DLIFLC Lingo

Much of the student experience here is shrouded in mystery, largely because of the unique nature of DLIFLC. Institutions that focus entirely on language are few and far between, let alone a military language institute that teaches to a high level of proficiency. The pace is rapid, the intensity high. For the vast majority of students, it's like nothing they've ever done before. In this podcast, we open up the window into four different students' lives. If you're a past, present or future student, or just curious about DLIFLC, you'll want to hear what they have to say.

Military Language instructors are a special breed. Bringing them together often involves raucous fun and joking. This episode of Getting to know DLIFLC is no different.

With 1,800 instructors who come from 93 different countries, DLIFLC can feel like working at the United Nations. This is your chance to get to know three of them in this episode of Getting to know DLIFLC.

There's been a lot of turnover in the front office over the last year. Here is your chance to get to know DLIFLC's newest command group in this conversational podcast that takes you from books vs movies to worst jobs, bell-bottoms and floppy disks.

Sometimes learning a new language comes down to what motivates you. For Spanish instructor Lucia Artacho, it was, as she describes it, "dancy" music that helped her.

There's an old Czech proverb that says, “Those who know many languages live as many lives as the languages they know." Our instructors embody that proverb, none more than Persian Farsi faculty Ali Ghassemi. Listen to his story in our final podcast of the series, "A Hero's Journey: Instructor Edition."

The effects of poverty on education are well-documented. But because education is one of the few ways out of poverty, it leads to a cycle that is difficult to break. For Edward Wang, a Chinese Mandarin instructor at DLIFLC, it was one he knew well, thanks to the extremely poor and rural area where he was born and raised. It was a cycle his mother was determined to break for her children.

Curtis Powell is part of the 5% of instructors at DLIFLC who aren't native speakers. That means Curtis is so good at his second language that he can teach others to speak it at a high proficiency. From Maryland to Seoul, South Korea to DLIFLC, listen as Curtis tells his story.

Baghdad wasn't always a war-torn city. To hear native-born Atoor Lawandow tell it, the Iraqi city is the center of the world. For more about Baghdad and how Atoor's journey brought her to Monterey, listen to the latest episode in our podcast, DLIFLC Lingo.

Kamola Umarova was born and raised in Uzbekistan, speaking both Uzbek and Russian with her family. A former Army linguist herself, Kamola talks about life before and after the Soviet Union, and what brought her to DLIFLC.

In 1985, Lana Al Mudhaffar and her family moved from the peace of northern England to a war zone in Basra, Iraq. Over 30 years later, Lana shares her experiences living in Iraq and the journey that led her to DLIFLC.

30 years ago December 2019, Ceausescu's brutal regime abruptly ended in a public execution. Two-time DLIFLC graduate Branko Marinovich was a foreign area officer with the embassy at the time of revolution.

When the Navy called for a Persian Farsi linguist to deploy to the Persian Gulf and cover the Iranian revolution in late 1979, the only options Tom Chesno had to offer were three Airmen who had just finished their schooling. This is their story.

On the outset of the Iranian Revolution of 1978/1979, there were only a few Persian Farsi military linguists ready to jump into action. Michael Ruhm, Michael Sherman and Don Huntington, recent graduates of Persian Farsi, were working for Thom Chesno, when the embassy hostage crisis began.

As if it being a military linguist wasn't challenge enough, Sgt. First Class Matthew Peterson took it a step further by becoming an Army Ranger. Now he's back at DLIFLC for a third round, this time as a Military Language Instructor, passing on his Pashto knowledge and experiences in Afghanistan.

John Sullivan served 4 years in the Army as a Russian linguist in the late 70s and early 80s, a time when the Soviet Union was alive and well and very active. Some of the historical events John brushed up against back then still reverberate today.

Jerry Spivey and Vinnie Zinck began their Army careers during the Vietnam era. Back then, the draft was alive and well, their unofficial title was "lingies," and Asian languages were a hot commodity. This is their podumentary.

Henry Klaput didn't start his military career with plans to become a linguist, but in 1961 Henry found himself stationed in Berlin, freshly graduated from DLIFLC. Here is one man's account of life as a Russian linguist at Checkpoint Charlie when The Wall went up.