DARPA Funds Game To Teach Arabic To Army

finnhart writes "According to a [free reg. req.] New York Times article, DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has funded a project at the University of Southern California's School of Engineering to create a 'virtual camp' in which US soldiers can learn to speak Arabic, as well as learn local customs: 'All discussions with the villagers will have to be conducted in Arabic, and Sergeant Smith must comport himself with the utmost awareness of local customs so as not to arouse hostility. If successful, he will be paving the way for the rest of his unit to begin reconstruction work in the village'."

Comments

Re:Yay!

[NanoGator]

"Now I can talk to that muslim chick at school!"... and discover Arabic slang for "loser"!

not their job

[BigChigger]

the Army's job is to blow stuff up - not "rebuild villages"

BC

Some arabic you may be interested in

[0x54524F4C4C]

While reconstructing Iraq, use the following words so that people can recognize you're an american:

talhasteez = lick my ass
aho charmouta = brother of a bitch
acrout = the male for bitch

Sorry, but my arabic knowledge doesn't go beyond these things. Have luck.

Re:Learning a language is not that easy

[Andy Mitchell]

Obviously if you only have a short while in which to learn a foreign language its vital to learn just a few key phrases.

However, my experience of trying to learn foreign languages is that teachers always teach you the most inappropriate phrases first. For example, the first things I learnt to say in French was, "I speak French". Not much use being able to wonder round saying "I speak French" and nothing else.

Latter our French teacher seemed to have some obsession with the opening and closing of windows. While this was, at that point, a complete waste of time it did prove to be rather useful some 15 or so years latter when faced with a copy of French MS Windows. I'm sure the curriculum has been adjusted to ensure that no mention of windows is now made.

So I suspect the US soldiers will be trained with the Arabic version of the following useful phrases:

• I speak Arabic
• My name is sergeant bob.
• What time is it?
• Where is the nearest supermarket?

When more useful phrases might be:

• I'm sorry, I don't speak Arabic.
• Sorry, I thought you were Bin Laden. The doctor is on the way.
• I'm sorry we had to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to remove militants from the local mosque.
• Have you seen any weapons off mass destruction?
• No, not our weapons of mass destruction.

Klingon

[JimTheta]

I always thought it would be hilarious if it was revealed that that Klingon was the language of some small African or Asian nation. On the other hand, I'd feel sorry for those who'd have to serve the tourists in the few years after this was revealed.

Can you imagine having to be nice to Comic Book Guy, because his spending money is what you make in a year? And he can insult you fluently in your native tongue?