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I will finally be leaving DLI on Monday, and be on my way to Georgia on the 10th. It feels so weird to finally be finished here. I graduated on Thursday with a 3 3 2, 4.0 GPA, the Provost Award, and gave the speech with a classmate. I really regret not getting volunteer hours. I would have definitely gotten the Commandant's Award. Our graduation ceremony was interesting. The CMLI collapsed while handing out diplomas at the end. It totally killed the mood.
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Sep 26, 2010 03:06
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| # ? Jun 4, 2024 16:24 |
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Nerd.
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Sep 26, 2010 06:33
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Hobo de los Muertos posted:Our graduation ceremony was interesting. The CMLI collapsed while handing out diplomas at the end. It totally killed the mood. Wow. Navy or Air Force?
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Sep 26, 2010 12:37
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gently caress, don't lock your knees. It's the simple poo poo.
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Sep 26, 2010 19:27
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Thanks for making me feel massively inadequate, Hobo of the Dead. Hah! Bet you didn't know that Muertos meant "the dead" in Spanish; haha, silly Arabic/Farsi linguist! oh god let me have my victories where i can i am literally the shittiest linguist on the planet 
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Sep 26, 2010 19:52
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I already know I'll most likely get 2/2+/2 for Chinese. It's coming up, ever looming over the horizon. Good enough. I'm a bit skeptical about the DLPT. I know it's a rough measure of language proficiency, but I don't think it is as accurate as they'd like to think. After speaking to a few of my instructors, the consensus is that the DLPT is only a proficiency exam for the DLPT itself. While there is an obvious correlation between the level of proficiency and the DLPT scoring method, it's not all-encompassing. One example is comparing one language DLPT to another. If someone gets a 2+/2+ in Russian, I guarantee they are more skilled with their language than someone who gets a 2+/2+ in Farsi or Korean simply because or how the each respective DLPT exam is created. Another point is common speech. Is anyone else a little concerned that most military linguists can listen to 3 minute news clips about the deteriorating situation in North Korea but can't understand a 7 year old talk about playing baseball? Obviously, the first part is more relevant to our jobs but it seems faulty to give us such a small foundation to build from.
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Sep 26, 2010 20:38
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Godmachine posted:I already know I'll most likely get 2/2+/2 for Chinese. It's coming up, ever looming over the horizon. Good enough. Credentials: I DLPT'd Chinese in July. 2+/2+/1+ It is, in fact, a bullshit test, and almost completely irrelevant to the job. What your going to learn very soon is that the DoD as well as the NSA look at mission-related language skills and global language skills very differently. Theoretically, the DLPT is supposed a test of your global language skills, and is in no way designed to be a test of your mission related linguistic ability. That being said, the DLPT still fails miserably at being an accurate measure of your actual linguistic ability. My biggest gripe would be the fact that passages will often times simply be a 2 minute clip from a radio problem where somebody presents their idea on a problem and then backs up their argument, but the questions asked will be minor details mentioned in the passage, but irrelevant to the main idea. While it is logically sound that it is something mentioned in the passage and there is a correct answer, it completely misses the point of testing somebody's linguistic ability. The OPI is equally bullshit. Friends from class who could barely get through a self introduction got 2s, my news topic was about the military exercises that occured about 12 hours before my OPI. I had no idea what to say, and I think they held it against me. Yes, I am a little bitter about it, but in case your curious the OPI literally matters for nothing. While it is a requirement as prescribed by the DoD for passing DLI, it will be irrelevant for the rest of your career and you will more than likely never have to take one again. Also, the tests are incredibly inconsistent. While my abilities improved from 2nd to 3rd semester, I would put money on the final DLPT I took being much easier than the 2nd semester DLPT. I have friends who are in post right now because they went from a 1+ listening on the 2nd semester test to a 1 on the 3rd semester test. The only explanations I can come up with are flaws in the test and burnout, or some combination of the two.
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Sep 26, 2010 22:09
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The only people who have to worry about scoring anything at all ever on the interview are interrogators, and as far as I know only the Army has jobs in which interrogation is the main focus. That said a kid in my class back in '08 got hosed because he couldn't speak Spanish worth a poo poo. Did fine on reading and listening, though. But now he's catching bullets in the desert! GOD BLESS, EVERYONE
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Sep 26, 2010 22:27
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hammeredspace posted:The only people who have to worry about scoring anything at all ever on the interview are interrogators, and as far as I know only the Army has jobs in which interrogation is the main focus. How is that getting hosed though, shouldn't you be able to speak spanish if you're a spanish linguist? I mean I don't know, maybe speaking isn't that important (serious post, I don't know about linguists except that if you're stationed in Korea it's cool to know a Korling or two  )
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Sep 26, 2010 22:29
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Slippery posted:How is that getting hosed though, Army interregators have to get a certain score on their OPI to finish DLI. It's higher than linguists. Also, I think there's a difference in being fluent in Chinese, and being fluent in the DLI Chinese of 50 yr old urban Chinese who left the mainland 20 years ago. And given that I have a 3/3/2+, I feel entitled to complain
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Sep 26, 2010 22:39
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Slippery posted:How is that getting hosed though, shouldn't you be able to speak spanish if you're a spanish linguist? I mean I don't know, maybe speaking isn't that important (serious post, I don't know about linguists except that if you're stationed in Korea it's cool to know a Korling or two You're right, but for the wrong reasons. In 99% of the linguist jobs the DoD has, you could do 20 years without ever speaking or even reading a word in your target language. Edit: Just had myself one of those moments. QingLaiXiguaba fucked around with this message at 23:58 on Sep 26, 2010 |
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Sep 26, 2010 22:52
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Slippery posted:How is that getting hosed though, shouldn't you be able to speak spanish if you're a spanish linguist? I mean I don't know, maybe speaking isn't that important (serious post, I don't know about linguists except that if you're stationed in Korea it's cool to know a Korling or two Gonna plead the 5th/OPSEC here. edit: and oh COME ON, sir: if you did your best in very specific training and the Army's only recourse for your failure was to tell you to go throw yourself on top of an IED wouldn't you call that getting hosed? edit2: quing i'm gonna be paranoid and suggest you edit your post hammeredspace fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Sep 26, 2010 |
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Sep 26, 2010 22:53
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hammeredspace posted:Gonna plead the 5th/OPSEC here. The Army does that whether you pass your course or not.
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Sep 26, 2010 22:57
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hammeredspace posted:edit: and oh COME ON, sir: if you did your best in very specific training and the Army's only recourse for your failure was to tell you to go throw yourself on top of a fat chick wouldn't you call that getting hosed? FWIW, I have two CAT IV languages I've spoken since infancy and the Army's idea of me re-certing every 6 months just so I can get paid strikes me as ludicrous. Twice because of deployments I've had to chase down back pay. Every time I check off the relevant blocks on how I picked them up I think "You assholes must really think I'm going to forget how to speak a birth language. This is awesome. gently caress you." Then I go through the same 2-minute clips I've heard for the last decade and just nod through them. I never get max score because the Q and A's are sometimes dead wrong (I've attended university courses in the target language overseas, I think I know how to spot 'em) and I get derailed, so it must be infinitely worse for a non-native speaker. And yet when I get detached for linguist assignments, I bump into 2/2 or even 3/3's who couldn't order a bowl of noodles or a plate of falafel to save their lives get assigned to become terps for field and general-grade officers. I used to think DLI would be a great way to pick up a 3rd CAT IV language in the same regional area, but I think I'll just Rosetta Stone my way to reasonable proficiency and work other angles. Also FWIW I wish all the linguists in here well and good assignments for them in the future.
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Sep 26, 2010 23:44
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QingLaiXiguaba posted:You're right, but for the wrong reasons. In 99% of the linguist jobs the DoD has, you could do 20 years without ever speaking or even reading a word in your target language. I would edit your post to look like this, genius.
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Sep 26, 2010 23:53
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QingLaiXiguaba posted:My biggest gripe would be the fact that passages will often times simply be a 2 minute clip from a radio problem where somebody presents their idea on a problem and then backs up their argument, but the questions asked will be minor details mentioned in the passage, but irrelevant to the main idea. They call these "Level 3 Passages" If you're a level three, you should be able to get all the minor details along with the EEIs. I was a 2+/3 span ling and I think it's a solid test. I know that the Arabic V has had lots of complaints to the point where they brought back the IV for a year to look at why everyone was failing.
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Sep 27, 2010 00:00
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I finished out my service as an Army CI w/Russian after the Soviet collapse and never had to use my language except to hit on hot Ukrainian chicks in France.
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Sep 27, 2010 00:35
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tengohemroidz posted:They call these "Level 3 Passages" That's not what level 3 means in the Chinese department. On the Chinese DLPT, level 3 passage questions will be ideas that have to be inferred from the content. They will run through the passage, and then ask something like "What was the speaker's attitude towards the topic in question". The V has had alot of problems in the Chinese dept as well. The majority of students are still passing, but not like they were during the IV-era. Then again, the IV was a joke. Myself and most of my class passed the IV with a 3/3 in our 2nd semester. QingLaiXiguaba fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Sep 27, 2010 |
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Sep 27, 2010 01:00
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tengohemroidz posted:Wow. Navy or Air Force? He was Army, actually. And I'm a Monterey Standard Arabic linguist.
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Sep 27, 2010 01:17
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hammeredspace posted:Thanks for making me feel massively inadequate, Hobo of the Dead. i really wish i could speak a second language, but i never actually get that far and the lack of any conceivable use means i forget it easily. was starting to pick up dutch as a kid living in the uk and going there constantly, but then we moved. more recently, three years of french got forgotten in about three days, because i know only one fluent speaker (a french mechanic, cool dude) and i haven't seen him since we sold our citroen bx 16 valve (yes, the two are very connected). i guess if i learned an asian language i'd be pretty much set but i don't want to so gently caress that  anyway i'm going to stop blabbering on and leave you guys to post more entertaining anecdotes
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Sep 27, 2010 02:55
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Non-Marines who've made it to Goodfellow... Do your commands hate DLI with a passion? The first brief we got during inprocessing was about how much the entire command at Goodfellow hates DLI, and how retarded everything about it is. A routine emasculation of new joins at PT is "DLI made you weak as poo poo, didn't it?" It's refreshing that the placed is hated not just from the student perspective.
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Sep 27, 2010 04:04
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As Air Force, we got a little bit of that at PT when we first got there which was confusing because the majority of us had been in AETC meaning evals every month for a year and a half. At that point and were in better shape than most of the other new airmen at Goodfellow. But by and large the MTL's of our squadron were pretty cool and those of the other squadrons just tried to avoid contact with us and vice versa. This was late 2007-Early 2008
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Sep 27, 2010 07:04
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I remember thinking Goodfellow PT was tough simply because you did your minimum 2 minutes of pushups and situps, then ran the drat flight line for 45 minutes. One direction always had a strong headwind too. But our MTLs weren't shitheads about PT...mainly because they were all chubbos themselves...except for that one female with the big head who was loving the students. Buff Tannen fucked around with this message at 13:11 on Sep 27, 2010 |
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Sep 27, 2010 13:08
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tengohemroidz posted:...except for that one female with the big head who was loving the students. I know this is already better in my imagination than it actually is but STORY PLEASE
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Sep 27, 2010 21:16
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Nothing exciting. I can't remember her name, but she was a dime store hooker. She went home with a different firedog every weekend was the legend surrounding her. I was there at Grahams one night when she was kicked out of the cages in the hip hop room because she was getting too wild. She went home with another student that night as well...It was an amazing thing to see. She was actually pretty hot too. I don't know if she ever got caught.
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Sep 28, 2010 15:43
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tengohemroidz posted:She was actually pretty hot too. I don't know if she ever got caught.
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Sep 28, 2010 16:38
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hot hot. Her head was just...big. She had a body like a beach volleyball pro. What's her name? Misty May, I think.
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Sep 28, 2010 17:16
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Nobody hot ever goes to Grahams.
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Sep 29, 2010 00:27
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I'm in week 41 (out of 47) in persian farsi. I won't lie, I'm a little worried about passing, even though I got a 1+/2 on the midterm DLPT. We're just all at that "oh gently caress, will it end already!" stage in the course. I'm just a worry-wart, I think. gently caress, I just want to DLPT, pass, and get it over with, I'm tired of this crap. On another note, I got my orders, and after goodfellow, I'm going to the 504th MI BDE in Fort Hood. Can anyone give any tips for not going insane while stationed at hood?
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Sep 29, 2010 04:28
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bloodpuke posted:I'm in week 41 (out of 47) in persian farsi. I won't lie, I'm a little worried about passing, even though I got a 1+/2 on the midterm DLPT. We're just all at that "oh gently caress, will it end already!" stage in the course. I'm just a worry-wart, I think. gently caress, I just want to DLPT, pass, and get it over with, I'm tired of this crap. Be thankful it's not Bliss?
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Sep 29, 2010 13:59
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The people who "run" this base don't find it funny nor enlightening when you tell them that all this PT, military training, and briefings aren't important because it just gets in the way of your mission, which is to learn a language. And according to my creed, "I will always place the mission first."
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Sep 29, 2010 15:12
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Godmachine posted:The people who "run" this base don't find it funny nor enlightening when you tell them that all this PT, military training, and briefings aren't important because it just gets in the way of your mission, which is to learn a language. And according to my creed, "I will always place the mission first." Yeah but guys like me can always redefine 'the mission' to include 'whatever else we tell you to do' but seriously I mean being in shape, training, etc is obviously part of the mission and blah blah you know what I mean
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Sep 30, 2010 03:01
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Slippery posted:Yeah but guys like me can always redefine 'the mission' to include 'whatever else we tell you to do' Well...maintaining PT at the DLI is important because being in shape is something that you can't ramp up quickly without injuring a lot of folks. The other military training can be accomplished in a relatively short amount of time at the gaining unit pre-deployment, and doesn't really need to be done at language school to the point that it detracts from the school's main objective. There's annual required training that's mandated by regulation, but that can be concentrated and knocked out in sessions once or twice a month. Other than that, especially considering the expense, the focus at DLI should be language proficiency.
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Sep 30, 2010 03:28
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Godmachine posted:The people who "run" this base don't find it funny nor enlightening when you tell them that all this PT, military training, and briefings aren't important because it just gets in the way of your mission, which is to learn a language. And according to my creed, "I will always place the mission first." You're cute. What's your name? *twirls hair* edit: It's all bullshit and this is true until it becomes your job to perpetuate the lie. i.e. a NCO
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Sep 30, 2010 04:35
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hammeredspace posted:You're cute. What's your name? *twirls hair* ummm I think you mean aN NCO 
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Sep 30, 2010 04:38
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Though phonetically the letter N in the English alphabet is spoken with a soft vowel, in text, it is still consonant. In writing, when preceded by an article, it will respect the appropriate grammar rules, regardless of how awkward it may sound in speech. Unless your emoticon was troll-bait in which case *goofy yell, falls down trap door*
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Sep 30, 2010 04:51
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hammeredspace posted:Though phonetically the letter N in the English alphabet is spoken with a soft vowel, in text, it is still consonant. In writing, when preceded by an article, it will respect the appropriate grammar rules, regardless of how awkward it may sound in speech. It would be correct, of course, to say "a non-commissioned officer" but if in real life you articulated the phrase "a NCO" with the abbreviation, I do not believe that you wold be grammatically correct. Of course, one says "an historian" although that is something of a special case, in that you don't say "an firefighter" or "an pilot."
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Sep 30, 2010 05:04
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Slippery posted:Of course, one says "an historian" This is not a definitive answer, but interesting nonetheless. For what it's worth, I pronounce it with a hard H. Regardless if you did so with a soft H, I would still understand you. oh my loving lord i actually just gave a poo poo about this
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Sep 30, 2010 05:14
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hammeredspace posted:This is not a definitive answer, but interesting nonetheless. Linguistics is/are interesting
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Sep 30, 2010 05:19
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Is there a real-world job that will pay me real money to give a poo poo about this stuff? If so, CC idiot.desperate.sailor@us.fuckme.mil.com
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Sep 30, 2010 05:31
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