JBLM/DLI "bootcamp challenge"?

Ongoing language-learning challenges, and team challenge logs (but not individual logs)
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Chung
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JBLM/DLI "bootcamp challenge"?

Postby Chung » Wed Dec 19, 2018 6:12 pm

As the new year draws closer, I'm wondering if anyone would like to start 2019 with a challenge lasting 4 weeks using a common resource: the 200-Hour Familiarization Course.

This material is meant as a supplement for Department of Defense staff among others in the military needing a bit of training in a foreign language before shipping out. The course content has a clear military bent only in one chapter (out of the 20); the remaining topics are fine for civilians and typical of what you'd see in a volume of "Teach Yourself..." or "Colloquial...".

Apart from being freely-downloadable, the other advantages of these familiarization courses is that they include audio (albeit with words in vocabulary lists and sentences from dialogues split into individual .mp3 tracks) and answer keys to about half of the exercises. I think that these are suitable for someone here wanting to do a primer on some foreign language, and learn a bit about the culture (circa 2005) of the region or country where the language is native.

I'm about to start working through the course for Azeri but will use it to review the knowledge that I've gained so far by using other resources. If anyone would like to spend January getting a primer in Azeri, feel free to "enlist". Perhaps this could be a good opportunity for someone who finds learning a little Azeri to be too intimidating without some support, and for better or worse I can answer certain questions already about the bare basics of the language. If someone likes it, he/she is free to extend the "deployment" for another month using this course. I'll be studying Azeri all the while by chugging along with "Elementary Azerbaijani" and "Azerbaijani for Beginners".

I think that this kind of very short challenge sticking to one textbook (and/or one language) is also easier to handle than a longer one. The Turkic Challenge was drawn out at 23 months and covered several languages (albeit all of the same group), and frankly, I as the leader could count only on myself going to the end. I did have more success with a mini "challenge" of Northern Saami, in which a few of us spent a month working through a primer of Northern Saami that I had created at hribecek's request. It seems that challenges are more likely to succeed when thought of like gym memberships. The enthusiasm and team spirit are greatest in January while they're dead by Valentine's Day. With that in mind, spending just one month (maximum) on one language with a free primer (and offline) is more likely to succeed than something that lasts longer regardless of how many languages are involved or how many free resources are made available. The FLC reminds me a little of how the Turkic challenge plodded along. The 6WC is different with its scorekeeping, and doesn't necessarily lend itself to teamwork when everyone can use different material.

Of course, if anyone would like to lead a challenge for January 2019 only to explore some other language using this material, feel free. Who knows how long this material will be available. If I had nothing to do (hahaha) and wanted to be a nerd about a new language, I'd probably sign up to start small doing a month's work with the Indonesian or Tajiki course.
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Re: JBLM/DLI "bootcamp challenge"?

Postby rdearman » Wed Dec 19, 2018 7:42 pm

When I try to download anything it says resource no longer exists??
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Re: JBLM/DLI "bootcamp challenge"?

Postby Chung » Wed Dec 19, 2018 8:05 pm

rdearman wrote:When I try to download anything it says resource no longer exists??


The site's weird. If you click on "Resources" at the top of the screen and then "Familiarization Courses", click on "Lessons" to get the online course and embedded audio links or a copy of just the textbook in .pdf (no embedded audio links). The link "Download" doesn't work.

Ah, screw it. Here's the list of languages.

Albanian
Amharic
Arabic, Iraqi
Arabic, Modern Standard
Arabic, Syrian
Azeri
Bengali
Burmese
Cantonese
Dari
Farsi
French
Georgian
Hausa
Hebrew
Hindi
Ilocano
Indonesian
Javanese
Kazakh
Khmer
Kurmanji
Mandarin
Nepalese
Polish
Punjabi
Sinhala
Somali
Sorani
Sudanese
Swahili
Tagalog
Tajik
Tamil
Tausug
Turkish
Turkmen
Urdu
Uzbek
Vietnamese

---

Again, if anyone wants to learn some survival Azeri in January using the Azeri course from JBLM as the "anchor" material, just let me know. Dip your toes in an agglutinative language with some Iranian, Arabic and Russian loanwords to see how you like it.
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Re: JBLM/DLI "bootcamp challenge"?

Postby Maiwenn » Thu Dec 20, 2018 9:20 am

'Sudanese' is also an Arabic dialect.

This seems like a great challenge, I wish you the best of luck!
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Re: JBLM/DLI "bootcamp challenge"?

Postby samothin » Thu Dec 20, 2018 10:26 am

Thanks Chung for sharing this resource. I've been looking for something like this for Tamil for quite a while.

I personally felt the progression in Colloquial Tamil series is quite steep, and the transliteration is hard to translate to Tamil script.

I'd take a look at chapter 1, but most probably will use it as my anchor for Tamil learning in 2019.
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Re: JBLM/DLI "bootcamp challenge"?

Postby Speakeasy » Fri Dec 21, 2018 11:17 am

Chung, that you very much for bringing these courses to our collective attention. Earlier this year, I updated an old discussion thread of the “U.S. Army Special Forces 200 Hour Familiarization Courses” that I had launched in May, 2016. At the time of the update, we had been able to identify two commercial resellers of these materials but had not yet located a U.S. Government source. I will cross-link the two threads. Thanks, once again!

U.S. Army Special Forces 200 Hour Familiarization Courses – LLORG – May, 2016 (updated July, 2018)
https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=2744

EDITED:
Formatting.
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Re: JBLM/DLI "bootcamp challenge"?

Postby Ani » Sat Dec 29, 2018 2:37 am

I'd be really into this if it weren't this month, during which I'll be moving across the country.
Great idea for a challenge. Would love to join if it happens again later or maybe coinciding with a 6wc in the future..
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Re: JBLM/DLI "bootcamp challenge"?

Postby rdearman » Sat Dec 29, 2018 12:25 pm

Ani wrote:I'd be really into this if it weren't this month, during which I'll be moving across the country.
Great idea for a challenge. Would love to join if it happens again later or maybe coinciding with a 6wc in the future..

I didn't realise this was a monthly thing? Are we going to do a challenge a month?
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Re: JBLM/DLI "bootcamp challenge"?

Postby Brun Ugle » Sat Dec 29, 2018 3:20 pm

rdearman wrote:
Ani wrote:I'd be really into this if it weren't this month, during which I'll be moving across the country.
Great idea for a challenge. Would love to join if it happens again later or maybe coinciding with a 6wc in the future..

I didn't realise this was a monthly thing? Are we going to do a challenge a month?

That sounds a bit excessive to me, but it would be nice if the challenge repeated sometime in the future, maybe every year or twice a year, possibly at different times of the year for those who are especially busy at certain times.
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Re: JBLM/DLI "bootcamp challenge"?

Postby rdearman » Sat Dec 29, 2018 4:13 pm

Brun Ugle wrote:
rdearman wrote:
Ani wrote:I'd be really into this if it weren't this month, during which I'll be moving across the country.
Great idea for a challenge. Would love to join if it happens again later or maybe coinciding with a 6wc in the future..

I didn't realise this was a monthly thing? Are we going to do a challenge a month?

That sounds a bit excessive to me, but it would be nice if the challenge repeated sometime in the future, maybe every year or twice a year, possibly at different times of the year for those who are especially busy at certain times.

I was thinking kinda like the 6WC, it happens each month but you don't have to join in. Or bi-monthly would be cool.
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