Fairchild Airmen pick up language the fast, free way

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Connie L. Bias
  • 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
Learning a new language can be a long process. Some of us spent four years of high school instruction just trying to hold a conversation. (Some of us never really knew what we were talking about.) For many who kept at it in college, those conversations often came with a credit-hour price tag.

If the drawn-out, expensive path didn't work for you, there's a new teacher in town. "Rosetta Stone Language Learning Success" is the name of a computer-based, total-immersion language tutorial, and Fairchild Airmen can sign up for free at the library. After receiving a username, password and about 20 minutes of introductory training, new students are licensed in the program and ready to jump in.

"From the minute you turn it on, you are thrust into a new language," said Sherry Hokanson, library director. "It's like you're learning French as if you were born in France, because all you see is French."

The program offers a choice of 30 languages, including English. Program instruction includes verbal, oral and writing sections, and uses constant word-picture associations, so learning occurs multiple ways simultaneously.

"Just playing around with it and introducing it to other people, I was learning new words in different languages, at least well enough to complete some of the exercises," said Ms. Hokanson.

The education center purchased 25 program licenses last September; five of those are currently checked out. The licenses, purchased for one year, expire in September, and licenses for next year are contingent on funding. The language program itself doesn't place a time limitation on students to complete the course, though students' licenses are locked if they don't log into their account in a one-month period.

"The time it takes to complete a course really depends on the language," said Ms. Hokanson. "For instance, some languages, such as French and Spanish, have two levels in the program. Some also use a different alphabet, like Farsi or Greek."

The move to offer the language program on base began mid-2006 with the Air Force-leader initiative to beef up military education at all levels. In a letter to Airmen*, written in April, Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne wrote that we "must maintain our intellectual superiority with lifelong education for all Airmen - officer and enlisted." His letter went on to specifically state that "understanding different languages and different cultures is especially important in the Global War on Terror..."

Chief of Staff of the Air Force General T. Michael Moseley further highlighted the importance of foreign language skills in his Vector article "Shaping and Transforming the Force,"* published Aug. 13, stating our Total Force can "re-energize and re-focus our professional military education (PME) efforts into the necessary warfighting skills we see for the future - to include much more robust ... foreign language skills."

The Rosetta Stone language program responds directly to these calls for heightened language skills and comprehension among military members, and is available to any Airman on the base. Ms Hokanson said she plans to keep a reserve list of people interested in the program, so if anyone quits the course for any reason, the license can go immediately to another party.

To sign up for the program, stop by the library or call 247-5556.

*Editor's Note: Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff letters and publications can be found at http://www.af.mil/library/viewpoints/index.asp.