DLIFLC Lingo

The effects of poverty on education are well-documented. But because education is one of the few ways out of poverty, it leads to a cycle that is difficult to break. For Edward Wang, a Chinese Mandarin instructor at...

Curtis Powell is part of the 5% of instructors at DLIFLC who aren't native speakers. That means Curtis is so good at his second language that he can teach others to speak it at a high proficiency. From Maryland to...

Sometimes learning a new language comes down to what motivates you. For Spanish instructor Lucia Artacho, it was, as she describes it, "dancy" music that helped her.

In 1985, Lana Al Mudhaffar and her family moved from the peace of northern England to a war zone in Basra, Iraq. Over 30 years later, Lana shares her experiences living in Iraq and the journey that led her to DLIFLC.

Kamola Umarova was born and raised in Uzbekistan, speaking both Uzbek and Russian with her family. A former Army linguist herself, Kamola talks about life before and after the Soviet Union, and what brought her to...

Baghdad wasn't always a war-torn city. To hear native-born Atoor Lawandow tell it, the Iraqi city is the center of the world. For more about Baghdad and how Atoor's journey brought her to Monterey, listen to the latest...

On the outset of the Iranian Revolution of 1978/1979, there were only a few Persian Farsi military linguists ready to jump into action. Michael Ruhm, Michael Sherman and Don Huntington, recent graduates of Persian...

When the Navy called for a Persian Farsi linguist to deploy to the Persian Gulf and cover the Iranian revolution in late 1979, the only options Tom Chesno had to offer were three Airmen who had just finished their...

Jerry Spivey and Vinnie Zinck began their Army careers during the Vietnam era. Back then, the draft was alive and well, their unofficial title was "lingies," and Asian languages were a hot commodity. This is their...

John Sullivan served 4 years in the Army as a Russian linguist in the late 70s and early 80s, a time when the Soviet Union was alive and well and very active. Some of the historical events John brushed up against back...

Henry Klaput didn't start his military career with plans to become a linguist, but in 1961 Henry found himself stationed in Berlin, freshly graduated from DLIFLC. Here is one man's account of life as a Russian linguist...

As if it being a military linguist wasn't challenge enough, Sgt. First Class Matthew Peterson took it a step further by becoming an Army Ranger. Now he's back at DLIFLC for a third round, this time as a Military...

30 years ago December 2019, Ceausescu's brutal regime abruptly ended in a public execution. Two-time DLIFLC graduate Branko Marinovich was a foreign area officer with the embassy at the time of revolution.