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new friend from school
May 19, 2008

by Azathoth
DLI is AA degree, and only if you have/can get 18 credits outside of DLI on top of the actual course. Then, I suppose you could use TA to get a BA before the end of your enlistment, but not everyone can do that (deployments, etc.).

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zxc
Feb 22, 2011

Dirk Digglet posted:

same poo poo happened last cup. Except ONE kid in the middle navy formation yelled out "YES SIR!"

And apparently some people were saluting the commander from the front row of the navy formation. like, the man says "what do you say, navy?" and a handful of kids did some half-assed salute from across the football field. Honestly guys, first the belts and now this

It was almost as bad as the last change of command ceremony where half the people in the Navy formation at parade rest had their hands in front of their crotches and the other half had them behind their backs.

QingLaiXiguaba
Apr 4, 2010
Does the Navy just have no idea what the gently caress they are doing, ever? Every time I see them en masse it's a hodge podge of uniforms, and nobody seems to have control of the situation. Plus, I'm pretty sure they generally outweigh the Air Force, somehow.

Humbug Scoolbus
Apr 25, 2008

The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers, stern and wild ones, and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.
Clapping Larry

QingLaiXiguaba posted:

Does the Navy just have no idea what the gently caress they are doing, ever? Every time I see them en masse it's a hodge podge of uniforms, and nobody seems to have control of the situation. Plus, I'm pretty sure they generally outweigh the Air Force, somehow.

Simple answer. No. Unless it's persuading the DoD that they need the next bestest thing so that the USAF doesn't snag part of their budget.

Godmachine
Sep 5, 2004

I am beyond God.
I am Human.
I'm trying to be objective in this statement: From what I saw at DLI, the Navy is the most out of shape and ate the gently caress up branch. I am careful to say that this was while at DLI because in my 5 years in the Army, I only served with a small handful.

In the past 3 months I've gone to San Diego twice to visit some Navy friends. I am now convinced, subjectively, that my original statement is true.

genderstomper58
Jan 10, 2005

by XyloJW

Godmachine posted:

I'm trying to be objective in this statement: From what I saw at DLI, the Navy is the most out of shape and ate the gently caress up branch. I am careful to say that this was while at DLI because in my 5 years in the Army, I only served with a small handful.

In the past 3 months I've gone to San Diego twice to visit some Navy friends. I am now convinced, subjectively, that my original statement is true.

Mandatory PT while on sea duty is pretty much unheard of if the commands I was at are any indication :smug:

QingLaiXiguaba
Apr 4, 2010

moker posted:

Mandatory PT while on sea duty is pretty much unheard of if the commands I was at are any indication :smug:

Manlove jokes aside, you have any idea how the guys on subs PT?

genderstomper58
Jan 10, 2005

by XyloJW

QingLaiXiguaba posted:

Manlove jokes aside, you have any idea how the guys on subs PT?

My boat had no PT in port, my work weeks including duty were 80-100 hours a week though....we had a few pieces of exercise equipment but barely anyone used them. We had a treadmill, stair climber and hill climber thingie in the engineroom(the god drat treadmill was in a passageway on my watchstation though, the hill climber was next to the piled of garbage that collect on deployment called mount saint trash). The CO had a personal rowing machine and there were 2 sets of adjustable dumb bells only going up to like 50 lbs. If you're deployed on a mission all of this is usually secured, if you're doing local ops its only secured if some dumbass drops a weight.

It varies from ship to ship though, depends on how much anyone gives enough of a poo poo to order and set any of it up.

I toured a boomer and they almost had a loving gym in there

ElHuevoGrande
May 21, 2006

Oh. . .
I am burning with embarrassment. I took an OPI today, got a contractor to pay for it, and I done hosed it up. I only got a day to prepare, and I didn't prep the chickenshit level 1 questions. So while I discoursed eloquently on the tides of revolution in the Middle East, being asked to describe the scenery in Waikiki loving BAFFLED me. (What the gently caress does that mean, anyway? The tester specifically said, "scenery in the city", so she didn't mean the beach.)

Please share funny OPI stories and make me feel better. Or worse. Whatever.

Pompous Rhombus
Mar 11, 2007

ElHuevoGrande posted:

I am burning with embarrassment. I took an OPI today, got a contractor to pay for it, and I done hosed it up. I only got a day to prepare, and I didn't prep the chickenshit level 1 questions. So while I discoursed eloquently on the tides of revolution in the Middle East, being asked to describe the scenery in Waikiki loving BAFFLED me. (What the gently caress does that mean, anyway? The tester specifically said, "scenery in the city", so she didn't mean the beach.)

Please share funny OPI stories and make me feel better. Or worse. Whatever.

Like you, I had prepared beforehand (had taken one before, knew they'd ask a current event, so I did some research and had a whole thing about the situation in Iran). Actually, the brunt of my language course was focused towards political sciencey type stuff once we got enough vocab to move into full immersion, so it this should have been one of the easier parts for me. It was actually going great up until that point, she asked me the current event thing and I breathe a sigh of relief knowing I'm in familiar territory, look down at the page or two of notes/points I have prepared to use... and just totally loving choke. I stuttered out a few barely connected sentences and asked to go on to the next part, which we did. I knocked the roleplay out of the park and did well on the other stuff she asked, and she came back to the current event again at the end to give me another chance, and... I choked again. It was just so baffling to me that I was sitting there on the phone, in what should have been my element, with a mouth full of fail.

This was a civilian thing and they used a different scale from DLI, I got an Advanced Mid, which some equivalency table tells me is a 2 or 2+. Still, looking at the descriptions it was about as terrible as I thought I possibly could have done on the test :negative: Haven't retested since, I'd probably do even worse now without another good month or two of intensive remedial study.

QingLaiXiguaba
Apr 4, 2010
I don't know about your situations, but I know for the Corps OPI is irrelevant. I've already been told I will never have to take another one so long as I'm in, which is fine by me. I can speak fine, but I hate the build of the OPI. It just doesn't seem like an accurate method of guaging linguistic competance.

ElHuevoGrande
May 21, 2006

Oh. . .
I'm going for contractor jobs after separation, some of which require an OPI. And I agree, the structure is so contrived and subjective that I'm not sure what it tests. At least with the DLPT you can take it repeatedly and eventually see all the questions.

iceslice
May 20, 2005
If you are serious about needing to take an OPI I'd be gladto answer questions via PM. I'm studying for an OPI (from DLI) right now and would be happy to share the general info about what we've been going over.

ElHuevoGrande
May 21, 2006

Oh. . .
I passed one when I graduated DLI. I'm just complaining because I choked on my most recent one. Thanks, though.

Pompous Rhombus
Mar 11, 2007
Yeah, it's dumb because I wouldn't be speaking my language at any of these jobs (intel analysis), but damned if the government can bother coming up with a reading or listening comprehension test. The OPI claims to measure listening but that's bullshit, there's no separate score for it.

FraudulentEconomics
Oct 14, 2007

Pst...
As a former Chinese student here, all I can say is that the PT standards, mandatory formations, and general BS concerning my unit (Air Force) are making quality of life completely horrible here.

I'm actually leaving shortly, but the FAC (Civilian contracted PT evaluation maintainers) cracks me up. The run team captain got put on "fat camp" status, which is 5 day a week PT. It's absolutely hilarious and I feel horrible for anyone Air Force who is coming here. It's been relatively quiet here for a while really, nothing super huge has come about. It's just crowded as gently caress right now.

To any incoming Chinese Linguists, study early, study the material ahead of time, and find some method of quickly learning your vocab. When I was just trying to study what I'd learned, I'd quickly fall behind. If you preview it, you know what questions you're going to have and can be slightly ahead of everything. Practice the gently caress out of your listening, because that will infuriate you to no end by second semester. I made it 27 weeks in before they finally took me out. I wasn't doing well, combined with severe stress related issues (School normally doesn't give me trouble, it isn't effortless but I could NOT for the life of me figure out how to get everything I needed done done).

zxc
Feb 22, 2011

FraudulentEconomics posted:

As a former Chinese student here, all I can say is that the PT standards, mandatory formations, and general BS concerning my unit (Air Force) are making quality of life completely horrible here.

As another former NPS AF student at DLI (I left for Goodfellow last week), it's seriously not that bad. The PT standards are seriously not that difficult if you're not lazy. Most people fail the pushups. If someone was motivated, they could spend a month working on them and go from 20 to 45 like nothing. And mandatory formations aren't that bad either. I think the AF takes care of us a lot better than other services with their servicemembers, so be a little grateful. Outlook is everything.

NomenNescio
Aug 19, 2006
Are any of you guys CTI in the Navy? Where do you typically get stationed, is it primarily land or sea? I imagine school is pretty fast paced having to learn a language in such a short period of time but afterwards is it more relaxed? I know the AF has airborne cryptologists, is this a possibility in the Navy? That would be awesome! My recruiter doesn't know too much about it beyond needing to take the DLAB. Thanks!

ElHuevoGrande
May 21, 2006

Oh. . .

NomenNescio posted:

Are any of you guys CTI in the Navy? Where do you typically get stationed, is it primarily land or sea? I imagine school is pretty fast paced having to learn a language in such a short period of time but afterwards is it more relaxed? I know the AF has airborne cryptologists, is this a possibility in the Navy? That would be awesome! My recruiter doesn't know too much about it beyond needing to take the DLAB. Thanks!

I'm a CTI for 7 more weeks before I separate. You almost always get stationed on shore, at a base determined by what language you learn. On occasion, they give 1st term folks direct support orders, which mean tagging along with a ship or sub for a few months, then going back home for a while. 2nd tour, you can do direct support for sure, to include aircrew. Our version of airborne linguist isn't a specific MOS, so I would imagine type of orders would be a little more flexible WRT platform than the AF.

I found DLI to be a blast. The Chinese seemed to just fall into my head like nothing, and I spent a lot of my time screwing around the bay area. Language turned out to be a freaky hidden skill that I didn't know about. However, other people find it to be a constant crucible of pain and suffering. (Ask Hammeredspace) You won't know which one you are until you get there.

You didn't ask, but I hate my job. Lack of intelligence oversight, epic chain of command bullshittery, and lack of a substantive mission have made my experience hellish. I used to dry heave for like 20 min every morning because of work related anxiety. The Air Force has linguists who do essentially the same job as I do, but with a much higher quality of life.

Join the Air Force

Dirk Digglet
Aug 17, 2009

When I close my eyes, I see this thing, a sign, I see this name in bright blue neon lights with a purple outline
oh god our good ole former red rope cant do pushups.

Id post more about chinese but im drunk as poo poo right now. got 2 tests tomorrow.

what I WILL say is dont be afraid of your teacher using words you thought you knew in a different way. "对" and "了" in particular brought me to my knees, but just give it time. chinese grammar has been around for 5000 years, and those people use words however the gently caress they feel like. you will learn this.

NomenNescio
Aug 19, 2006
Air Force was actually my first choice but I needed a waiver for an underage drinking ticket and an eye condition and the Air Force wouldn't give me both. The Navy's restrictions weren't as tight; I didn't need a waiver for the ticket and they got me the med waiver pretty quickly. I'm set up to take the DLAB Thursday and if all goes well I'll be a CTI.

I didn't ask but I really appreciate you telling me, it was one of the questions on my mind but I didn't want my post to be a clusterfuck of questions. What's your shift schedule like? I've read hours can be pretty laid back and you have plenty of free time when you're not working. I actually think Chinese would be interesting to learn if you pick it up pretty well. It would also be useful in the business world if you choose to go that route after separation. Do you have any plans yet?

ElHuevoGrande
May 21, 2006

Oh. . .
I've been on 6:30 to 2:30 for the past 2 years. There's a rotating shift schedule at my command, but not every shop adheres to it. And yes, I have plenty of time to dick around on the forums. I'm on shore duty, so I'm not at the beck and call of some plane's deployment/maintenance schedule. If you have a working hours preference, they try to help you out with that. (sometimes.)

I'm going the contractor route. It's not the pile of gold bricks people say, but it's pretty drat good. I'm also applying to a couple of investment banks doing intrusion analysis. I hope to join JP Morgan Chase in destroying the country.

I think the important thing to ask yourself is: can I wait 4 years for this to pay off? I got some kickass benefits from my time in the Navy, to include:

PRK eye surgery (currently 20/10)
a college degree with tuition assistance
a new car
a TS/SCI security clearance
fluency in Chinese
free cancer treatment
networking that helped me with my job search
$50,000 in savings


The downside is that my job sucked so much that I made myself physically ill with anxiety. If you can make a tradeoff like that, than go for it. If not, be an IS or CTN

EDIT: I don't mean to be that negative. You may love being a linguist, and be really good at it. It just wasn't for me.

ElHuevoGrande fucked around with this message at 07:46 on Mar 8, 2011

Barracuda Bang!
Oct 21, 2008

The first rule of No Avatar Club is: you do not talk about No Avatar Club. The second rule of No Avatar Club is: you DO NOT talk about No Avatar Club
Grimey Drawer
What exactly was it that made it so bad that it made you sick?

ElHuevoGrande
May 21, 2006

Oh. . .

Barracuda Bang! posted:

What exactly was it that made it so bad that it made you sick?

Toxic command climate. My command is notorious for an adversarial, hostile atmosphere. While the job itself was just kind of boring, the people I had to work with made it hellish.

Aside from climate issues, the lack of organization made it impossible to get anything done. A few years ago, I went into the hospital for radiation treatment. When I got out, I had a message from my LCPO threatening to mark me UA for missing morning muster. That sort of Keystone Kops poo poo is funny at a distance, but when the Career Counselor is repeatedly trashing your paperwork because he has a backlog of command directed paperwork, it can push you to a nervous breakdown.

genderstomper58
Jan 10, 2005

by XyloJW
hahaha ok man

but thank you for proving the thread title correct drat

ElHuevoGrande
May 21, 2006

Oh. . .
It's true. I am the King Sperg.

genderstomper58
Jan 10, 2005

by XyloJW
oh my god *vomits*

GreenMeat
Sep 2, 2002
slow mutant
I hope all you army cryptolinguist dudes that took Chinese, Russian or Spanish recently enjoyed DLI, because the DA G2 has cut those languages from the army inventory. Look forward to going back for Pashto, Korean, Farsi, Dari or French should you decide to re-enlist.

ManMythLegend
Aug 18, 2003

I don't believe in anything, I'm just here for the violence.
Do any of you know where I could find a list of the language skills across the military? Like what percentages speak which languages?

TheUnhorse
Oct 29, 2010

Smartest little intel sperg in the whole world

GreenMeat posted:

I hope all you army cryptolinguist dudes that took Chinese, Russian or Spanish recently enjoyed DLI, because the DA G2 has cut those languages from the army inventory. Look forward to going back for Pashto, Korean, Farsi, Dari or French should you decide to re-enlist.

What's the scuttlebutt on Arabic? I mean, poo poo's winding down but it's suspiciously not in either list...

Edit: Oh also, how's the progress on your 35P scheme? Inquiring minds want to know.

QingLaiXiguaba
Apr 4, 2010

ManMythLegend posted:

Do any of you know where I could find a list of the language skills across the military? Like what percentages speak which languages?

The Marine Corps just closed out the East Asian linguist MOS for re-enlistment this year, and we're only about halfway through the fiscal year. That covers Chinese, Korean, and Tagalog.

Eastern Europe/Afghanistan languages (Russian, Dari, Pashtu) is still taking guys, but don't go into that field if promotion is important to you. It's been closed out for promotion to Corporal for 6-7 month stretches over the past 2 years.

Mind you, we're just now winding down the end of a massive linguist recruiting effort, so that probably has something to do with it. Just in the time I've been in, about 2 1/2 years, the number of Marines in linguist school has doubled.

NomenNescio
Aug 19, 2006
I passed the DLAB and signed as a CTI today, shipping in October.

GreenMeat
Sep 2, 2002
slow mutant

TheUnhorse posted:

What's the scuttlebutt on Arabic? I mean, poo poo's winding down but it's suspiciously not in either list...

Edit: Oh also, how's the progress on your 35P scheme? Inquiring minds want to know.

Nothing on the projected cut list except those that I mentioned. The 35P thing's kinda idling; we're gonna do an all-SIGINT-MOS review in a few months and discuss some possible courses of action.

VideoTapir
Oct 18, 2005

He'll tire eventually.
Korean could be pretty fun, and probably easy, if you speak Chinese. You'll probably drive your teachers up a wall.

Pucklynn
Sep 8, 2010

chop chop chop

VideoTapir posted:

Korean could be pretty fun, and probably easy, if you speak Chinese. You'll probably drive your teachers up a wall.

My ex had a degree in Chinese before he took Korean. He said it was pretty easy to make connections between the two and guess the meaning of Sino words once he knew how the Chinese sounds would translate into Korean.

I'm hoping to eventually do the same thing, but backwards. I'll finish my Korean degree then see if they'll send me back for Chinese eventually.

TK_421
Aug 26, 2005

I find your lack of faith disturbing.
Sorry to resurrect this thread, but here's a quick, somewhat off topic question for anyone currently or recently at DLI. I just watched the Mythbusters episode that aired on 5/18, and Adam and Jamie test a myth about hood mounted machine guns. For the test, they drive around an "abandoned military base" that looks suspiciously like Fort Ord (or at least what I remember it looking like from 3 years ago). It's the only "abandoned military base" I can think of anywhere near San Francisco, where they film. Can anyone confirm / deny if they filmed there? If so, did anyone know about / get to see the filming?

VideoTapir
Oct 18, 2005

He'll tire eventually.
The flora on Ft. Ord ought to be pretty distinctive, but here is a list of other nearby closed military bases, most of which would probably have some space available for a Mythbusters stunt like that, if not sufficiently understanding neighbors:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton_Air_Force_Base
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mather_AFB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidio_of_San_Francisco
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_AFB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moffett_NAS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento_Army_Depot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mare_Island_Naval_Shipyard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Air_Station_Alameda
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Station_Treasure_Island
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McClellan_Air_Force_Base
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concord_Naval_Weapons_Station
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_Army_Base

TK_421
Aug 26, 2005

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Huh. Color me surprised. I'll re-watch it and try to pick out anything distinctive, but the buildings looked just like the ones at Ft. Ord (when I was there for immersion or visiting classmates who lived in the off-post housing area). It also struck me as suspicious that they didn't name the location, like they always do "XXX gun range, San Francisco Police Department's bomb range, etc.". That led me to jump to Ft. Ord because of the DLI association.

Trabisnikof
Dec 24, 2005

I think they usually use Alameda Naval Air Station or Treasure Island Naval Station.

Edit: The reason they are so "secretive" about the location is more to keep the fans away than anything else.

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Whip Slagcheek
Sep 21, 2008

Finally
The Gasoline And Dynamite
Will Light The Sky
For The Night


ryan_woody posted:

Huh. Color me surprised. I'll re-watch it and try to pick out anything distinctive, but the buildings looked just like the ones at Ft. Ord (when I was there for immersion or visiting classmates who lived in the off-post housing area). It also struck me as suspicious that they didn't name the location, like they always do "XXX gun range, San Francisco Police Department's bomb range, etc.". That led me to jump to Ft. Ord because of the DLI association.

The Fort Ord wikipedia says that its been used in the past for Mythbusters episodes. :iiam:

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