Quote Originally Posted by pcmfr View Post
I'm going to take a slightly different tack here: some language/culture training is better than no training. I doubt anyone who forks out the money to go to these courses is naive enough to believe that they are going to be completely wired to interact with the indig's in these countries, but at least they will give the impression that they have made some attempt to try to communicate in a native language. Yeah, it would be great if every single military, civilian or contractor who deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan was 3/3 in Arabic, Farsi, Pashto, Darri, you name the language, but that just ain't realistic.
Granted, any training is better than none - but at almost 1500 a pop plus TDY / TAD travel - I think that units / individuals could do much better for their money for five days worth of training / education.