanks for the advice, seems like reading the text is what is really going to confuse me. I guess is like one QPs from my local recruiting station told me, there is always the long-haired dictionaries( in my case, hopefully a hot thai chick) that can teach you. Guess i need to find one. Thanks again.

[The Reaper]

Hey, the rule is don't ask, don't tell.

If language lab speakers come across like katoi, that is their business.

TR