GRADUATION!!!

So, it's a little late, but this is the final paper chain picture. On March 17th, Nathan graduated from the DLI. We've had a lot of people asking the same questions, and in all honesty, there are some aspects about his graduation that can be a bit confusing for people. So in this post I'm going to try to explain everything, and then the next post will be actual pictures.

When Nathan began class, there was a total of 24 people in it. During the 18 months of class, students are often either rolled back or reclassed for not maintaining a GPA that meets standards. Rolled back means that student is put into a class that started sometime after his/her current class. For example, a student could be in Week 60 and failing and The Powers That Be decide that he/should be put into a class that is currently in Week 30 (or whatever). This way that student is able to review old material and hopefully do better the next time around. Reclassed means that the student is kicked out of the DLI and given another job. For example, we have a friend who was reclassed into Personnel, so she is no longer a Linguist. This sounds like a bad thing, getting kicked out and all. But it really isn't. The DLI is EXTREMELY intense, and there are plenty of intelligent people who just aren't successful. This way they are put into jobs that hopefully they will enjoy and perform well. In addition to the people who can't quite keep their grades up, there are always a few idiots who get kicked out of the military altogether for things like drugs.

What all this means is that by the end of the course, there were 15 out of 24 students left in Nathan's class. But even then there is one last, all-important hurdle to clear: the much-dreaded DLPT (Defense Language Proficiency Test). Even if you have a stellar GPA and have proven yourself to be a language genius, if you don't pass this test you cannot be a linguist. So it's a pretty big deal. Out of the 15 students left in the class, only 9 passed the DLPT.

The really strange part of this is that even though only 9 passed, all 15 did graduate. They just aren't certified in the language yet and cannot be linguists. Most of the 6 are taking what is called post class. This is a remedial class that is about 2 months long. At the end they will retake the DLPT and hopefully pass as it is their one last chance. If not, I guess it's reclassing for them.

One other cool thing is that Nathan is actually certified in two languages: the Iraqi dialect and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Not many from his class were able to accomplish this. Nathan's final tests included 3 parts: speaking, listening, and reading. This is true of all languages there, but it is a bit problematic for some of the dialects because they are often only spoken and not written. Because Iraqi is one of those, the students had to take the reading portion in MSA. Since they took the reading portion of the DLPT in MSA, it was decided to go ahead and give them the listening portion as well and just see if anyone could pass it. Listening to MSA was never really studied, and it is quite a bit different than Iraqi, so it was a bit of a long shot. But, every language you certify in gives you bonus pay, so it was definitely worth a try!

MSA was always Nathan's weak point on tests, so we really weren't sure if he would pass the listening test. Surprisingly, Nathan was the only airman in his class to pass it. (We're not sure about the Navy guys in the class.) This means he is certified in 2 languages and we will get about a $450 bonus every month. Woo-hoo!

Looking forward, Nathan will have to retest every year, so the main challenge will be to self-study and keep up his skills. Hopefully, once he starts doing his actual job he will be using the language so it won't be too difficult. However, the next year is more schooling and training that may not be language-related, so this year will be the "danger zone." I think, anyway. But, he is definitely one smart cookie and can do it!