DLI language enrollment over the years

[lavengro]

Attached is a link to a Duolingo thread concerning changing languages focus at the Defence Language Institute over the 1963 to 2018 period: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/36176619

Here is a fun interactive graphic https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/1187267/

[IronMike]

Attached is a link to a Duolingo thread concerning changing languages focus at the Defence Defense Language Institute over the 1963 to 2018 period: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/36176619

Here is a fun interactive graphic https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/1187267/

Fixed your post for ya.

[lavengro]

Attached is a link to a Duolingo thread concerning changing languages focus at the Defence Defense Language Institute over the 1963 to 2018 period: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/36176619

Here is a fun interactive graphic https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/1187267/

Fixed your post for ya.

Thanks Mike. Yep, it's my Canadian upbringing slipping out: https://www.canada.ca/en/department-national-defence.html

[chove]

Spot the end of the Cold War!

[Cainntear]

Spot the end of the Cold War!

You're exaggerating now -- it was just a minor disagreement over spelling conventions.

[Lemus]

Anyone want to venture a guess why New Testament Greek spent a brief time at number one? I'm not shocked it was a commonly studied language in 1963 but I am wondering why the DLI specifically was training people in it.

Maybe there is military value in being able to conduct advanced theological debates in certain cultures?

[IronMike]

Anyone want to venture a guess why New Testament Greek spent a brief time at number one? I'm not shocked it was a commonly studied language in 1963 but I am wondering why the DLI specifically was training people in it.

Maybe there is military value in being able to conduct advanced theological debates in certain cultures?

I'll guess: Either for chaplains or they didn't have any Modern Greek instructors available at the time. ???

[Speakeasy]

Anyone want to venture a guess why guess why New Testament Greek spent a brief time at number one? I'm not shocked it was a commonly studied language in 1963 but I am wondering why the DLI specifically was training people in it. Maybe there is military value in being able to conduct advanced theological debates in certain cultures?

I'll guess: Either for chaplains or they didn't have any Modern Greek instructors available at the time. ???

I'll take the chaplains option with a huge grain of salt. Unless, of course, their prospective ministries were fluent in New Testament Greek, as well. This leaves the latter option which seems a little strange given the availability of comparable FSI Greek materials, not to mention a few others of the same period. I suspect that this will remain one of the “great unresolved mysteries” of language-learning.

[IronMike]

Anyone want to venture a guess why guess why New Testament Greek spent a brief time at number one? I'm not shocked it was a commonly studied language in 1963 but I am wondering why the DLI specifically was training people in it. Maybe there is military value in being able to conduct advanced theological debates in certain cultures?

I'll guess: Either for chaplains or they didn't have any Modern Greek instructors available at the time. ???

I'll take the chaplains option with a huge grain of salt. Unless, of course, their prospective ministries were fluent in New Testament Greek, as well. This leaves the latter option which seems a little strange given the availability of comparable FSI Greek materials, not to mention a few others of the same period. I suspect that this will remain one of the “great unresolved mysteries” of language-learning.

Another option: Whoever created this report or loaded the 'stats' at DLI picked the wrong language bi- or trigraph for modern Greek and got New Testament Greek.