By Gloria Brokaw, Chinese Basic Course graduate, July 1995

Walking around the Presidio today, it doesn’t seem all that long ago when I was a young DLI student myself. Yet, many things have changed in a relatively short time. There are new buildings on post, a far greater number of students and staff, and…Drill Sergeants! More significantly, the curriculum, teaching methods, and technologies are remarkably different.

I began the Chinese Mandarin Basic Course in July of 1994. Our classroom was not considered high-tech by any stretch of the imagination. We didn’t have smart boards or DVD’s in our classroom. We didn’t have computers or the internet. We didn’t even have heat in the building! We basically made do with a dry erase board, our notebooks, and the standard-issue little red pocket dictionary. Rather than MP-3 players and digital technology, our language lab consisted of cassette tapes played through the master station and piped into our headphones. During the very rainy winter of 1994-1995, several holes in the roof mysteriously appeared, flooding our lab. More than once I wondered if all those leaks would electrocute us all!

Although we may not have had the best or newest equipment, we did have the best instructors on our teaching team. Our teaching team leaders, Mr. Michael Zhang and Mrs. Sylvia Lee, definitely kept us on our toes and pushed us further academically than most of us had ever been pushed. Our MLI, MSgt Daniel Stuart, also cut us no slack. Our teaching team leaders and instructors were extremely hard on us, but they also really cared very deeply about our success. To me, it almost felt like we were a surrogate family complete with strict but fair parents and of course plenty of sibling rivalry.

Chinese was not considered the high-density language that it is today, so a new course started only every few months. We were among the very first pilot classes to take the course in 63 versus 47 weeks and called ourselves the “guinea pig” class. The curriculum was still being adjusted because the textbook series for the course was still based on the 47-week model. Somehow, our teaching team would need to come up with 16 additional weeks of material. While sometimes frustrating to our teaching team, this actually provided them the unique opportunity to tailor the material to our class’s own speed. Our instructors appreciated our ability and thirst for knowledge and constantly came up with new, challenging material for us. When we finished all of the basic course modules early, our instructors decided to try out the “Huashuo Zhongguo” texts, which is now a standard part of the 63-week curriculum. When we finished those texts as well, they played it by ear for the last few weeks of class, basically giving us customized tutoring. Like all other DLI classes, the moment of truth came when we finally took our DLPT. We were nervous wrecks waiting for our test scores, but our teaching team leaders were even more nervous than us. They could only hope that the new curriculum they had piloted on us was successful. To our complete shock, we had received the highest scores on the DLPT IV for the Chinese Basic Course to date! Our teachers literally cried and shouted with happiness and pride. I can still hear Mrs. Lee’s words ringing in my ear… “We have done something very special here.”

Today, Chinese is one of the key languages taught at DLI. The number of Chinese students, faculty, and staff has probably doubled in the past thirteen years since I was a student. Yet, it is important to remember that while the latest equipment, technology, and teaching methods can improve the level of language teaching and learning, they do have their limits. It is really the dedication and perseverance of the instructors and students that are the most important resource in language training.
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8.   LONG AGO AND NEAR BY – THE SHORT STORY OF ALFRED GALINDO

By Ben De La Selva, DLIAA president

It was early last year (2006) when Susan Schnellbacher e-mailed the DLI Alumni Association from San Francisco stating that her nonagenarian father, Alfred Galindo, had been assigned to the Presidio of Monterey in the early 1940’s. In her communiqué she explained her father was extremely eager to visit the Presidio of Monterey again, as he had not been back since his Army stint ended in the mid 40’s. As security regulations mandated, Susan was told that her father, and anyone traveling with him, had to be in possession of a current and valid photo ID. Unfortunately, his last ID had expired and Susan made arrangements to secure the proper identification, in order for him to visit DLI again.

In August 2006, Susan, her husband Charlie, brother David, son Charlie, and her 96 year old father, showed up at the Franklin Gate. As Alfred (5’ 5”) explained upon arrival, he had worked in the Officers Mess as Cooks Helper. His rank: Private. Thus, we immediately headed for the Officers Club. As we combed the building’s first floor from front to back, Alfred would stop in every room, trying to remember what had been there. However, as there had been too many structural changes he couldn’t recognize certain areas. One room he definitely recognized was his living quarters at the back of the O’Club, on the Private Bolio Road side. As we walked, he shared many memories with us and his family.

Alfred’s enlisted record revealed he was born in San Francisco, California, having been inducted into the Army on 18 July 1942 at the age of 32 years. He was discharged on 28 January 1944 and at that time had been married for two years. The “Certification for mustering out pay” was shown in his discharge papers in the amount of $200.

Alfred completed a total of one year, six months, and ten days in the military. His contributions to the military and the war effort during that time are only known to him and probably to no one else alive. However, talking with him you could sense he was a proud trooper, proud of having served his country at a time of war. We at the DLI Alumni Association and the Defense Language Institute salute Alfred for his honorable, albeit short period of service. This short article is to honor and recognize that service.
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9. FORMER DLIFLC RUSSIAN FACULTY MEMBER PUBLISHES BOOK

By Christine Campbell, Ph.D., Assistant Provost, Directorate of Evaluation and Standardization

Ms. Regina Todd, a retired Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) faculty member, who was a member of the Russian faculty for 33 years, recently published the book My Struggle for Survival (2006, Park Place Publications, www.parkplacepublications.com)* that outlines her life from childhood through her choice of Monterey as a place to settle in the United States.

An autobiography, the book begins with her birth and childhood in Leningrad, under the Stalinist terror. It goes on to relate her horrific experiences as a victim of the 900-day siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany during which time more than one million city residents died of bombings and starvation. Next, it traces her life in Central Asia, her law studies and graduation from Leningrad University in 1951, her work as a corporation lawyer for five years in the former Soviet Union, and her flight to Europe and the United States.

Ms. Todd arrived in the United States in 1960. Living in Los Angeles, California, she worked and participated in the Art Linkletter Show as a member of an international panel that discussed life in the Soviet Union. Her topic was "Family Life in the Soviet Union." She then went to New York, where she became a Research Assistant at Columbia University School of Law from 1963 to 1964. From 1964 to 1967, she was on the faculty of Monterey Institute of International Studies (then, Monterey Institute of Foreign Studies) and Middlebury College. She received her M.A. in Russian Language and Civilization from the Institute in 1965.

Later, she met the renowned New York Times journalist Harrison Salisbury. Salisbury is the author of 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad (1969, Harper and Row). Salisbury asked Ms. Todd to translate his book into Russian because he wanted the Russian people to know the truth about the siege of Leningrad. She spent nine months translating the book. It has been printed in translation in almost every country in the world; it was never printed in the former Soviet Union and was confiscated at the borders. It was published on the 25th anniversary of the lifting of the siege.

After translating 900 Days, Ms. Todd got a job at DLIFLC.

My Struggle for Survival is an inspirational book that depicts one woman's fight to overcome unimaginable obstacles to make a life for herself. A human interest story, it is a stimulating read for people who like autobiographies and history. DLIFLC faculty will no doubt be able to identify with her account of the difficulties an immigrant faces. The book is one more example of the wide range of professional contributions made by DLIFLC faculty.

* My Struggle for Survival is available at Borders in Sand City and Works in Pacific Grove.
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10. Foreign Language Proficiency Pay: 20 years in the making
Published with permission from the DLIFLC "Globe"

By SSG Brian Lamar, Strategic Communications

With a growing need for foreign language capabilities and cultural awareness by deploying service members, the Foreign Language Proficiency Pay (FLPP) for linguists has been increased to reward those who are already linguists, or give financial incentive to others to self-identify their language skills.

The latest augmentation of FLPP took place in 2006, allowing linguists to receive maximum pay of $1,000 per month for the languages they speak proficiently. Just 20 years ago, the most one could have received for speaking multiple languages was $100 per month!

The Army is largely credited for having initiated the beginning of incentive pay for linguists in 1986. As the story goes, then Secretary of the Army, John Marsh, tasked the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Lt. Gen. William Odom, to establish a language proficiency pay mechanism that would be similar to what the CIA, NSA, and State Department had. Subsequently, a young Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) Foreign Area Officer and Russian graduate, Maj. James Cox, was given the assignment to gather information and prepare a draft legislative proposal.

Less known in history is the role which DLIFLC's leadership played in attaining the well deserved bonus pay for linguists across the services. Among them was DLIFLC's Commandant Col. David S. McNerney.

McNerney, commandant from 1981 to 1985, was instrumental in the pushing of the FLPP incentive because he understood that the only obstacle to achieving this goal was the lack of solid criteria to award the bonus.

"This changed when we categorized the languages into four major groupings based on difficulty for English speaking individuals and then developed a comprehensive proficiency test for all personnel, said McNerney, who emphasized that former DLIFLC chancellor, Dr. Ray Clifford, and former dean of Testing and Evaluation, Dr. Martha Herzog, played an instrumental role in the categorization.

The second step was relatively easy, according to McNerney, because the Institute built a "simple matrix based on language difficulty on one axis, and proficiency on the other."

"It was approved by Congress without change probably because of the directness and simplicity of the proposal, in addition to the obvious need to encourage serious language study and identification of available assets," he said.

Congress subsequently passed the legislation in October 1986, allowing the Department of Defense (DoD) to start paying linguists "language pay." The initial pay given was modest and incremental, depending on the service member's proficiency and difficulty of the language. It amounted to $25, $50, $75 or $100 per month. In 1999, Congress updated the law to allow services to award a top end cap of $300 per month to linguists who possessed a language capability in critical languages.

With the Global War on Terror ongoing, military commanders have recognized the need for service members to understand culture and language in order to win. Additionally, a new emphasis on recruiting "heritage" speakers of strategically important languages has once again caused policy makers to reassess the FLPP program.

On June 1, 2006, Congress enacted new legislation that allows linguists to cap out their language pay at $1,000 per month for proficiency in multiple languages. The highest maximum pay rate for single-language proficiency increased from $200 to $500 per month, while the maximum pay rate for multiple-language proficiency increased from $300 to $1,000 per month.

However, DoD identified several languages as being "dominant in the force," for which sufficient strategic capability already exists, and thus FLPP is not paid. For example, Russian and Spanish are considered "abundant" languages for which an extra bonus is not given, unless the service member occupies a language dependent job. Each service uses a different scale to determine who receives FLPP and who does not. Typically, a score of 2/2 (2 in listening and 2 in reading) on the Interagency Language Roundtable scale is the minimum to receive the payment. Service members must retest each year to continue receiving the payment.

The languages that are considered in the FLPP program are subject to change, but the underlying theme of keeping language readiness and proficiency at a high level in the United States Armed Forces is, and will continue to be, the main focus.
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11. Intensive Spanish Summer Institute at Lake Takoe Community College

The Intensive Spanish Summer Institute at Lake Tahoe Community College offers twelve levels of Spanish (low beginning through high superior) during the week of Sunday, August 12 through Friday, August 17, 2007. Over 100 cultural breakout sessions, optional mini courses throughout the week, and conversation with native Spanish-speakers are some of the exciting and educational offerings provided. Social evening events are also included. Spend a week at beautiful Lake Tahoe learning Spanish to use in your job, travel, or for your own personal growth. High school students and adults of all ages are welcome to attend. While online registration began May 21st at www.ltcc.edu, there should still be room available in some of the courses. Please check out our Web site for detailed information about the institute at www.ltcconline.net/issi. We look forward to seeing you in August!

12. DLI/Services Coins are back.