THE Defense Language Institute is the largest linguistic educational institution in the United States. It provides linguistic education in dozens and dozens of languages throughout the world. Their students though are not the general public but only those involved in the military, intelligence or law enforcement and sanctioned by the government. Still, this institution has an impressive list of professors. That’s why the methods employed here are replicated by civilian language institutions all across America.

The stealth nature of the school comes from its secret roots. Unsurprisingly enough, the Defense Language Institute began before World War II when military forces of the United States were taught the Japanese language at a certain classroom in the Presidio of San Francisco. The still crude school then moved to Camp Savage, Minnesota by 1942 when war in the Pacific was in full swing. By 1944 when the harshest battles of World War II are about to be capped, the language school was moved again, this time to Fort Snelling still in Minnesota. From 1941 to 1944, it has produced more than 6,000 graduates who went to the war in Japan. Yet the existence of the school remained secret from the Japanese at the time. After 1946, the Japanese language school was moved back to California but this time in Monterey at still another military camp there. It is said that because of the success of the language school during the anti-Japanese campaign, its curriculum was expanded. The now renamed Army Language School was even more relevant with the onset of the Cold War. The United States government hastily included Russian and several Eastern European languages into its program. They also include Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese as communism has spread in Asia. By 1963, it has accommodated Air Force and Navy students already and the Defense Language Institute is born. It has its own building at Washington, DC. The Monterey campus is retained though and the Air Force students are taught in Lackland AFB, Texas. During the Vietnam War, the Defense Intelligence Institute was able to produce more than 20,000 graduates.

Before a potential Army, Air Force or Navy student can enter graduate school, it must be determined first by his immediate superior who will recommend the proper action to his superiors in turn. A soldier may either apply for a slot at the Defense Language Institute or it may be recommended by his immediate superior. But the application process doesn’t stop there. The soldier must pass the Defense Language Aptitude Battery to determine if he or she has potential to use the language fluently upon graduating from the six-month class. Just like any language course, the entrance exam consists of two parts – written and listening skills. For the written part, it only consists of multiple choice questions but these can be very tricky. As determined by the authorities, the language categories are the following: Western European languages for the first category, German for the second category, Eastern European languages for the third category and Asian languages for the fourth category.