If the students do well, they get the chance to go to Taiwan or mainland China to do a month of immersive language study. They have to go to training and pass all the tests,” he said. “They don’t only take care of their study, they actually have military duty after class hours. Some students listen to the language in the shower, while others review flashcards whenever they have the chance. Most of the students who do succeed reach the college level of understanding within a year and a half, which requires a lot of studying. “To actually be able to get through to somebody - that’s the reason why we came back here … to try to impart our wisdom to the students now,” Walton said. Walton said the students who make it to the end of the Chinese course have one of the highest passing rates - 95 percent - which makes students’ “ah-ha moments” so satisfying. Some can’t keep up academically, while others fail out due to disciplinary reasons. In general, the success rate for students at DLI is 75 percent. “You have to be interested in it in order for it to be successful,” Rutledge said.Īnd that’s not guaranteed. The school incorporates extracurricular activities such as cooking days, storytelling of legendary warriors and heroes, and there are immersion trips to places like a local Chinese market to get the students to appreciate the culture. Liu said the key is to link your interests with the language so you can stay motivated and keep up with the pace. “You’re spending so much brain power just trying to understand what you need to do.” The Keys to Learning So, you could say one thing, and depending on the context or tone you say it in, it could have up to five different meanings,” said Jensen, who spent the first few months drinking a lot of coffee and doing pushups to stay awake.
ARMY LINGUIST REQUIREMENTS HOW TO
Jensen and Rutledge were about a third of the way through the course when we spoke, and they were learning 25-30 words a day, as well as how to distinguish them - an often confusing task. “In a civilian school, this can usually take one semester,” Liu said.
Liu said DLI students only need about one week to learn basic syllables and phonetic sequences to the level of greeting people.
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