Martial Arts and Military

[GuroJason]

Is anybody in here in the Airforce?

I'm thinking of going for a linguistics job with the Airforce, but I don't know if I'd still have time for training and teaching Arnis.

Any comments from martial artists in here that are active or reserve in any branch of the military would be greatly appreciated. I was going to college to be a Spanish/English interpreter, but I can't afford it anymore, so I'm thinking Airforce would train me and pay me for it. But, I also want to open a martial arts school in the next couple of years. Am I trying to bite off more than I can chew, or would this actually be feasible?

 

[exile]

Is anybody in here in the Airforce?

I'm thinking of going for a linguistics job with the Airforce, but I don't know if I'd still have time for training and teaching Arnis.

Any comments from martial artists in here that are active or reserve in any branch of the military would be greatly appreciated. I was going to college to be a Spanish/English interpreter, but I can't afford it anymore, so I'm thinking Airforce would train me and pay me for it. But, I also want to open a martial arts school in the next couple of years. Am I trying to bite off more than I can chew, or would this actually be feasible?

GJ—MBuzzy, one of our very experienced KMA members, is in the Air Force—I'd contact him to check out your concerns. He'd be glad to help out, I'm sure of it!

BTW: what kind of linguistics do you work in?

 

[GuroJason]

I'm mainly concerned with phonology and phonetics, especially dialectology in Spanish.

I was actually going to contact Mbuzzy about this, but then I decided to open it up to the whole forum... it's a good idea though. I'll do that now. Thank you!

 

[exile]

I'm mainly concerned with phonology and phonetics, especially dialectology in Spanish.

I was actually going to contact Mbuzzy about this, but then I decided to open it up to the whole forum... it's a good idea though. I'll do that now. Thank you!

You're most welcome, GJ. (I asked about your linguistics because I'm a syntactician at OSU.)

 

[GuroJason]

You're most welcome, GJ. (I asked about your linguistics because I'm a syntactician at OSU.)

Cool! I don't have a job in linguistics presently, but I'd like to. I'm trying to figure out the best way to get translator/interpreter's certification. I would like to pay the bills as a translator or interpreter, and run an Arnis school on the side.

 

[exile]

Cool! I don't have a job in linguistics presently, but I'd like to. I'm trying to figure out the best way to get translator/interpreter's certification. I would like to pay the bills as a translator or interpreter, and run an Arnis school on the side.

Sounds like a good plan—my impression is that it's really tough for most folks to eke out a living purely by MA instruction, especially when you're just getting started; on the other hand, with your linguistic knowledge and skills, which are absolutely certain to be in increasing demand as Spanish becomes the country's unofficial second language, you'll probably wind up having more work than you can handle in any given week. Good luck with your projects and career!

 

[jks9199]

If you're fluent enough in Spanish, contact your local courthouse. Most are in desperate need for Spanish translators. You may also find that if you check with translation services in your area, they'll be able to help you. Note that I am talking true fluency, including idiom and some of the geographical differences. Por ejemplo, usted sabe la palabra "truka?" Asi "el truka choco."

 

[theletch1]

Jason, I'm a former cryptologic linguist for the USMC. Your primary school would be the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey in California followed by a stint at Goodfellow Airforce base in San Angelo, Texas. That goes for all branches of service. As a Marine I didn't have a ton of extra time but looking back I can see where I'd have had time to teach members of my unit either on my off time or as part of the normal PT sessions with my unit. I say, go for it. Of course, I'd suggest the Corps but that may be a little bit of bias showing through.

 

[arnisador]

Your primary school would be the Defense Language Institute at the Presidio of Monterey in California

We lived about five blocks from it in the New Monterey area when I taught at the naval Postgraduate School. Beautiful area!

My ninth grade daughter loves languages and has talked about studying linguistics in college. She's more interested in comparing languages than specializing in any one. Continuing the thread hijacking scheme, is there any money in that?

 

[theletch1]

We lived about five blocks from it in the New Monterey area when I taught at the naval Postgraduate School. Beautiful area!

My ninth grade daughter loves languages and has talked about studying linguistics in college. She's more interested in comparing languages than specializing in any one. Continuing the thread hijacking scheme, is there any money in that?

The best score I ever earned for a Marine Corps physical fitness test (perfect) was taken at the Naval Post Grad school. Nice campus. DLI was an interesting station for a Marine as it's a joint forces school. We were able to get to know folks from the other branches of service and get an idea of just how truly different the Corps was than the other services. Great instructors there.

 

[exile]

We lived about five blocks from it in the New Monterey area when I taught at the naval Postgraduate School. Beautiful area!

My ninth grade daughter loves languages and has talked about studying linguistics in college. She's more interested in comparing languages than specializing in any one. Continuing the thread hijacking scheme, is there any money in that?

There's a funny story about JRR Tolkien; when he was a young student of philology, one of his dons and mentors at Oxford buttonholed him at some shindig or other, took him to one side and whispered conspiratorially to him, 'Remember, lad, there's money to be made in Celtic!!'. I think that was in Humphrys' 'authorized' biography of JRRT, and I cracked up when I read it.

If your daughter decides she wants to study comparative linguistics, Arni, she might not do too badly. It all depends on the circumstances, but as an academic career, it's actually probably a good choice. There are probably relative few comparativists around these days, compared with half a century ago; one of my colleagues, our department's only true historical linguists, makes a six-figure annual income. He's very, very distinguished, and in spite of the fact that he's only in his very early fifties has been at it for something like thirty years, but there's definitely a future in it in academe.

But outside the university, not so much. Our experimental phoneticians and psycholinguists and especially our computational linguists get really good industry jobs at very big incomes, but for comparative/historical linguists, there just isn't that much demand in the private sector... so it really depends on the nature of her ambitions.

 

[SA_BJJ]

Im in the AF, have been for 10 years. You will have time to train..however opening a school may be a bit of a stretch. Due to ops tempo and deployment lengths.

Also in order to be a linguist you need to be able to get a TS clearance...nothing in your past that would be if'y...

 

[theletch1]

Im in the AF, have been for 10 years. You will have time to train..however opening a school may be a bit of a stretch. Due to ops tempo and deployment lengths.

Also in order to be a linguist you need to be able to get a TS clearance...nothing in your past that would be if'y...

TS-SCI clearance. Expect about six months of investigators talking to everyone from your family to your high school teachers and asking you the same question a dozen times to see if you change your answer. It's really a fun field to be in if you're into languages.

 

[SA_BJJ]

TS-SCI clearance. Expect about six months of investigators talking to everyone from your family to your high school teachers and asking you the same question a dozen times to see if you change your answer. It's really a fun field to be in if you're into languages.

You dont have to have a TS-SCI just TS. SCI just gets you into more rooms...

 

[MBuzzy]

Jason,

I will respond to your message in a bit more depth, but I have to say....and I really hate to be the rain on the proverbial parade here....but the Air Force or DoD in general is the wrong place to be looking if you're interested in Spanish. Languages are broken down into "classes" in the DoD that are determined based on current availability (how many people speak it), how much we need it (mission requirements), and difficulty of the language. As you can expect, Spanish barely rates a level. We have basically unlimited Spanish speakers and very little mission requirement for it. That combined with the fact that it is relatively easy means that they really don't train many linguists in it.

As far as I know, the DLI Spanish area does mainly just in time training for people who are deploying to Spanish speaking countries or for law enforcement or agents in areas with large Spanish speaking populations.

Of course...I'm an Air Force Engineer, so I could be WAY off, but I have a Navy friend who just graduated from DLI, I'll e-mail him to ask.

If you are interested in Farsi....I'm sure that you'd have no problem getting in.

Also...if you do enter the Military with the intention of being a linguist, you have to remember that 1) NEVER EVER EVER believe a recruiter because 2) The job that you get is based primarily on the needs of the military and a far behind second...what you actually want to do. The same goes with what language you would be assigned to. Plus, you have the pass the DLPT, Defense Language Proficiency Test. You have to already be good at the language you want to go in to.

 

[GuroJason]

If you're fluent enough in Spanish, contact your local courthouse. Most are in desperate need for Spanish translators. You may also find that if you check with translation services in your area, they'll be able to help you. Note that I am talking true fluency, including idiom and some of the geographical differences. Por ejemplo, usted sabe la palabra "truka?" Asi "el truka choco."

"Truka" es sinonimo de "troque" o "camioneta" verdad? Soy blanquito (de nacionalidad Irlandes) pero he hecho pensar algunos nativohablantes de español que soy de varios paises hispanohablantes. Mija Yanett es de la Habana y ella pensaba que yo fuera de Argentina la primera vez que nos conocimos.

Un borracho guatemalteco que encontré en la calle en State College, PA casí causó un choque. No pudo andar muy bien. Yo le hablé en español y él creía que yo fuera de Guatemala asi que en los oidos de un borracho yo hablo muy bien español!

Anteriormente mencioné que he estudiado la dialectología así que debo ser acostumbrado de diferentes registeres que existen entre paises y clases sociales de los hispanohablantes. De acuerdo que para un interprete o traductor es sumamente importante saber esas cosas.

 

[GuroJason]

We lived about five blocks from it in the New Monterey area when I taught at the naval Postgraduate School. Beautiful area!

My ninth grade daughter loves languages and has talked about studying linguistics in college. She's more interested in comparing languages than specializing in any one. Continuing the thread hijacking scheme, is there any money in that?

She could write college linguistics textbooks. Those things are friggin expensive

 

[GuroJason]

I don't necessarily have my heart set on joining the Air Force, so it's ok if you rain on the parade. It's just an item on the list of possibilities. I wouldn't mind learning a 3rd language (hey I could learn Bisaya and get stationed in Mindanao! That'd be relevant to my martial art, except I'd get killed as soon as I got off the plane) so that's kinda the pretense under which I was thinking of joining.

I was under the impression that the Air Force would train me in whatever language they needed. My friend Shannon is an Arabic interpreter in the Air Force, and as far as I know she never knew a word of Arabic before joining.

Thanks for being so honest. I have an aunt that has a civillian job at an Air Force base in Tucson, so she's also a good source of information. She said there's really no way to know if I'd be stationed in the same spot or getting shipped around all over the place, so I thought I'd post on here to get other feedback.

Jason,

I will respond to your message in a bit more depth, but I have to say....and I really hate to be the rain on the proverbial parade here....but the Air Force or DoD in general is the wrong place to be looking if you're interested in Spanish. Languages are broken down into "classes" in the DoD that are determined based on current availability (how many people speak it), how much we need it (mission requirements), and difficulty of the language. As you can expect, Spanish barely rates a level. We have basically unlimited Spanish speakers and very little mission requirement for it. That combined with the fact that it is relatively easy means that they really don't train many linguists in it.

As far as I know, the DLI Spanish area does mainly just in time training for people who are deploying to Spanish speaking countries or for law enforcement or agents in areas with large Spanish speaking populations.

Of course...I'm an Air Force Engineer, so I could be WAY off, but I have a Navy friend who just graduated from DLI, I'll e-mail him to ask.

If you are interested in Farsi....I'm sure that you'd have no problem getting in.

Also...if you do enter the Military with the intention of being a linguist, you have to remember that 1) NEVER EVER EVER believe a recruiter because 2) The job that you get is based primarily on the needs of the military and a far behind second...what you actually want to do. The same goes with what language you would be assigned to. Plus, you have the pass the DLPT, Defense Language Proficiency Test. You have to already be good at the language you want to go in to.

 

[MBuzzy]

I was under the impression that the Air Force would train me in whatever language they needed. My friend Shannon is an Arabic interpreter in the Air Force, and as far as I know she never knew a word of Arabic before joining.

Thanks for being so honest. I have an aunt that has a civillian job at an Air Force base in Tucson, so she's also a good source of information. She said there's really no way to know if I'd be stationed in the same spot or getting shipped around all over the place, so I thought I'd post on here to get other feedback.

You are right that they will train you in the language that they need. But that is just a few hoops down the road. FIRST you have to get assigned to a linguist AFSC (Air Force Specialty Code, same as MOS or career field). That is your first "needs of the Air Force" hoop. If they don't need linguists, you could be something else. Then, you have to take the DLPT and see how you do, although that might even be before you get the AFSC, not sure about the order there. If they have someone that scores a 1/1/1 versus someone who scores a 3/3/3....who do you think they will take (those scores mean reading/speaking/writing)? They are going to want the person who already has a basis in the language. THEN you will have to jump the hoop of which language you get assigned to.

Arabic is easy to get in to, because we don't have enough interpreters...which is why I said that if you want to learn Farsi...you can get in.

 

[Tez3]

I think all the military is the same whatever country lol! I had a soldier come in the other day who wants to train with us, the recruiting office had told him he'd get time off to train ( he's BB TKD and Shotokan) but of course his unit just laughed when he asked. i've heard lot os similiar stories of people who wanted to be engineers, mechanics etc and being told to join the infantry first as 'they can always transfer', yeah right!
Reading orders and suchlike here they are asking for volunteers for people to learn Farsi and Arabic languages. Seems you have to be already in service before they'll take you on and teach you ..

On a side note a friend of mine became a signing for the deaf translator, it took a lot of time and a university degree but she gets paid now about £75 an hour to tanslate in courts, hospitals, tv studios etc. As well as being well paid she says it's a very enjoyable job,you get paid to make peoples lifes easier!