Those of you in the military who were deployed/stationed abroad, how much of the local language did you learn?

22 comments

1. On embassy duty (Marine Security Guard), there are language classes but they’re pretty rudimentary in my experience. Nonetheless I learned the language well enough to sometimes pass as a native, briefly.

2. The US Military has a whole school devoted to teaching foreign languages for military careers that require it.

   Usually on deployments or overseas assignments, you’ll get a booklet with a few phrases somewhere in it. Or a card with phrases to use in an emergency. Prior to deployment, there’s some computer module training you take with a few modules about local customs and some phrases. Not very intensive.

   In friendly countries, there’s usually some cultural outreach and stuff you can sign up for if you want to do cultural activities, do a tour, or volunteer locally.

3. The vast vast majority of people who go abroad dont learn the language. You have work to do, maybe a family, maybe doing college, etc. Alot of the people you hang out with anyways are other Americans.

   Yes classes are typically offered.

4. My dad was in the Air Force and we were stationed in Germany when I was a child. I learned a few words of German, mostly picked up from other kids, but normally they spoke German with some English and we spoke English with some German and we just pantomimed the rest.

   Often when I tried, a German would say that they’d like to speak English so that they could practice with a native speaker, obviously a way to be polite about the fact that I didn’t know the language well.

   My parents spoke less, though my mom learned to understand what was spoken to her pretty well.

   There was a German class in school but it was pretty ineffective. There wasn’t much of an emphasis on learning it; I think the sense was that we were going to be moving on to another base in a couple of years anyway.

5. I was stationed in Japan on an aircraft carrier for 2 years, but we spent most of our time flipping cookies in the ocean and flying planes. Out of that 2 years we may have spent 6 months in port total. Other than the basic words for hello think you, Japanese is also not an easy language for westerners to pick up.

6. From my time in Germany I have noticed that locals here would much rather practice their English and I’m not going to argue with them, their house their rules.

   Anecdotally, when I mentioned learning a little bit of German to my German landlord he laughed and pretty much told me there is no need to do so.

7. When I was in Germany we received a pamphlet with a bunch of German words and phrases to help us get by. Also language classes were available supposedly, but I’m pretty sure they never actually happened.

8. My husband was stationed in Korea and Bosnia and learned zero foreign languages. I’ve never done anything but travel and I know more languages than he ever will. Our two kids are trilingual, but all he knows is English and a little ASL.

9. In German I am very competent with ordering meals and other touristy things, and generally able to at least manage okay in most other basic pursuits. In French I can read a menu, and, apologize for being an ignorant foreigner. In Korean I can order coffee and say hello/please/thanks, nothing else. Optional introductory language classes were available for free but proper courses of instruction in a classroom had to be paid for. (broad generalities here.)

10. Stationed in Japan. I became conversational in about a year. Really helped picking up the girls. After a decade since living in Japan, I remember how to tell a Taxi driver to get to my barracks, hello, and thankyou.
    Stationed in Afghan, I picked up a few words and phrases. Most of the TN’s or Afghani’s spoke in English that I interacted with.

11. As a child I learned Tagalog, we then went to Spain and I learned very basic words. As an adult I deployed to Iraq and Djibouti but did not learn any of the languages

12. My husband was stationed in Afghanistan and he knows exactly 0 words that he wouldn’t have heard in American civilian life.

13. I learned English fairly fast, for those who remember who I am, this was before I was a US citizen, when I was involved with the Russian military still, long story short we came over to bodyguard someone important for a while, and we realized none of us really spoke too much english, so I got myself that yellow book, the guide one, english for dummies or something like this, and started trying to talk to pepole. Well wouldn’t you know it comes time to leave, I’m not ready (and I obviously want to stay) so I asked for an extension, took classes, applied for citizenship and then moved here

14. Learned a bit of Polish on rotation, the people who would talk to us however generally already knew english

    We were not offered any courses

15. I speak enough German to feel comfortable wherever I am, for most purposes. But to be honest I hardly ever use it.

16. I’ve been affiliated with the US military overseas off and on stretching back to the ’80s. From my personal experience I can say that very few American military and their dependents learn much of the local language beyond a few phrases.

    Mostly it’s because they don’t need to. The bases can be pretty all-encompassing. You have your work, your schools, your church, your shopping all on base in English, not to mention AFN TV and radio in English. Off base nowadays in most countries you also don’t need to speak much of the local language, at least for the interactions that most people will have – i.e. going to a restaurant, a hotel, shopping, etc.

    And in previous decades when fewer people off base spoke English (I remember carrying around Berlitz phrasebooks – and using them!) the military network was soooooo much bigger that it was like a small parallel society. If you were stationed in Germany in the ’80s or early ’90s, there was a US base practically everywhere, at least across southern Germany and Berlin. The US ran multiple holiday resorts in the Alps, just for military ID card holders. There were guidebooks sold in the PX with information on local base lodging you could stay at pretty cheaply everywhere from Berlin to Nurnberg to Munich, not to mention all the bases in Italy and other countries. It was huge.

    The military presence is now a shadow of what it once was during and right after the Cold War, but even as that has declined the number of people off base who speak English well has dramatically increased.

    Of course there are always soldiers who dive into the local culture and studiously learn the language and integrate with the locals. They’ll often end up marrying a local and raise bilingual kids.

    Oh, and that reminds me: the big US military communities overseas have mostly been in place for decades now, or generations even. The locals have grown up with the Americans, and many local businesses are geared towards them.

17. My dad was military. As he tells it, he has zero aptitude for foreign language acquisition. My mom, however, opted to live off base and when we lived in Germany, she took classes. I did a stint in a German preK but moved to classes on base.

    My experience with other military families is that I don’t know of one where the language was picked up by the person in service. Sometimes words here or there. The kids might pick up a bit depending on length of time and if they are on base.

18. I was stationed in Korea for a year. I learned a few numbers and basic greetings but little else. I went to the first meeting of a Korean language class on our base, but the “teacher” was a young Korean soldier who was terrible at teaching, so I bailed.

    I was then in Germany for three years. I had taken a year of German at university before joining the Army, so I knew the basics. I’ll admit that I didn’t progress much at all in those years, since I didn’t have to speak German at all in my daily life on base.

19. My situation was fairly unique but in the 3 years I was stationed in Italy I became fairly fluent. A big part of my job was working in the local community in person and on the phone. Having to speak and understand on calls was the most difficult part but it also forced me to learn much faster. Most of my friends did not learn much at all and after 3 years would still ask me to translate easy stuff like menus and signs.

    Picking up the language and learning the social etiquette made my time so much better. By the time I transferred back to the US more of my friends were Italian than American.

20. Not military but dod civilian. I learned how to order beer, count to 10, and a handful of basic phrases.

21. I’m currently stationed in England and there’s still a language barrier somehow.

22. When I was in South Korea I learned a lot, enough to read Korean and get a basic score on the language test. But it was all on my own time. The base has classes, but they were very basic.