[SF_BHT]

Originally Posted by SF718

Like BHT mentions, join the club.
Im not going to complain here about the difficulty i personally faced while going through language training. What i will say is that what you are saying, sounds exactly the same as was being said when i went through.... The cool part about that is that its good to hear that the challenge of it is still there.
Here's some advice for whatever it is worth from me. I truly immersed myself in the training and compartmentalized everything else (tactics, weapons etc). I went outside of the curriculum and purchased material that was offline from what SOLT was teaching so that i had different resources to borrow from, and i think that's part of the secret to the whole thing. Listening to material at night, even if your mind isn't fully active helps, in my opinion. I think the last month before the DLPT is when i started drinking more coffee and really putting my head to the grind and became more of an active listener. Blah Blah, Im trying not to talk about what "techniques" i used (my apologies).
overall best thing i can tell you is to find vocabulary charts that are outside of SOLT. Look at Political, Society, Religion. Pick up a newspaper (in english) and begin to translate it back and forth, That will give you a very large pool of words and nuances to analyze.
Another word about language. Alot of us kinda rolled our eyes at doing it Being Q course students within a void of not foreseeing its true importance down the road. Alot of us just wanted to pass. What a mistake. What I Can tell you from experience is that the better you demonstrate the capacity and motivation to absorb it all, the more of an asset you will become... you will really become a huge asset. I cant harp on it enough. You will be able to serve the detachment in so many ways. Communicating with the host nation (HN) in any capacity, Be it a JCET, FID buys you so much in terms of respect from the HN. Showing them that you took the time to understand there language goes a very, very long way and will further your teams objectives, whatever they may be. Another interesting scenario is when you have a HN translator and something about hows hes conveying the information your telling him doesn't seem to "jive", think about the edge you may have there.
I know I digressed from you original question But I'm hoping this quick reply serves as somewhat of a motivator.
O by the way, There are individuals who walk away from here with 2/2 or better from 6 months of training. Its doable. How bad do you want to be the best.

good luck

Very well said.

We are not the Regular Army. All other MOS just have to do the course and they get their diploma and move on to the unit of assignment. We are Quiet Professionals with emphasis on Professional when it comes to the job. We go the extra mile's to be the best. A school is just a base line and if you wish to be the best at your job you have to put in 300% above the 100% that the school requires. Sacrifices are needed if you wish to be the best. Good luck in language school and in the program and your possible future career. Get back to studying.....