Quote Originally Posted by zenpundit
Intense language mastery programs - like DLI - are often followed by immersion in order to pick up cultural nuances...
Unfortunately, immersion is not an automatic follow-on to language training at DLI. Most FAOs will end up in a country speaking their target language. But many other soldiers graduate and then do not use their language again until its time to take their next DLPT. For a long time, outside of the SOF community, most conventional units did not have regular deployments into locations where their assigned language-capable personnel could have a chance to operate. Korean linguists used to be an obvious exception, with the regular tours in-country keeping them solid. Also pre-9/11 most units had programs in place where they would send their linguists TDY for in-country immersion programs of varying length and quality. The current optempo has really cut into that, but it still goes on. For those learning Arabic at least, now damn near everyone who completes the course can expect a tour in Iraq. But the Arabic program is MSA, not Iraqi dialect, so the soldier has another learning curve to drive through when he arrives in-country.
...inflection, gesture, body language -that would normally accompany colloquial speech. The student would really have to be alert and ideally the natives around him/her unaware they were objects of study. Can everyone do this well ? Probably not.
So true. HUMINTers especially need to develop that type of kinesic and cognitive awareness. Unfortunately, the schoolhouse barely mentions that at any phase of training. And even among those who are formally trained in that type of neuro-linguistic situational awareness, not all can apply it in practice.