On 35P

[skvnkwxrks]

Took some more time to scour the threads before posting, but pardon if this has been discussed. A few questions:

If enlisting in the Guard already fluent in a second language, specifically the language used by the Group I’m looking to join, how does that impact 35P AIT? Would I just be given a secondary language to learn, or would that shorten the timeline of arriving at the unit?

If I’m jump qualified, but was in over a decade ago, will I need to go back through Airborne school? Hoping that already being qualified bolsters chances of going to a SOT-A.

That’s it for now. Thanks

 

[Marauder06]

Airborne is “for life.” You won’t have to go back through school, but you’ll need to do a refresher. It was 12 years between my fifth jump at Airborne School when I was in ROTC and my sixth jump with 5th Group. A little refresher and I expect you’ll be fine.

 

[SierraWave]

I can't speak for the NG/SF but when I went through DLI it seemed pretty common for the branches to send folks who were already fluent in one language through DLI for another if they were new to the career field. There might be more flexibility in the NG/SF space to avoid that, I'm not sure.

However, I would say that for all its hassle and shenanigans DLI is a very valuable experience--if you were offered a chance to learn a second language I would think hard about turning it down just to speed up your timeline. In the long run, having more languages under your belt makes you far more desirable 35P (or 1N3/1A8, CTI, 26xx...). Whether they are complimentary (Arabic/French, Farsi/Dari/Pashto) or totally different (Arabic/Chinese, Spanish/Korean), you'll make yourself that much useful to the people you support.

Also, if you don't go to DLI you won't be able to bond with other linguists over things like Compagno's and weird Presidio of Monterey shit. ;)

 

[skvnkwxrks]

Would absolutely jump at the chance to learn a second. I speak Spanish fluently but anything that augments value is ultimately what I’m after. I just wasn’t sure if the military would consider it unnecessary to give a guy a second language that may/may not be utilized by where he’s going, in terms of the unit and their AO.

 

[skvnkwxrks]

SD, if you don’t mind me asking, what’s your MOS?

 

[Cookie_]

I don't know a single 35P in Group who has less than a Catagory 3 language. For comparison, Spainish is Cat 1.

This could be because all of our 35P slots are also SOT-A as well; I'm not sure if units in other states are set up the same way or not.

@Marauder06 is right that you'll get an airborne refresher when you come back.

Everyone, regardless of jumps or rank, will go through BAR/SARJE and mock door training if it is over (30/60 days, can't remember) since their last jump, or if they have less than 10 jumps with the MC-6.

If you have less than 10 MC-6 jumps/have not jumped in 6 months, you'll do the MC-6 refresher as well.

 

[skvnkwxrks]

So if one doesn’t test high enough for a Cat III language, would they be turned away from the Group you’re at?

 

[Kaldak]

So if one doesn’t test high enough for a Cat III language, would they be turned away from the Group you’re at?

Cat III language refers to the difficulty of learning the language and critical need. Spanish is cat I, Farsi is cat III. That said, I'm not sure how the DLAB applies to that.

 

[JedisonsDad]

DLAB goes all the way up to I think 165. Depending on the school, some languages have a base requirement for entry into the program.

That’s no guarantee though. I knew a guy that was fluent in Pashto and Dari, but they lost his DLAB records, and when they went to assign him a new language for a PCS, he failed the DLAB. He still got to go though because of his previous experience as a linguist, and obviously he knew the job.

A high score also doesn’t guarantee a hard language. I got a 119, and I was in Spanish with the guy who got a 76. At the same time, the guy I know with mid 80s got Arabic.

Just because you’re fluent in Spanish, doesn’t mean you’re DLPT fluent. I’m not saying this to be mean or snarky. It’s an odd test, and fluent speakers don’t always score well, because maybe you’re from a different region, or your sentence structure isn’t the same as the “textbook” they’re judging off of.

One last thing to add. I don’t know if it’s a unit thing, or a DOD thing, but they weren’t even considering letting guys skip language unless they held a 2/2 or better in a needed language, and had some history with it (not just one DLPT record). So I know a few guys with multiple, vastly different, languages.

 

[AWP]

If you speak Spanish and Group decides they need Korean for example, you're getting Korean. Your MOS doesn't care what you already speak, it cares about what the unit needs.

 

[skvnkwxrks]

DLAB goes all the way up to I think 165. Depending on the school, some languages have a base requirement for entry into the program.

That’s no guarantee though. I knew a guy that was fluent in Pashto and Dari, but they lost his DLAB records, and when they went to assign him a new language for a PCS, he failed the DLAB. He still got to go though because of his previous experience as a linguist, and obviously he knew the job.

A high score also doesn’t guarantee a hard language. I got a 119, and I was in Spanish with the guy who got a 76. At the same time, the guy I know with mid 80s got Arabic.

Just because you’re fluent in Spanish, doesn’t mean you’re DLPT fluent. I’m not saying this to be mean or snarky. It’s an odd test, and fluent speakers don’t always score well, because maybe you’re from a different region, or your sentence structure isn’t the same as the “textbook” they’re judging off of.

One last thing to add. I don’t know if it’s a unit thing, or a DOD thing, but they weren’t even considering letting guys skip language unless they held a 2/2 or better in a needed language, and had some history with it (not just one DLPT record). So I know a few guys with multiple, vastly different, languages.

That’s what I’ve gathered, as far as not expecting to ace it based on fluency. There’s a DLAB study guide I found for $10 that has some good reviews but I’m not sure how much it’s going to help. Something is better than nothing. In school, I’ve always been very solid in language arts, but I don’t assume that will help me in something like Korean

If you guys have anything to recommend as far as prepping for this, I’m all ears.

 

[AWP]

If you guys have anything to recommend as far as prepping for this, I’m all ears.

Booze. A barely functioning liver. In time, pancreatitis. The longer the military school, the more likely the progression. I'd train with cheap beer and cheaper alcohol. Thank me later.

 

[JedisonsDad]

To prep, just brush up on the English language. Learn what an adverb is, learn what a noun is, those types of things. It’s an aptitude test that’s supposedly going to determine your potential to learn a language, so if fake it to make it for the original, you’re possibly setting yourself up for failure further down the road.

There isn’t much info out there about the test, not because it’s secret or anything, but because they don’t want people gaming it and then struggling later.

 

[AWP]

they don’t want people gaming it and then struggling later.

Good, bad, or other, the forum won't be a party to G2'ing any system.

 

[Salt USMC]

That’s what I’ve gathered, as far as not expecting to ace it based on fluency. There’s a DLAB study guide I found for $10 that has some good reviews but I’m not sure how much it’s going to help. Something is better than nothing. In school, I’ve always been very solid in language arts, but I don’t assume that will help me in something like Korean

If you guys have anything to recommend as far as prepping for this, I’m all ears.

Learning the fundaments of grammar is the best prep you can do for the DLAB. Learn how sentences are constructed. Learn about the Subject-Object-Verb agreement. Learn how verbs are conjugated according to the subject case and sentence tense (e.g. “I run”, “he runs”, “they run”, “she ran”, “she was running”).

The best way to do this, I think, is to take a foreign language class. They teach you grammatical concepts which you may have learned previously in English class but never really had to think about. What is the past perfect tense? What is the dative case for a verb? How do we we modify possession based on the relation of the subject to the direct object? Things like that.

Hope this helps.

 

[skvnkwxrks]

Good, bad, or other, the forum won't be a party to G2'ing any system.

That actionable intel on alcoholism was really all I needed

 

[Brill]

I arrived to 2/20th as a 3/3 RU and took my team of Spanish speakers to Afghanistan. So what the heck kind of value were we in the land of Pashto-bang-a-boy-Istan? Well, while they were always talking shit about me behind my back (FYI: Google translate is wrong. Pendejo means “chief”, per my Team) and talking about their stories of “immersion training“ (rum & brown chicks) in Puerto Rico, I was able to “dirka dirka“ in Russian with a guy who lived in Uzbekistan. He gave up good atmospherics without fear of reprisal from the villages.

Soon after we returned CONUS, we were scheduled to go to Belize. YASSSSSS!!! I got the “sorry bro, they don’t use Cyrillic there.” and stayed home.

Belize - Languages