Soldiers graduate
from Afghan language,
culture program
By Natela Cutter,
Strategic Communications
FORT CARSON, Colo. Nearly 300 Fort Carson Soldiers
graduated from a seven-week Dari
and Pashto language class June 11,
in advance of their deployment to
Afghanistan where they will be
expected to help their battalion
commanders better interact with
the local population.
The intensive language
training with native Afghan
instructors, organized by the
Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center, began
March 8 with students spending
four days a week, six hours a day,
learning how to read, write, learn
tactical vocabulary, and construct
sentences.
“In seven weeks you have met
COIN and ISAF guidance. You
have done a phenomenal job in
making this pilot successful,”
said Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center
Assistant Commandant Air Force
Col. William Bare, referring to
counter-insurgency language
proficiency standards set by
retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal,
commander of the International
Security Assistance Force in
Afghanistan.
In November, McChrystal wrote
a memo requiring that each platoon,
or like size organization have at
least one leader who speaks about
300 words of Dari and understands
the culture in order to better
communicate with local Afghans.
At Fort Carson, the training of
249 Dari and 49 Pashto Soldiers
indicates that every squad will
have a servicemember with
some language capability upon
deployment to Afghanistan. The
“Squad Designated Linguists,”
as they are called, have in fact
learned double the requirement,
some students even topping 1,000
vocabulary words.
“The training our Soldiers have
gone through will have a direct
immediate impact in helping the
Afghan National Army understand
that we are there to fight with
them, for them, and to help the
Afghan populace,” said Maj. Mike
Birmingham, in charge of language
training for the 1st Brigade
Combat Team.
“I will be a key leader
engagement note taker for the
battalion commander,” said
Pfc. Lauren Townsend, of the
1st Special Troop Battalion,
1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th
Infantry Division, who graduated
from the Dari course and says her
classmates teased her for having
a “perfect” Dari accent. “My
commander wants me to work with
the interpreters so that they feel
like they are a part of the team.”
“The key to the success of
these Soldiers was really the way
we set up the instruction,” said
Mowafiq Al-Anazi, associate dean
of Field Support in the Directorate
of Continuing Education at
DLIFLC. “They were taught the
alphabet, reading and writing, with
an emphasis on sentence structure
word replacement, meaning that
they could learn a simple sentence,
then replace the subject or verb
and create a new sentence.”
In the afternoons, students
implemented their knowledge
learned in the morning through
role plays carried out of specific
scenarios they would encounter in
Afghanistan.
“I really liked learning how to
read and write,” said one student.
“Firstly, it helped me visualize
and remember the vocabulary,
and secondl y, I will be able to
read street signs or graffiti on the
walls which may be important in
discovering insurgent activities.”
Published by AFPS , June 17, 2010
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