Speaking a foreign language

[FlyAF]

What would be the best foreign language to know as a USAF pilot. I have to decide which one to start soon, and am at ends between Russian and German. German, I believe, would be useful due to the chances of being based in Germany. Russian on the other hand, would be good to know if I was to be selected as an astronaut. Hopefully, the Russians will still be major contributors to the space program in twenty years or so. Any other ideas would be great!

Thanks

Edited September 12, 2009 by FlyAF

[Guest AirGuardian]

FYI - You can get paid for a foreign language if you take/pass the AF proficiency test. If you're half-way competent, later on you can be sent to Defense Language Institute in Cali! Arabic, Farsi, etc. are definitely paid languages. There is a list somewhere regarding what languages are regarded as worthy enough to receive pay for. I think German and Russian dropped off the scope a few years ago, unsure... Can't really help you on your 2 choices since Germany is our most used area outside of the Primary English Speaking world! You may just get there and all you really need is Beer per diem...

[Guest tentoad]

Warning Will Robinson!!!!!!!!!

If you learn Arabic or Farsi be prepared to have to use it. When the ballon goes up and your buddies are flying their asses off, you will be monkeying around on some staff as the mouthpiece. If you plan to cash in on the language pittance then pick one that eliminates bad places. That may not work though. Learn German, BAM- ALO with some Germans in Iraq. It is one of those jobs that could take you away from flying for a while. If you like flying then make up the cash diff in per diem. Once you get something like that on your records you may never shake it. I went to safety school 10 years ago and I still get a call a year to sit on a board somewhere.

Good Luck!

Tentoad

[Guest mcclesm]

Dan Foster:

Yes, you can do a LASI before UPT. I went to France, and there was a guy there doing exactly that. Check out this website: https://fao.hq.af.mil/default.cfm

All you need to know. Good luck.

[Guest driftsight]

Oh, I almost forgot...

Scoring at least 2/2 on the DLPT will get officers $100 a month extra. Higher scores for officers does not increase the $ amount like it does for enlisted (up to $300 for high scores with multi languages).

Real fluency in any language and you will score an EASY 3+/3+. Scores any lower than this and you are not really fluent at all. But whats important to the Air Force is at least 2/2 "fluency". You can reach this level after a solid 4 semesters of CAT 2 language and maybe 6 or so of CAT 3 and 4 language.

I'm a Russian 3+/3+, and have been studying for years now. Can't wait (!) to become some sort of FAO or something like that after my flying!

[Guest mikedjp]

I speak Chinese and Japanese well enough to get paid for both. I'm curious what kind of effects this could have on my career as a Nav or EWO. My degree is in International Studies. I'm also wondering if my skills would be put to better use in another career field. The reason I pose this question is that I'm in a situation that I need to have surgery in order to retain my nav slot. I'm currently out of class and on admin hold until I either have the surgery and get off of DNIF, or reclass. I don't need the surgery for my general health necessarily. One of my biggest fears is where AFPC will put me if I do reclassify. I would like intel...but there is no guarantee for anything. If I keep my nav slot will I get a chance to use the foreign language skills down the line?

[ 18. June 2006, 19:04: Message edited by: Toro ]

[Guest sickels101]

You'll get to use Chinese if you get your pilot lost in Asia.

But seriously, most of the controllers will speak English (barely). Being in the BUFF community with both NAVs and EWs I have no reason to know why they would need foreign language skills and I would say 99% don't. So if your goal is to use a foreign language don't be a Nav or EW but maybe others on this board have had different experiences.

[Guest sickels101]

Ah, well as a flyer you have to serve an Alfa tour which is basically a staff tour type job. Some people go do ALO or UPT. I'm sure if you looked up on AFPC you could get a translator type job. You could career broaden into Intel for your Afla tour as well. Just some food for thought.

[M2]

You could later down the road apply for an attache job, which being rated will help. It all depends on how well you actually speak the languages...what's your DLPT scores? Do you get FLPP?

Oddly enough, I know the Chief of the Command Language Office for the Air Intelligence Agency, if you want PM me some more details and I can send them down to him. He normally worked enlisted issues, but he does know the system pretty well (he was prior RJs, both enlisted and commissioned).

Cheers! M2

[Guest EverettP]

Hey all, tried to search about this but I couldn't find anything...

What would be the most useful second language to learn while in the military? I was thinking about Arabic or Korean but I don't know what I would have the best chance of using as a pilot anytime in my career. I took the DLAB a while back and scored well enough to have the Air Force pay for it later but I wanted to start now and I wanted to choose from the list of languages they'll cover. Any thoughts?

Edited December 24, 2008 by EverettP

[abmwaldo]

Hey all, tried to search about this but I couldn't find anything...

What would be the most useful second language to learn while in the military? I was thinking about Arabic or Korean but I don't know what I would have the best chance of using as a pilot anytime in my career. I took the DLAB a while back and scored well enough to have the Air Force pay for it later but I wanted to start now and I wanted to choose from the list of languages they'll cover. Any thoughts?

As for current marketability look at anyone of the dialects spoken in Afghanistan (Pashto, Urdu, Dari, Uzbek etc.). Good luck mastering those...

For future conflicts Mandarin, Yue (Cantonese), Wu, etc.. Again good luck mastering...

A little Russian never hurt either.

[backseatdriver]

French, Swahili, or Hausa will set you up for Africa if that's your bag.

[PapaJu]

Both good responses.

(resisting the urge to be a grammar nazi in regards to the title :D)

[dmeg130]

Several nuances within your question.

1) The best chance of using a language as a pilot is English. Everywhere. Caveat: if you ever consider doing an exchange tour outside of UK, Canada, or Australia, pick something that might apply. Same goes for attending a foreign school for IDE or an attache job.

2) Language training is usually provided for these and Fulbright/Olmstead scholar programs. Proficiency is not a requisite, DLAB is. If you commit to a language now, it could curtail your later options.

3) Think about what you're signing up for. I have two buddies who speak French; one is going to Paris, and the other is in Chad. If you take Thai, there's only so many places you can get sent. Same goes for Farsi or Urdu. If you must, pick a colonial power that avoided shitholes (eg Dutch).

4) You won't always be in the military. Being from the NW, I took Japanese in high school and college. My assignments in Colorado, Arizona and California would have made Spanish handy, but I can book rooms downtown from Yokota like a mo-fo. If you roll into some F500 company with an MBA and speak Mandarin, I'd say they'll take you. French is handy too, but see #3.

5) Maintenance is an issue. If you do an immersion now, you'll still need a refresher to get back up to standards.

BL: Pick a language you like, or is spoken somewhere you like. You weren't hired by the USAF to be a linguist, so in this case, needs of the Air Force do NOT come first.

[Guest EverettP]

Both good responses.

(resisting the urge to be a grammar nazi in regards to the title :D)

I just noticed it :/

Thanks for the responses

Several nuances within your question.

1) The best chance of using a language as a pilot is English. Everywhere. Caveat: if you ever consider doing an exchange tour outside of UK, Canada, or Australia, pick something that might apply. Same goes for attending a foreign school for IDE or an attache job.

2) Language training is usually provided for these and Fulbright/Olmstead scholar programs. Proficiency is not a requisite, DLAB is. If you commit to a language now, it could curtail your later options.

3) Think about what you're signing up for. I have two buddies who speak French; one is going to Paris, and the other is in Chad. If you take Thai, there's only so many places you can get sent. Same goes for Farsi or Urdu. If you must, pick a colonial power that avoided shitholes (eg Dutch).

4) You won't always be in the military. Being from the NW, I took Japanese in high school and college. My assignments in Colorado, Arizona and California would have made Spanish handy, but I can book rooms downtown from Yokota like a mo-fo. If you roll into some F500 company with an MBA and speak Mandarin, I'd say they'll take you. French is handy too, but see #3.

5) Maintenance is an issue. If you do an immersion now, you'll still need a refresher to get back up to standards.

BL: Pick a language you like, or is spoken somewhere you like. You weren't hired by the USAF to be a linguist, so in this case, needs of the Air Force do NOT come first.

I wasn't planning on doing the immersion yet. I wanted to learn a language on my own time and wanted to do immersion later so I wouldn't be "committing" to a language per se. I was taking into consideration that I wouldn't be in the military my entire life so that's why I'm leaning towards Arabic. It's something I'm interested in and a lot of different countries use it.

[HerkDerka]

Don't learn the language of any country that you would never want to spend a lot of time in.

HD

[slacker]

I'd go with Jive. It's not a dead language.

[pbar]

I second Dmeg's advice. However, I'd stay away from Korean. It's the hardest language for an English speaker to learn and the reward versus the effort required isn't worth it unless you happen to get married to a Korean. I did DLI Korean and just finished a year at the ROKAF ACSC and still can't speak it worth a damn. It's the toughest thing I've ever tried to learn.

PBAR

[PapaJu]

Don't learn the language of any country that you would never want to spend a lot of time in.

HD

"What do you mean they don't teach Hawaiian at DLI?!"

[M2]

I'd go with Jive. It's not a dead language.

Dicty! Dat ain't no bring down, brother! You gots to collar da jive, cousin!

Solid! M2

[discus]

You all knew it was on it's way... From the first moment "Jive talk" was mentioned. So, without further wait, here it is!

Discus, dat's beat up, the cut rate bit, and it ain't coming on that tab! Brother beefed it up the full blew their wigs version!

And what do YOU mean "YOU people?!?"

Dig! M2

Edited December 25, 2008 by M2

[joshrk22]

*THREAD REVIVAL*

Do Guard units like to see a pilot candidate that can speak a foreign language? Does it help with selection on a board?

The reason I ask is because I've decided to start taking Arabic to make myself look more profitable to the Guard and businesses in the civilian world. The thing is, I'm majoring in Computer Science, so I don't want to to dick myself over and get a bad GPA when I could've taken Women Studies and had an easy A. Also, I'm gonna' be working about 20+ hours a week and I'm sitting at 17 credits with this Arabic class.

Basically, would it beneficial to just stick it out and learn the language? We're talking about Guard/Reserves, not AD.

[nsplayr]

*THREAD REVIVAL*

Do Guard units like to see a pilot candidate that can speak a foreign language? Does it help with selection on a board?

The reason I ask is because I've decided to start taking Arabic to make myself look more profitable to the Guard and businesses in the civilian world. The thing is, I'm majoring in Computer Science, so I don't want to to dick myself over and get a bad GPA when I could've taken Women Studies and had an easy A. Also, I'm gonna' be working about 20+ hours a week and I'm sitting at 17 credits with this Arabic class.

Basically, would it beneficial to just stick it out and learn the language? We're talking about Guard/Reserves, not AD.

I can say just from the school standpoint taking Arabic hurt my GPA and I didn't really learn much from traditional classroom learning. That's not how languages are naturally learned and I had trouble with such a difficult language in that setting. Kinda wished I had taken something else and ended up with a better GPA. I'm not a pilot or in the Guard but I'm gonna guess they're not gonna care unless you're fluent and even if you were it might not really matter. My advice: major/minor in what you're interested in and think you'll do well at and then get a hold of Rosetta Stone later on.

[joshrk22]

Thanks man. I was just thinking that Arabic is a very tough language and am I really gonna' be very fluent after 2-3 years. I figured I'd take a Psych class so I can get a fair share of attractive women in one of my classes.. Plus it's a guaranteed A and I don't have to get up as early..

[PapaJu]

Thanks man. I was just thinking that Arabic is a very tough language and am I really gonna' be very fluent after 2-3 years. I figured I'd take a Psych class so I can get a fair share of attractive women in one of my classes.. Plus it's a guaranteed A and I don't have to get up as early..

Now that's thinking like a future AF pilot...