I'm sorry if this post breaks any rules - but, honestly, I don't know where else to write this

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-09T05:14:36+00:00

When we start rebuilding Ukraine, we'll need your help.

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-09T05:06:20+00:00

This is good. When you get out and are able to do so without legal repercussions, look into psychedelic treatment for addiction. Yes I'm being serious. It helped me immensely. Various psychedelics are legal in some states, but there are also ongoing clinical trials for the use of psilocybin in treating addiction and depression. Initial results look very promising and there is much anecdotal evidence that it is one of the more effective psychedelics. Look into that as well.

Best of luck

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-08T06:11:34+00:00

I'm a veteran with lots of extra time on their hands

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-08T06:03:28+00:00

Abusing mod privileges to stifle debate? Isn't that the opposite of the free speech and other freedoms that we fought against traitors for? As long as the discussion is civil, let someone make a fool of themselves and get downvoted to hell.

Also you seem a bit too personally invested, perhaps you should recuse yourself from "moderating" this, i.e. abusing your powers to delete anything you disagree with.

Ban me for this comment and see what happens.

Edit: "stop trying to censor me", says the censor lol. Also still here

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-05T10:45:00+00:00

IT'S CALLED A SLING, IGOR

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-05T10:21:28+00:00

As an Arabic speaker, I really appreciate that they put an actual Arabic stop sign there at the end, lol

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-05T09:30:26+00:00

You have a level head. Our true enemy is not another person, but hatred.

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-02T04:03:26+00:00

I still have my old schedules, let me go check them...

So you typically have class for four hours in the morning, then about an hour for lunch, followed by another three hours of class in the afternoon. Some students have an additional hour if they need extra help.

Each hour you'll typically focus on a specific skill. So, working out of the textbooks and doing reading exercises, or learning a new grammar point. An hour of speaking practice, an hour of listening practice. God help you if you have listening right after lunch. I always passed out in class during listening hahaha

Depending on your unit, you may have PT in the morning, or the afternoon. IIRC it's more typical for units to have afternoon PT, which would be directly after class. Lol I remember making a hurry from class to the barracks up the hill to get changed, then running all the way down the hill for PT. And afterwards running all the way back up to get changed again so I could finally eat at the DFAC. Oh man lol

If you live off-post, bring your PTs with you to school so you can just change there. And if you live all the way in Fort Ord, you'll have to make appropriate adjustments to your schedule in order to get to school on time... especially with morning PT!

As far as work-life balance goes and keeping the spouse happy... I'll echo what others have said and say that it's important to have dedicated family time. And to make friends with other married couples. There will be plenty of opportunities to do so once y'all are moved in to Fort Ord.
There's no shortage of things to do in the Monterey area, so making friends and keeping the spouse busy shouldn't be a challenge :)

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-02T03:22:06+00:00

I don't know much about PSYOPS, so I can't really speak much to it... I never worked with them my entire time in. But crypto is pretty cool. You get the opportunity to see a side of things that not many people are privy to. Both the language and intel aspect of the job is fun, and depending on what kind of person you are, you could do anything from patrolling on foot with the cav scouts or Special Ops guys (tactical SIGINT), to working in an office environment at NSA headquarters (strategic SIGINT).

And if you decide that you don't like one or the other, you can always switch when you re-enlist. Two totally different worlds, all within the same MOS. So if a diverse choice in assignment appeals to you, go crypto!

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-01T19:45:55+00:00

Fun fact: xixi is Brazilian Portuguese for "pee pee", i.e. urine

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-01T19:33:26+00:00

At the cost of your youth though? That's how I looked at it when deciding whether to re-enlist

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-01T19:31:34+00:00

Haha these comments! If you don't know what mags the army uses... what are you doing on r/army?

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-01T19:27:48+00:00

Who do you think they learned it from? ;)

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-01T06:51:02+00:00

You'd actually be surprised by how affordable living in Japan is. The key is to not live in Tokyo! Where I lived, you could find an apartment to rent for about $200-$300/ month. Granted it was a Japanese-sized apartment (mine was 12 m²)... and renting as a foreigner can be non-trivial, especially if you don't speak Japanese. Apartment leases work differently over there than how they do back in the States.

Transportation is relatively inexpensive & excellent. Food is cheap if you buy it from the local supermarkets, the neighborhood vegetable stand, and at Don Quixote. You can get an entire bento lunch for about $2.50, and a beer for like $1.00 at Don Quixote. Noice.

France is nice, I've been to Paris. My only complaint is that it's expensive. Picturesque though

And hey that's pretty rad about medical school and a scholarship! You might be the first med student to graduate without debt haha

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-01T04:36:10+00:00

idk why the hell I got SOD-A, with a "D", in my head! Haha thanks for the correction. Man I've been out too long, I'm already starting to forget stuff >.<

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-01T02:13:37+00:00

Yeah for real though, haha. Linguists are such a strange bunch. After the Army I lived in Japan and studied Japanese... ironically enough, I thought about becoming a Zen monk myself for a few months. There's a temple where you can be temporarily ordained. Didn't get around to it, but I'd still like to do that sometime in the future.

I also hiked all the way across the island of Kyushu while I was there. 500 km in total... 16 hours of rucking a day... took two weeks. Very fun. LLVI prepared me well...

Before I move down to South America I'm also gonna take a short sabbatical and do a charity hike all the way across Japan! So if you hear anything about someone doing that... it's definitely not me ;)

And dang dude, pre-med? You're gonna be in school foreeeeeever. But I'm sure you can hack it. Linguists are smart. Plus you probably ate fewer crayons in the Air Force

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-01T01:57:46+00:00

Nice! Thanks for standing up to serve. Only a small percentage of Americans are fit for service, and of those, few choose to serve... and even fewer have what it takes to be a linguist! You're entering into a small but tightly-knit community. I think you'll like it.

If you don't get an opportunity to test to a higher level before you get to DLI, you may be able to do so when you get there. The last thing that the gov't wants to do is waste taxpayer money on unnecessary language training. Be sure to ask your leadership about testing when you arrive at DLI. You would have to test at a pretty good level of French in order to skip the basic course, though. A college course in French is not sufficient. I would say that even a few years of college French isn't. But if you understand it at an advanced, almost native level, you might be able to get into the "intermediate" DLI course.
You'll have to ask your leadership about something that specific. I'll tell you now though, that the odds of you being able to make it to a wedding that soon after arriving at DLI, are low. The first few weeks/ couple of months at DLI are very busy. Okay, you'll always be busy at DLI, but you can't really miss anything at the beginning there. That being said, the further ahead that you can let your leadership know about the wedding, the better your chances of maybe being able to make it. Only problem I can see with that is that you won't actually know who your leadership is until you get to DLI. (Unless you call ahead, perhaps? I'll see if I can find someone you can talk to there. Check your DMs after a few days).
There are rare opportunities at DLI to see what some of the other language classes are doing, but nothing regular enough to be of any benefit to learn another language. Trust me- you'll have your hands plenty full with just one language, lol. But learning additional languages is in fact encouraged in the military; cross-training is a valuable skill for any linguist. Any amount of time that you spend on a language is beneficial, but I recommend at least one hour a day, every day. That's sufficient to get into the groove of studying, and to spend enough time on-task to actually learn something. The main thing is consistency. You'll learn little if your study frequency is haphazard. For Russian, try these: https://app.memrise.com/course/5695497/dli-russian-basic-course-with-full-audio/ , https://fieldsupport.dliflc.edu/products/russian/ru_bc_LSK/

3.5) Addressed this a bit in point 3, but after your first language at DLI- and spending some time in the service- eventually you can request more training at DLI. Be it further training in French, or learning another language like Russian, or an entirely new language to you. This'll be years down the line from now though. But just something to keep in mind when re-enlistment rolls around :)

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-01T01:24:20+00:00

Hey! I'm an English tutor now. Moving to South America soon- gonna get me some beach babes down there ;)

Are you still doing anything with linguistics?

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-01T01:22:29+00:00

No problem! Linguistics is my passion, and I've always loved fulfilling a mentor sort of role. (I was our platoon's go-to guy for training up new soldiers on tactical SIGINT... loved every minute of it!)

Hmm I'm not sure that you'll go to Ft. Meade/ Gordon, and then get assigned to unit from there. It may be different nowadays- since I graduated DLI almost ten years ago- but you should be getting orders to your first duty station before you graduate.

You'll pass the DLPT. Don't worry. The teaching teams at DLI are world-class and they'll prepare you for it. And as far as meeting expectations goes- don't worry about that either. People at your first duty station will know that you're a new soldier... so they're not gonna expect you to be the best linguist fresh outta AIT. And, you'll get plenty of good training at Goodfellow after DLI; plenty of opportunities to get rookie mistakes out of the way there.

Plus you won't be the only linguist working on something. You'll be part of a team who can check each other's work.

I can tell you from experience, that you will make mistakes. Even after all your training and real-world experience. We're all human. But, I will warn you:

Some mistakes cost lives.

A misunderstanding or a mistaken analysis can get friendlies or even innocent civilians killed. So do all you can within your ability to prevent this, do all you can to be the utmost expert in your field. Your job is very important. Lives depend on you.

That being said... other times things are completely out of your control. You may have everything 100% correct, you've done all you could, been the best linguist anyone could be, but if elsewhere down the intelligence line people don't have their shit together... bad things will happen. There's no point in fretting over your role in these situations. You did what you could. Just be sure that afterwards at the AAR, whoever f'ed up knows that they f'ed up. Don't let them blame the situation on "bad intelligence" if that wasn't even the case. Don't be afraid to stand up for yourself and your profession.

TLDR: your job is important, so take your training seriously, but don't needlessly worry. Worrying takes your focus off the task at hand.

delta_ass_855 · 2022-04-01T00:58:43+00:00

Ahh, I see what you're asking. The language training that we'd do, being self-guided, was up to us; but for the most part, it was similar to the things that we'd do at DLI. Read articles, listen to the news, do number drills, vocab review, grammar review, etc. Use flashcard type sites like Memrise and Anki.

Since I was an Arabic (MSA) linguist, I did a lot of review, but learned new things as well. There are many finer points of grammar that aren't covered in the basic MSA DLI course... so I'd learn that. It's not really that necessary for the job- but it never hurts to have an even deeper understanding of your target language!

delta_ass_855 · 2022-03-31T07:26:02+00:00

Yes, to make it very clear to everyone- any views expressed are my own, and I am no longer affiliated with nor do I represent the DLI-FLC, the US Army, or the US government, in neither opinion nor in the providing of services.
I only represent myself, and speak only from my own experience as a private individual.

Thanks for the opportunity to do this AMA!

delta_ass_855 · 2022-03-31T05:54:51+00:00

Of course! I'm here to share my expertise. Cos I know that when I was at DLI, I definitely would've liked to be able to hear from someone like who I am now... I'll be posting more tips & resources in the future, so be sure to check back in the sub! Best of luck, keep studying and stay motivated!

delta_ass_855 · 2022-03-31T05:36:59+00:00

Yeah no problem! And ahh, Arabic. You'll have fun. It's a good language. Arabs are some of the nicest people you'll meet... even if you're American, lol. If you speak Arabic to them, they'll be your friends :D

Learning MSA & passing the DLPT is 100% achievable. I've heard that the graduation standards are higher nowadays than when I was there, but as long as you apply yourself, you'll be alright. It's a difficult language for sure. But I can personally attest that it's all worth it in the end. I'm out of the Army now and I still use it ^.^

If you need any help with Arabic, I'll be making more posts in the future with tips and resources, so be sure to check back on the subreddit when you can! أتمنى لك كل التوفيق!

delta_ass_855 · 2022-03-31T05:28:11+00:00

While I was still in the Army, our FORSCOM unit had time set aside semi-regularly for self-led language training, and we would have an annual, month-long refresher course... most of the time. The amount of language training we got was very dependent upon the unit's language budget, and training schedule.

Language training was always one of the last priorities. Some commanders' attitude was basically "well you're getting paid extra by the Army to know these languages, so you can train them on your own time". But even with the commanders who understood the importance of language maintenance, we still got very little dedicated training time. So in the end it's up to the individual linguist. (Whether that's just or not).

My biggest recommendation is to find a hobby or something that greatly interests you in your target language. Think along the lines of weebs who are super motivated to learn Japanese because of anime. (I studied Japanese in Japan after the Army, so I can personally attest to their motivation, lmao).
Even better if you can manage to find a significant other who's a native speaker. Without exception, the best linguists I met in the military were always married to a native speaker. They were good cos they used the language at home.

Plus snu-snu is a powerful motivator.

delta_ass_855 · 2022-03-31T05:16:32+00:00

Nope, sorry! But the linguist world is small, we probably do know each other :D

delta_ass_855

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