Language and Cultural Knowledge Improve Military Readiness

The Defense Language Institute’s Foreign Language Center views language and culture as “inextricably intertwined.” Col. Sue Ann Sandusky, commandant, Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center spoke with bloggers and online journalists during a DoDLive Bloggers Roundtable, March 30. Sandusky said that its instructors are native speakers recruited from the areas of the world where the languages being taught are spoken, giving students the opportunity to learn history, art, culture, politics and customs at the same time they learn languages the U.S. Military urgently needs to master. The FLC is just one piece of the Department of Defense’s commitment to enacting the National Security Language Initiative, a U.S. Government program to encourage foreign language education for Americans.

Joining us on the call was Chuck Simmons, of America's North Shore Journal.