The Army offers Rosetta Stone language courses free through their online learning website, Skillport. To register you use your AKO ID, though you use a unique password they give you to login.The program's really good. Even though I spent three years in Korea, I still learned a lot from the first level (out of three). At a pace of about an hour a day, it takes a month to complete a level.
When you feel you're ready, you can take the Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT). If you fail, you have to wait six months before you try again.
If you pass, the Army will pay the Foreign Language Proficiency Bonus (FLPB) based on three levels: A, B, and C. Passing with a level A language (for example, Korean, Chinese, or Japanese) would get you $200 at a 2/2 ability, $300 at a 2+/2+ ability, and $400 at the 3/3 ability (I'm not entire clear on what that really means, though).
Level B languages (such as Hebrew, Kurdish, and Thai) get you $150/$200/$300 respectively, and Level C languages (like Haitian Creole, Armenian, and Chechen) bring in $125/$175/$275.
You can be paid for as many languages as you speak, but there's a $1000 overall maximum, and you have to requalify every year. My goal is to take the DLPT when I'm done with the third level, and then try with Chinese (which I studied during my MBA) and Japanese (which I took in college).
1 comment:
The scores that you were talking about refer to language skills, as created and standardized by the Interagency Language Roundtable. The first score referes to listening, and the second to listening. If there are three scores listed, eg 3/3/3 then the third skill is speaking.
While Rosetta Stone has its place in language training, it is not the best way to learn and retain a language, especially in the military where lots of geopolotical topics are discussed. I would point to other language resources such as GLOSS at the Defense Language Institute website or JLU, the Joint Language University. Also, it should be noted that for cat a languages, 4/4 or a 3/3/3 earns a Soldier in a linguist billet $500.00 a month and can be tested via the upper range DLPT.
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