Let the military pay you to learn Chinese (US military)

I have the blessing of studying Chinese for my job, which means Monday-Friday 6 hour long classes a day of straight Chinese. I'm training to be a linguist for the army right now (in Monterey CA too). Though, keep in mind this job is open to all branches.

​

I imagine most people studying Chinese are adults with a relatively set plan but I'd like to explain this anyway on the off chance I can spark someone's interest.

Basically if you want to get paid decent, not have to worry about housing/food, pay off college debts, travel and go to the best language school in the world have I got a deal for you (im not a recruiter I swear).

​

There are 2 big requirements, obviously you cant be too fat, but don't underestimate yourself if they let you in you will be able to pass basic I was a couch potato that had never run a mile straight and could hardly do 20 terrible push ups when I shipped out and I made it through just fine (so did all the fatties in my company).

Then are the two tests: ASVAB and DLAB. ASVAB is easy (if you're on this sub you are smart enough to get high 90s on the ASVAB). The DLAB is a test of your language learning ability, you basically have to decipher a completely made up language, it's a very interesting test and very difficult. If you fail your recruiter is going to try to get you to go into some other job just tell them no I want to take the test again or just say bye. If they tell you the position isn't open you can still take the test anyway (they should let you) and then tell them to call you once a spot is open, they aren't gonna like this but there's nothing they can do about it.

Then you go to basic training which is not as hard as movies would have you believe, I went to Army basic and though mentally it kinda sucks, I, a skinny boy with flat feet and no athletic ability at all, did totally fine in terms of physical training. Cant speak for the other boot camps but I do know they focus a lot more heavily on cleaning and uniform bullshit.

Then comes the fun part, they ship you out to Monterey CA to learn Chinese for 18 months, in that time you will get as close to fluent as one can get without actually moving to China. During this time your command is really laissez-faire as they are aware how hard the course is and don't want to stress you out unnecessarily, so basically it is college except you're in a uniform and you are paid to be there.

I know I spent a lot of time talking about the annoying hoops you gotta jump through, but they are mild inconveniences compared to the literal life changing benefits that comes with being a vet fluent in Chinese. Once you are done with your first contract the private sector is crawling with opportunity, big companies understand what being in a military intel field means. That coupled with the fact that Chinese and English are the two most important languages at the moment will make getting a job that pays way more than the military a cake walk. Also the GI bill covers colleges anywhere in the world, so what I plan on doing is going to Taiwan for college and looking for work opportunity there.

Yeesh that's a lot longer than I intended it to be, if you made it this far thanks for reading! If you have any questions I'd love to answer!

submitted by /u/ImFrigginDead
[link] [comments]

from r/ChineseLanguage: a community for people who are studying, teaching, or interested in Chinese! http://bit.ly/2VWhHCr

--------
More tips about learning Chinese
http://hellolearnchinese.com