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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'."
Admittedly, a few words can be learned, enabling simple communication. If this is all that they have in mind, this is perhaps a feasible objective. But the quote makes it sound as if the soldiers will be truly communicating in the language. The article hedges it a bit more, focusing on problem specific communication, but I don't think it is fairly labeled 'discussion.' That is, I doubt that there will be very many fruitful 'discussions' *cough* interrogations *cough* if they must occur in Arabic.
Anyway, what the hell is a virtual 'cave'? 'Camp' is the term used in the article, and I still don't understand what either word has to do with things. Help!
~Dr. Weird~
"Now I can talk to that muslim chick at school!"... and discover Arabic slang for "loser"!
"Derp de derp."
the Army's job is to blow stuff up - not "rebuild villages"
BC
I presume by "virtual cave" the poster refers to the CAVE (CAVE Audio Video Environment), which is essentially a small room where most or all walls show computer-generated imagery (rather than using, say, a head-mounted display). I imagine USC has one or two for research purposes.
However, there's nothing in the article, the press release, or associated video clip to indicate this has anything to do with the language training. It all seems to be happening on a standard computer monitor. I'm a big advocate of CAVEs for all sorts of things, but I'm not sure what price-performance advantage it would have for language training.
The Arabic slang for "loser" is "fashel".
-Grump...it hurts to be called "fashel" =P
Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
yet we expect them to tiptoe around us..
It's been said that an armed populace is a polite populace. Why? because they're armed, and won't take shit. Well, that's what we got over there.
Don't like the American way? Most people would say go somewhere else. This *is* somewhere else. They apparently like their customs the way they are.
Why don't we kowtow to these other nationalities? because they're not lobbing airliners at buildings.
Maybe we can catch more with sugar than vinegar..
Restrictions are prohibited. Be well, get better.
But don't waste a red cent teaching 'em how to kowtow in the suks. The Arabs are just gonna have to learn to deal.
Special Forces operate in very small, mobile, independent units, typically six men per. Because of their small size they have to cross-train very heavily, so that each man in the unit can do every other man's job in a pinch, because they really don't have anyone else on whom they can rely.
When a six-man SF team approaches a 2000-person village needing food, information or shelter, or with the plan to befriend, arm, train and lead the villagers as a counterinsurgency force, they damn well *do* have to learn to kowtow and to get along effectively. Offending the villagers will at the very least compromise their mission and it could get them all dead.
This sort of education isn't about political correctness, it's as coldly practical as weapons training.
(I speak from moderate knowledge; I was a member of Charlie company, 19th SF Group, Utah Army National Guard, for my last year of high school. I moved to the Air Force because I realized the amount of training I would have had to do for my SF job (26 months) was more than I was willing to invest in a part-time job. That plus the fact that there were some seriously scary people in my unit, and I didn't want to end up like them.)
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
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.
This statement is soley based upon media coverage, and may be entirely inaccurate - post corrections, not flames, below ;-)
Ok.
Notice the Poms in Iraq.
They go around in a (fairly) non-threatening manner. They smile at the kids, they try to get along. Having the experience of wandering around Belfast trying to keep the peace, they've learned to be nice and stay cool with the population, because a lot less bad shit happens that way.
The yanks, god bless 'em, seem to have a military with the Sole Purpose Of Wiping The Other Guy Out. That's great, except in Iraq, they're past that phase. Things need to cool down, everyone needs to try and refocus. I know, media is biased, but all I see of americans in Iraq are people all gung-ho.
This is the mindset that needs to change if they're going to get anywhere, because nobody wants some asshole all "yeah! respect mah authoritah,biatch!" in their face, especially one that you think is beginning to overstay their welcome in your country.
This program then, is a good idea, to promote some sort of cultural sensitivity. Not just arabic as some rather exitable people seem to comment on above, with their rants about why we should have to- any cultural sensitivity would be a good idea at this stage.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
Yes, it's all very totalitarian, and I wouldn't like to live in such a place... but I do believe that ant and bee colonies are the epitome of a *perfect* society. Note: perfect != nice
Cooperation is NOT the same as societal perfection. In fact, it's in many cases the opposite. We could efficiently cooperate to cannibalize our children or ethnic minorities, but how ethical or "perfect" would that be? I could risk Godwin's law and make a Nazi analogy but I don't have to--you should get the idea.
A "perfect" society, given human nature, probably isn't possible, but at the very least, it would have to be structured in a way similar to John Rawls' Theory of Justice. Note the lack of a totalitarian regime or Islamo-fascism.
Diversity isn't a weakness. In fact, it can be a great strength. Even in your ant colony example, what would happen if a bacterial infection were to hit the colony? Without genetic diversity, the entire colony would probably die. Biodiversity is very important to the viability of any population of organisms--humans included.
Diversity isn't possible if one side is completely intolerant of the other. As the grandparent expressed, Tolerance is a two-way street. I have no problem being intolerant and militarily aggressive towards of a bunch of barbaric cowards if they leave us no choice.
-Grym
*Note: The second link is gruesome, so click at your own discretion.
My only question is why this wasn't done years ago? Back when the build up started. All those soldiers were training to fight in the desert. They could have taken an hour from the day and learned the local customs and language. The human body works better when it has rests from time to time anyway.
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?
My stupid web site
Ummmm... I'm sorry to disappoint, but Iranians speak Farsi, not arabic.
To Quote from the Wikipedia article:
It should be noted that human languages, and the alphabet used to represent those languages in written form, are two different concepts and alphabets are not intrinsic to human languages. As such, Persian and Arabic are two entirely different languages from different linguistic families, with different phonology and grammar.
Persian adds four letters to the Arabic alphabet for its use, due to the fact the four sounds that exist in Persian do not exist in Arabic.
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