ARmy Rumour SErvice

**RahZael** · 11-05-2012, 03:01

Thanks G.I.A.O. that confirms what I thought, I don't think I'll hazard trying to blag my way through with a balloon model, I think I'll just stick to the MLAT. I taught TEFL(teaching English as a foreign language) a couple years back so that helped me understand English a bit better myself but I'm guessing it's a good idea to brush up before I go there on what nouns, verbs, superlatives and so on are just to be on the safe side. And I agree the better you understand the rules behind your own language the easier it is to accustom yourself to new rules in new languages.
Other than that my searches for free language aptitude tests online have given me a vague idea of what to expect in the MLAT and should provide some good practice.

As far as top languages worth learning for the army
At the moment I believe it's the semitic languages like Arabic, and Central Asian i.e Mandarin from what i've read up.
but I'd say other key languages in the world would be Spanish, French and Russian these might be of benefit later in the future mainly as they are spoken in large areas of the world, so you'd be pretty well covered if postings shifted out from the east.

**CRmeansCeilingReached** · 11-05-2012, 08:15

Originally Posted by RahZael

The Japs don't use question marks, statements become questions by just adding "Ka" at the end.

as anyone who has read "Shogun" knows

amazing how many people picked up very basic japanese phrases from James Clavell...

p.s. what was "nan desu ka" again? what is it?

**Glad_its_all_over** · 11-05-2012, 08:41

Bear in mind that the defence language requirement is sometimes not obvious, in terms of either specificity of language or target number of speakers. Generally, while there is the opportunity to exercise a degree of influence, you'll be directed to a language if selected, the greater the aptitude, the more difficult the language.

For years during the Cold War, we Russians and Germans felt greatly superior to the Arabs as we thought we were the rufty tufty ones who'd find ourselves at war. Came 1991 et seq and demonstrated just how completely, utterly mistaken it's possible to be.....

**Brotherton Lad** · 11-05-2012, 08:42

It's donkeys' years since I did MLAT, but I remember two skills that are useful.

The first is a photographic memory. I was given lists of vocab to look at with the English meaning next to them (can't remember if they were invented words or something like Turkmen) and then asked to write down as many as I could remember.

The second was the requirement to have a feel for grammar, as mentioned above. Sample sentences were provided, which were then re-built to give alternative meanings. It's looking for an understanding of things like word order, prefix and suffix, inflection, declension and conjugation. So some background in Latin, Greek, German or French would be a great advantage. I assume the test will have been tweaked for the various requirements in Afghanistan.

Some (arguably most) people have a natural linguistic ability and can 'see' what to do without formal training (that is how most of us learnt our mother tongue) and the test is designed to find that ability.

**CRmeansCeilingReached** · 11-05-2012, 10:35

Originally Posted by Brotherton Lad

Some (arguably most) people have a natural linguistic ability and can 'see' what to do without formal training (that is how most of us learnt our mother tongue) and the test is designed to find that ability.

so why give away details of the test?

**RahZael** · 11-05-2012, 11:27

Originally Posted by CRmeansCeilingReached

so why give away details of the test?

It's not a really big deal to mention that anyone who is taking this seriously will have already found sites with language aptitude tests and have found out about what elements are involved, although the ones I've seen myself had 4/5 elements not just the two he mentioned there.
Also we lesser mortals should hopefully read the mention of an eidetic memory and go well unless I'm some genius there's not much we can do on that front, nobody in the world has been proven to possess such an ability and only a handful of people are possible candidates. I'm guessing that taking a pen in with you and frantically writing them down on your arms might be frowned upon?

Originally Posted by CRmeansCeilingReached

as anyone who has read "Shogun" knows

amazing how many people picked up very basic japanese phrases from James Clavell...

p.s. what was "nan desu ka" again? what is it?

Yep you're right "nan desu ka" / "なんですか" / "何ですか" means what is it.
And if you want to ask about anything in particular the subject of the sentence any posessives etc go prior ".... nan desu ka" i.e "anata no kuruma wa nan desu ka" - "What is your car?"

**Brotherton Lad** · 11-05-2012, 12:15

Originally Posted by CRmeansCeilingReached

so why give away details of the test?

It's hardly Top Secret:

Modern Language Aptitude Test - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://www.2lti.com/htm/Test_mlat.pdf

**CRmeansCeilingReached** · 11-05-2012, 13:47

Originally Posted by Brotherton Lad

It's hardly Top Secret:

Modern Language Aptitude Test - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://www.2lti.com/htm/Test_mlat.pdf

neither of which give away the language used, which you attempted to recall (if you'd got it right I would have redacted it). anyone knowing the particular language in advance could learn basic vocabulary and gain an advantage on the MLAT.

at least that's my opinion based on doing it back in 1989. has it changed much since then?

**Boumer** · 11-05-2012, 13:49

Originally Posted by CRmeansCeilingReached

neither of which give away the language used, which you attempted to recall (if you'd got it right I would have redacted it). anyone knowing the particular language in advance could learn basic vocabulary and gain an advantage on the MLAT.

at least that's my opinion based on doing it back in 1989. has it changed much since then?

No mate, neither has the language ;)

It's a bit like the mousetrap isn't it? Once you know, you are sworn to secrecy!

**Brotherton Lad** · 11-05-2012, 13:50

Originally Posted by CRmeansCeilingReached

neither of which give away the language used, which you attempted to recall (if you'd got it right I would have redacted it). anyone knowing the particular language in advance could learn basic vocabulary and gain an advantage on the MLAT.

at least that's my opinion based on doing it back in 1989. has it changed much since then?

Haven't got a clue. Did mine in 1983. Though I didn't attempt to recall any particular language because I was never told what it was and still don't know.

Was I warm, though?