How Useful Is Knowing Italian or German As An Officer In The Army? (officers, enlisted)
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Right now I am fully bilingual (English/Spanish) and from a scale of
1-10 I am a likely 5 or 6 in Italian fluency. In June/1st/2014
I am entertaining the idea of a German language start!
Suitability reviews arrived and I am finally in shortly into
ROTC contract after BCT/AIT arrival, so the question; is being excellent in
Spanish and Italian VERY USEFUL as a US Army officer?
Do we get paid more for being fluent in Spanish and Italian?
Can we take the fluency exam before commissioning from ROTC to get
incentives? Spanish is my native language, Italian I've 40-60% fluency depending
what test I take (Berlitz,etc)
p.s- I thought of learning Arabic, but no passion there.
How useful is being fluent in Spanish, Italian or German as
a Lieutenant(or overall, officer) in the Army? (perhaps
for certain assignments only?)
Thanks!
p.p.s - I also passed he PMP (project manager professional certification)
from PMI.org recently, so wondering what particular officer duties would be
suited for the above, if any.
If you're a FAO in Italy or Germany, it'll come in handy. I don't know if MI officers can have a duty position where they are analysts/translators-- only MI officer I know that speaks several languages only used that skill set when she was enlisted. If you have one of the standard MFE branches, it won't come into play unless you find yourself on a NATO staff (assuming you're going active duty).
For incentive pay, certain languages are considered critical and you'd be paid a monthly bonus for establishing and maintaining proficiency in them-regardless of branch.
Italian, Spanish, and German aren't among those critical languages (languages like Chinese, Arabic, and Korean are the kinds that are).
In the late 80s I was an air liaison officer and spent some time in the field in West Germany. My fluency in German came in very handy there. Also, when in Turkey, due to the large number of Turkish gastarbeiters working in Germany my German was very useful, as it was a common language that helped on numerous occasions. However, with the de-emphasis on the Northern European AOR and the pullback from Germany, it's not as useful as it once was. As mentioned above, Chinese, Arabic, Korean, as well as Farsi and Russian would be more useful in today's world. Spanish, too, just in case anything heats up in this hemisphere, but it sounds like the OP's got that covered very well already.
Understanding or being fluent in any language can be useful with anything depending upon the circumstances where you find yourself. Learning and being certified in project management is useful but it would be useful with anything you do.
But this would be the same advice I would give for any career. Anytime you can learn something is worthwhile.
Bottomline, I wouldn't pursue those things you mention unless you like them for your personal learning.
If your fit for the military is good, it will fit. If not, it won't.
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