Interesting thing. I bought a copy of a 1944 DoD booklet with all sorts of vital translations like ‘hands up’, ‘stop’ ‘come forward’ etc. He said he never saw it. He was never told where he was fighting, other than the country. This would be a serious handicap in taking prisoners. He was manning a machine gun, so close enough to sometimes need to use such phrases. (To explain that phrase, he was back 100 yards from the men carrying rifles, providing covering fire. One reason probably being that it took 2-3 men to lug it around with the ammunition, so it was not mobile enough to be the point.) But he also participated in searching buildings, since that was when he found the concealed lugar he had.
My question is, how much language training are the soldiers in Iraq getting? I remember a few days ago that soldiers heard Iraqis talking close to them but then someone starting shelling not too far away and the Iraqis left. No one knew if they had wished to surrender but debated it. Why did no one call out, ‘Surrender now or die’?
Thanks.
Former Navy linguist chiming in
People who get language training - usually in the military’s Defense Language Institute in California - usually do monitoring (e.g. wear headphones for hours and hours). They aren’t often used in the Navy for actually talking to people. When the Navy intercepts small vessels in the Persian Gulf to check for contraband, it usually won’t send a trained linguist, but will just look for someone on board who speaks English. However, linguists who go through the necessary rigorous training, however, can work with a SEAL unit and use their language knowledge in prisoner scenarios.
That’s the Navy, or at least how it was years ago when I was in. I’m unsure of how the Army or Marines use their linguists.
UnuMondo
I am sure the other branches have a similar policy. What I meant was that say the top 25 or 100 phrases you might need if no one among the crew spoke or wished to speak English. In the Navy, for example, ship’s log, bill of lading, captain, etc. would be helpful. For anyone ‘freeze’ might be critical since who knows if they are reaching for a pistol or a pen. The average enlisted man doesn’t need to talk about the weather or details of the local organisation.
Thanks for the help.
In GW1, we all tried to learn a few Iraqi words. “STOP” being primary. But knowing a few word you can speak, and being able to understand the other language spoken to you are two completely different things.
I don’t know about anyone else but if someone points a gun at me I think it would translate universally into put your hands up and stand real still. LOL
People get the strangest ideas in such situations. I believe the black man shot in his garage 41 times (big police scandal) was also reaching for a piece of paper. The instructions call for the Iraqis to have the paper in hand, I beleive, esp. since you see them carrying it that way. Now my hand would too sweaty to carry there for long. So I might carry in a shirt pocket and wish to produce it.
What about at night? You are in the shadows, the Iraqis in the light. How are they going to see your gun?
What if you motion for the person to come forward but he follows the wrong path because the ground is rough, maybe there is a hole that you can’t see but he has his head down to see where to step and can’t see your motioning.
What if he has been hurt, you pat him down and he flinches when you get to the hurt area (maybe just fell and no bruise has formed yet). Language is very necessary.
It is nice that people pick up words while in the region, my father did as well. Used ‘Rauss mit’ the rest of his life but there should be formal training conducted by the armed forces. Formal training consisting of passing out booklets with key phrases, perhaps having one of these trained linguists help them in classes to do a better job of pronunciation. We DO wish to show we are friendly with the Iraqi people, not act like bank robbers (maybe oil robbers). I should think language training would be a cheap effective means of doing just that, besides saving lives, theirs and ours. Therefore, I asked.
I agree that it would be impossible to understand a conversation but I always listen to conversations here to see if I can pick up ‘horasho’, then I know Russian is being spoken. should think ‘surrender’ could also be picked out.
To put it another way, one of the bigger peeves the Lithuanians had with the Russians (I hear it less often now) was that they occupied the country for 50 years and never learned the language. Of course, in the 40’s and early 50’s, Russians were taught that Lithuanians were a treacherous lot and the only good Lithuanian was a dead Lithuanian.
I imagine the Iraqis would also take kindly to soldiers who spoke at least a little of their language.