<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Just in time for the holidays, there's a new post on t<a href="http://illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage">he Web of Language</a>:</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; white-space: pre; ">New military strategy: if you can't teach GI's to conjugate in Arabic, try teaching linguists to kill</span></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre; "><br></span></font></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; ">Giving up on plans to beef up the nation's defenses by teaching thousands of military personnel critical languages, <a href="http://www.imcom.army.mil/west/sites/news/Articles/ftirwin103108.pdf" mce_href="http://www.imcom.army.mil/west/sites/news/Articles/ftirwin103108.pdf">the army has decided</a> that it's easier to train linguists to shoot and do one-handed push ups than it is to get soldiers <a href="http://illinois.edu/blog/view?blogId=25&topicId=761&count=1&ACTION=VIEW_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286" mce_href="http://illinois.edu/blog/view?blogId=25&topicId=761&count=1&ACTION=VIEW_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286">to learn Arabic or Pashto</a>.</span></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'" size="1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; white-space: normal; "><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">True to its slogan, "Be all that you can be," the Army turns America's muffin-topped teens into lean, mean fighting machines. But while it has no problem training raw recruits to break down and reassemble their rifles blindfolded in a sandstorm, its </span></font><a href="http://illinois.edu/blog/view?blogId=25&topicId=534&count=1&ACTION=VIEW_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286" mce_href="http://illinois.edu/blog/view?blogId=25&topicId=534&count=1&ACTION=VIEW_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">well-publicized efforts</span></font></a><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> to teach our troops </span></font><a href="http://illinois.edu/blog/view?blogId=25&topicId=867&count=1&ACTION=VIEW_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286" mce_href="http://illinois.edu/blog/view?blogId=25&topicId=867&count=1&ACTION=VIEW_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">the languages of the enemy</span></font></a><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> have failed.</span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Most soldiers can't even pronounce </span></font><em><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Iran</span></font></em><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> and </span></font><em><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">Iraq</span></font></em><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> correctly (as if an M-16 is not enough of a give-away, calling these countries eye-ran and eye-rack instantly labels you as "not from around here" in the tinder box that is the Middle East). . . .<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"></font></span></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 9px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">there just aren’t enough non-Arab-Americans who speak Arabic and have the clearance to work in counter-terrorism and military operations.</font><span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"> </font></span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">And so, instead of drilling hopelessly anglophone troops in the Arabic equivalent of,</font></span></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> I don't know but I've been told,<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "></span></span></font></p><p class="MsoNormal"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; "> amo-amas-amat . . .</span></span></font></p><div><span mce_style="font-style: italic;" style="font-style: italic; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; ">a tactic which hasn't produced enough fluent speakers of the language, the service is now looking for a few good native speakers of Arabic to join up for translator duty.</span></span></font></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">By combing through the millions of résumés on monster.com and emailing anyone listing Arabic as a language skill, Uncle Sam found enough volunteers to form the 51st TICO (Translator and Interpreter Company) and put them through translator training at a fake Iraqi village in the Mojave Desert. . . . .</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">Read the rest of this post on</span><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> </span></font><a href="http://illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">the Web of Language</span></font></a></p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br></p><div><br></div></span></span></font></div><div><br></div><br><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; 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"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Dennis Baron</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Professor of English and Linguistics</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Department of English<span class="Apple-converted-tab"> </span><span class="Apple-converted-tab"> </span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">University of Illinois<span class="Apple-converted-tab"> </span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">608 S. Wright St.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Urbana, IL 61801 </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">office: 217-244-0568</font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">fax: 217-333-4321</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></font></div></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000EE" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; text-decoration: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(72, 72, 72); font-size: 11px; "><a target="_new" href="http://illinois.edu/goto/debaron" title="My faculty home page" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 128); text-decoration: none; ">http://illinois.edu/goto/debaron</a></span></span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">read the Web of Language:</font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#144FAE" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; text-decoration: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(72, 72, 72); font-size: 11px; "><a target="_new" href="http://illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage" title="The Web of Language blog" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 128); text-decoration: none; ">http://illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage</a></span></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000EE" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><br></span></font></div></span></div></div></span></div></span></div></span></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></body></html>