DLI vs. College major or minor

blacksmoke · 02-02-2010, 19:50

I am thinking about either majoring or minoring in Arabic. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with college language vs. SOLT or DLI training? Would a college degree in Arabic beat Q course language training plus what can be learned durring deployments? All things equal of course.

Triman19 · 02-02-2010, 20:04

PM in-bound

f50lrrp · 02-02-2010, 20:26

I attended DLI twice while on active duty. (once for German and the other time for Vietnamese). You get totaly immerced in the DLI classes where you are speaking and learning the culture of the target language as opposed to an hour or two every other day in college classes.

SkiBumCFO · 02-02-2010, 20:35

Cant speak for Q course language training compared to College but DLI is an amazing program if you can find a way to get there.

98G · 02-02-2010, 21:21

I took Russian at DLI -- 47 week course and 29 years later, working in Russia, no one can believe I studied it for such a short time. I have not met any non-native Russian who took the language in college to come close in fluency or speed to the DLI program. It is as stated by others on this string, as full immersion as I have seen even compared to programs "in country." They have more time off and less focus on studying for daily exams.

jackson07 · 02-02-2010, 21:28

I am a graduate of the spanish course at DLI. I have friends who majored in spanish in college and I feel the DLI program is a lot better. You get dumped into the language and the culture. Not only can you speak/read/listing you understand on some level why things are the way they are. Another prefered thing about DLI is you have more than one teacher. You get used to different accents and tongues. Most of the students at DLI are able to identify accents/dialects in their target language.

If you have the chance DLI is the way to go.

blacksmoke · 02-03-2010, 09:14

Erased.

Dozer523 · 02-03-2010, 09:22

#8 is a NOGO too.

ZonieDiver · 02-03-2010, 10:41

Quote:

So these slots are rare, or do you mean competitive? My Arabic proffesor was an instructor at DLI for one cycle. She told me that she taught in a class where students came with no working knowlege and left with fluency after 4 months. This is realy hard to believe, but if QP's are saying it is so, well then...
Thank you for your responses. The real reason I am asking this is because every time I see Afganistan or Iraq on the news, I feel like I am actualy wasting my time going to college

Quote:

#8 is a NOGO too.

Exactly, Dozer! Your question was asked and answered, blacksmoke. DLI, like most other military courses - or your college classes, for that matter, IS what one makes of it. I know guys who went to DLI for Spanish and came out with less language capability than I had with 3 years of HS Spanish. As is often the case, it is the how the person approaches the learning.

As for the highlighted portion above, if that is what you think, do something about it! Don't tell us "how you feel"! Quite honestly, I don't care HOW you feel about that. Drop out, join the army, volunteer for infantry, airborne, and Special Forces. Join the fight while it is still going on and your services can be used. Actions, not words, speak loudest.

Just my opinion...