PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY--The general in charge of all the Army's training and doctrine, Gen. Martin Dempsey, said Thursday that the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center "is a great educational treasure for the Army."
Dempsey, who spent the day touring DLIFLC Sept. 24, shared his thoughts on the value of language and culture training for servicemembers.
"Culture and foreign language are one of those tools that allow us to build the kind of leaders that are adaptable and can win in (a competitive) environment," said Dempsey, explaining that the ever changing military operating environment has been affected by globalization and the rapid advancement of technology. "As a result, the leaders who encounter that competitive environment have to win in that learning environment. They have to learn faster than their potential adversaries."
During his visit to DLIFLC classrooms, Dempsey had an opportunity to interact with servicemembers and find out what type of methodology and technology is used to aid students in their acquisition of language and culture.
"Pashto is a hard language to learn because the word meanings vary so much from dialect to dialect," said Pashto student Staff Sgt. Matt Russell. "What may be an expression for children in one village, may be an expression for animals in another. You can easily insult an entire village if you make that mistake."
Dempsey also visited DLIFLC's Student Learning Center, which provides the first week of instruction for all students, in English grammar, area studies and student learning techniques according to learner types.
"Some of the techniques used here to deliver education have applicability in different areas (of TRADOC)," said Dempsey, referring to the possibility of applying DLIFLC student learning techniques to other TRADOC schools.
Along with his aides, Dempsey also visited the Continuing Education Directorate, which provides resident sustainment and advanced language courses, distance learning, and teacher Mobile Training Teams which provide cultural awareness and basic language pre-deployment training.
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