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United States Entertainment Games

DARPA Funds Game To Teach Arabic To Army 82

Posted by simoniker from the politeness-a-virtue dept.
finnhart writes "According to a [free reg. req.] New York Times article, DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has funded a project at the University of Southern California's School of Engineering to create a 'virtual camp' in which US soldiers can learn to speak Arabic, as well as learn local customs: 'All discussions with the villagers will have to be conducted in Arabic, and Sergeant Smith must comport himself with the utmost awareness of local customs so as not to arouse hostility. If successful, he will be paving the way for the rest of his unit to begin reconstruction work in the village'."
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DARPA Funds Game To Teach Arabic To Army More

DARPA Funds Game To Teach Arabic To Army

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  • Google Link (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Virtual Camp Trains Soldiers in Arabic, and More [nytimes.com]

    That's virtual camp, not cave.

    • Mates, it's a ploy, speaking Arabic is a prerequisite for invasion. Iran and Syria here we come.
      • I'm happy at least somebody noticed. To learn sufficient arabic to make conversation takes years. What does the US needs arabic-speaking soldiers for in a couple of years?

        This is not just a case of "being prepared just in case". It also sends a strong political signal that other arabic-speaking countries are on the list for invasion.

      • Re:Google Link (Score:3, Informative)

        by justanyone ( 308934 )

        Ummmm... I'm sorry to disappoint, but Iranians speak Farsi [wikipedia.org], not arabic.

        To Quote from the Wikipedia article:

        It should be noted that human languages, and the alphabet used to represent those languages in written form, are two different concepts and alphabets are not intrinsic to human languages. As such, Persian and Arabic are two entirely different languages from different linguistic families, with different phonology and grammar.

        Persian adds four letters to the Arabic alphabet for its use, due to t
        • I know this mate, but the public at large does indeed understand Arabic quite well. As in most Islamic nations all the general words and phrases are taught to kids.
  • Now I can talk to that muslim chick at school!

    • Re:Yay! (Score:3, Funny)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 )
      "Now I can talk to that muslim chick at school!"... and discover Arabic slang for "loser"!

      • Re:Yay! (Score:3, Informative)

        by ForestGrump ( 644805 )
        The Arabic slang for "loser" is "fashel".
        -Grump...it hurts to be called "fashel" =P
        • Actually, we've only included "Jerk!" so far, but I'll mention "Loser" at the next meeting.

          Yes, I work on this project, and yes, I get paid to make and play video games.

          Worship me.

          • glad i made a difference in your project...

            and yes, i believe it is authentic, i asked a muslim girl how to say "loser"...and maybe thinks i'm one..but tolerates me because I'm close to her roomate.
            • Yep, fashel=loser. Oddly enough, it has the same connotations and nuances in Arabic as it does in English.

              There is no exact word for Jerk (as far as I know) in Arabic, nor Nerd, Geek, or Dork...

              R.S. IAAA (I am an Arab) :)
    • Better not - her brother or dad might kill her as an "Honor killing" for talking to an infidel.

  • Learning a language is not that easy (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Dr. Weird ( 566938 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @12:13AM (#9629041)
    Is it really possible to teach the soldiers enough Arabic -- basically in their free time -- to communicate with the "villagers." Seriously, people spend years studying foreign languages, and usually only come out with mild fluency.

    Admittedly, a few words can be learned, enabling simple communication. If this is all that they have in mind, this is perhaps a feasible objective. But the quote makes it sound as if the soldiers will be truly communicating in the language. The article hedges it a bit more, focusing on problem specific communication, but I don't think it is fairly labeled 'discussion.' That is, I doubt that there will be very many fruitful 'discussions' *cough* interrogations *cough* if they must occur in Arabic.

    Anyway, what the hell is a virtual 'cave'? 'Camp' is the term used in the article, and I still don't understand what either word has to do with things. Help!

    ~Dr. Weird~

    • Well, here's one example [uic.edu] of a virtual cave.

    • Re:Learning a language is not that easy (Score:4, Insightful)

      by aixou ( 756713 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @01:41AM (#9629369)
      Is it really possible to teach the soldiers enough Arabic -- basically in their free time -- to communicate with the "villagers." Seriously, people spend years studying foreign languages, and usually only come out with mild fluency.

      Never doubt the power of knowing just a little bit of another language. It's the thought that counts. Yeah sure, our soldiers aren't gonna become fluent, but it would show the Iraqis that the soldiers actually do have some respect for the culture and customs, and aren't mindless killing machines.

      If you're ever abroad and happen to strike up a conversation with a stranger, bring up some obscure local custom of theirs (e.g. perhaps their is a local festival taking place, or a type of food made only in the area), and you'll be amazed at how excited they might become just at the fact that you know of it. We don't even think of such things here because America is so gigantic and omnipresent, and almost everyone has a cusory knowledge of American culture.

      (btw, I'm assuming you're American... if you're not, then :P)
      • Never doubt the power of knowing just a little bit of another language.

        I agree wholeheartedly with this. It's just that the article oversells it. "Discussions" and all... makes it sound like they are going to chat about Bertrand Russell and Dewey over a cuppa and scone.

        Start silly personal story It reminds me of a time I was in Italy for a couple weeks. Knowing virtually no Italian, I mainly got by on butchered French and the fact that many/most of the Italians there spoke English. A handy bit of

    • Re:Learning a language is not that easy (Score:5, Funny)

      by Andy Mitchell ( 780458 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @04:36AM (#9629855) Homepage

      Obviously if you only have a short while in which to learn a foreign language its vital to learn just a few key phrases.

      However, my experience of trying to learn foreign languages is that teachers always teach you the most inappropriate phrases first. For example, the first things I learnt to say in French was, "I speak French". Not much use being able to wonder round saying "I speak French" and nothing else.

      Latter our French teacher seemed to have some obsession with the opening and closing of windows. While this was, at that point, a complete waste of time it did prove to be rather useful some 15 or so years latter when faced with a copy of French MS Windows. I'm sure the curriculum has been adjusted to ensure that no mention of windows is now made.

      So I suspect the US soldiers will be trained with the Arabic version of the following useful phrases:

      • I speak Arabic
      • My name is sergeant bob.
      • What time is it?
      • Where is the nearest supermarket?
      When more useful phrases might be:
      • I'm sorry, I don't speak Arabic.
      • Sorry, I thought you were Bin Laden. The doctor is on the way.
      • I'm sorry we had to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to remove militants from the local mosque.
      • Have you seen any weapons off mass destruction?
      • No, not our weapons of mass destruction.

      • However, my experience of trying to learn foreign languages is that teachers always teach you the most inappropriate phrases first.

        Amen to that. The only thing I can remember from my high school spanish course is "La manzana roja, tan bueno y deliciosa". I might have spelled something wrong, but it consists of talking about how good and delicious a red apple is. Talking about how to find the bathroom would be almost infinitely more useful. Or perhaps, an American embassy?


      • I found that knowing just a few words helped tremendously:
        Hello, Excuse me/sorry, Thank you / thanks very much, goodbye, yes, no, beautiful, how much, where?

        After a while, people would ask a yes/no question, i'd say "Ya Da Si Oui Yes" as a runtogetherword like "yahdahseeweeyes" or "No Nyet". Likewise, the excuse me phrase became: "Scoozee" almost everywhere and "Eezveneetchyeh" (pardon the bad transliterations) as these were widely understood.

        How about other phrases, though:
        • We're very sorry, but we have
    • the CAVE(tm) is virtual reaity implementation where its walls and/or floor and ceiling are projection surface to allow the user to see a virtual environment.

      More info: [uic.edu]

      -B

    • Varies from person to person. I know one person who have been speaking English only for the last 20 years (might have went home a couple times in there but nothing significant) and still has problems. His wife has a funny accent, but otherwise speaks perfectly. (They are from Korea). I know one other guy who can learn a new language in just a few weeks. (after 17 it is really easy to add a new one though).

      Most people I know do just fine after a year of studying, or just a few months of studying it i

    • You don't need much knowledge to improve relations.

      It's a bit like when I was visiting Quebec. I have a vocabulary in French of maybe 200 words and hopeless pronounciation.

      Still, it wasn't hard to notice that people reacted very differently when I approached them with a simple question in French, rather than automatically assuming everyone speaks english fluently.

      Even if they understood nothing else of my french, they understood one thing: He's actually trying. He *recognises* that he's in a french-sp

    • Does it really take "years" to learn a foreign language? I only lived in Germany for a year, but by the end I was able to speak enough to get around. The international students who come to the US seem to pick up English in only a few months. Granted, its not necessarily "fluent" but its enough to get by.

      Besides, for US soliders (note: not intelligence, just the standard security-patrol GI) s/he only needs enough to basically communicate with the Iragi nationals s/he comes into contact with on the street
      • German is one of the easiest languages to learn for an English speaker (along with French and Spanish). if it's a learning curve you're after, go for Finnish or Russian.
        • It does have the advantage that it uses the roman alphabet ... but have you ever heard an American butcher an umlaut? Or say, "where is the bench" rather than "where is the bank" because the gender changed the sentence?

          I spent a year in Germany when I was 5, and became fluent. I have spent several years in H.S. classes picking it up again since then, and Americans suck at it. German is not an easy language, despite the fact that English is a Germanic language.
      • I'm fully bilingual in French and English and can understand Spanish even though i've had no formal intro. I picked up swedish and Russian and understand some itallian and portuguese.
        I think that if you are bilingual in a romantic language, the rest comes easy.
        I find german hard because of the freakin grammar! Also, Arabic is hard to read and write becuase of the accents and such.
        I checked it out, was a bit much.. not like japanese, that's actually fun to learn.

    • Ooops, that "cave" reference was a misread on my part - the screenshot text said "cafe" but I read it as "cave". And I thought that was just so weird...
  • the Army's job is to blow stuff up - not "rebuild villages"

    BC

  • CAVE? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by cyranose ( 522976 )
    I presume by "virtual cave" the poster refers to the CAVE (CAVE Audio Video Environment), which is essentially a small room where most or all walls show computer-generated imagery (rather than using, say, a head-mounted display). I imagine USC has one or two for research purposes.

    However, there's nothing in the article, the press release, or associated video clip to indicate this has anything to do with the language training. It all seems to be happening on a standard computer monitor. I'm a big advocate o
    • I am pulling this entirely out of my ass but I would think that increasing immersion would be a good way to help train reflexes. For instance, playing cheaterstrike doesn't help you learn to shoot an M16 (or whatever carbine is in that piece of tripe, probably the M4?) but it does help you learn where to look and aim by reflex - but imagine what it would be like if you played with a light gun which mimicked a real firearm, which is to say it would be heavy and have recoil. Given a realistic enough prop, you
      • So if the Iraqi merchant you're interrogating shoots off a bit of witty repartee, you'll know which way to roll and aim your gun?
        • Well I know the example I used was violent but most people have real problems with visualization of substantially nonreal scenes. I've been reading since I was two and a half years old or so, and playing a broad assortment of video games since not long after, and have just always done that sort of thinking, but most people aren't that into it. They might be greatly assisted by a full-immersion system, or as close as we get today.
  • So here comes the first massively politically incorrect, flame me back into the stone age comment of the night.

    I've about had it with this whole "Ooh, let's tiptoe around the Arabs" thing. You know what? The Arabs do not live on an Arab planet. The Muslims do not live on a Muslim planet. I'm sure there are lots of folks in both groups who wish it were so, but it just ain't.

    When's the last time you heard about the Army training its soldiers in the customs of the Chinese so we don't deeply offend Chinese pe
    • yet we expect them to tiptoe around us..

      It's been said that an armed populace is a polite populace. Why? because they're armed, and won't take shit. Well, that's what we got over there.

      Don't like the American way? Most people would say go somewhere else. This *is* somewhere else. They apparently like their customs the way they are.

      Why don't we kowtow to these other nationalities? because they're not lobbing airliners at buildings.

      Maybe we can catch more with sugar than vinegar..
      • yet we expect them to tiptoe around us..

        Hardly. When's the last time you had an Arab cab driver? He barely knew the language and smelled like the underside of a Indian family's hide-a-bed, didn't he? Did you assemble a homemade bomb and blow it up outside a police station? No, you fucking dealt with it.

        They apparently like their customs the way they are.

        And they're completely 100% free to practice them. If they want to go home and smear goat entrails all over themselves and listen to Wayne Newton 45'
        • Arab culture is not broken - try reading about the Ottoman empire, or about modern Turkey.
    • When's the last time you heard about the Army training its soldiers in the customs of the Chinese so we don't deeply offend Chinese people? Or the Dutch? Do we tiptoe around the Dutch? Or the Argentines, or the Poles, or the Russians, or the South Africans? Do we all get sent to special sensitivity training workshops to avoid pissing off the Uzbeks?

      We aren't currently at war with any of those nations, nor are we forcefully occupying any of them.

      The Arabs are just gonna have to learn to deal.

      And we sho

    • But don't waste a red cent teaching 'em how to kowtow in the suks. The Arabs are just gonna have to learn to deal.

      Special Forces operate in very small, mobile, independent units, typically six men per. Because of their small size they have to cross-train very heavily, so that each man in the unit can do every other man's job in a pinch, because they really don't have anyone else on whom they can rely.

      When a six-man SF team approaches a 2000-person village needing food, information or shelter, or with

      • Okay, if we're talking about SF, that's a different matter. SF units often have to immerse in the local environment and work closely with indigenous forces. In that case, it's their job to make friends. In that particular context, I'll take back everything I said.

        But the whole idea of giving every soldier a crash-course in how not to piss off the natives--or, as I have personal hands-on experience, giving every journalist who goes in-country such a crash-course--is bogus. It's not our job to become Arabs o

        • Okay, if we're talking about SF, that's a different matter.

          The first sentence of the article:

          In a dusty valley in southern Lebanon, "Sgt. John Smith" of the Special Forces scans the scene in front of him.

          and later:

          The Tactical Language Project, as it is called, is being developed at U.S.C.'s Center for Research in Technology for Education, in cooperation with the Special Operations Command.

          There's also a quote from the project manager saying that he'd like to give the course to all soldiers stati

    • You know, I was going to ignore this. I do not agree with your argument at all, but lets skip that; I want to try to make another point.

      It isn't just about not offending the "Arabs." If a U.S. soldier offends, say, an armed villager, do you think it will have good consequences? No, only damaged reputations and, worse, physical injury for our soldiers.

      Say a U.S. soldier ejects from his fighter jet, landing in a somewhat peaceful village. Suppose, too, that he is in dire need of water, medecine. Mayb

    • You certainly hit a new low in this thread, Twirp. Now you are engaged in rampant stereotyping bordering on racism.

      Any army engaged in an extended occupation should be training its soldiers in basic cultural etiquette unless their goal is to tick off and alienate the locals.

      I hate to break it to you but you shot down your own screed when you agreed special forces should have this kind of training, but for some bizarre reason not regular Army. Those regular Army soldiers are walking patrols in the street
  • Look at the title, "DARPA Funds Game To Teach Arabic To Army". What is U.S. becoming?

    Ever since Bush became the head, the body has been leaning toward middle eastern interests in every direction. Ok, where are the next generation Iraq M*A*S*H and Gulf War vet A-Team shows. We got video games teaching Arabic. Hello, aren't we supposed to be out of the middle east by now.

    • Ok, where are the next generation Iraq M*A*S*H and Gulf War vet A-Team shows
      We have CNN... its even better.
    • Ever since Bush became the head, the body has been leaning toward middle eastern interests in every direction

      Well if your only source of info is a Michael Moore film I can see where you could get that impression, but in reality U.S. involvement in the Middle East is not a recent event and it is not a Republican idea. If you want to look into actual history lookup:

      President Carter, a Democrat in the late 1970s, created the Rapid Deployment Force for deployment to the Middle East. Over 100,000 combat t

  • Some arabic you may be interested in (Score:4, Funny)

    by 0x54524F4C4C ( 712971 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @01:53AM (#9629407)

    While reconstructing Iraq, use the following words so that people can recognize you're an american:

    talhasteez = lick my ass
    aho charmouta = brother of a bitch
    acrout = the male for bitch

    Sorry, but my arabic knowledge doesn't go beyond these things. Have luck.

  • I like the fact that I could play a game and if I was hooked enough on it, learn something useful. Imagine teaching kids this way.. Play enough pokemon, learn Japanese. I think that would be totally worth it.

    • Klingon (Score:3, Funny)

      by JimTheta ( 115513 )

      I always thought it would be hilarious if it was revealed that that Klingon was the language of some small African or Asian nation. On the other hand, I'd feel sorry for those who'd have to serve the tourists in the few years after this was revealed.

      Can you imagine having to be nice to Comic Book Guy, because his spending money is what you make in a year? And he can insult you fluently in your native tongue?

      • Marc Okrand, the linguist behind the Klingon language, was a fan of Native American languages. Some claim that the Klingon language shares much structure with the language of at least one Native American nation. Compare [216.239.51.104].

  • It'd probably do them well... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ColaMan ( 37550 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @03:28AM (#9629669) Journal
    This statement is soley based upon media coverage, and may be entirely inaccurate - post corrections, not flames, below ;-)

    Ok.

    Notice the Poms in Iraq.
    They go around in a (fairly) non-threatening manner. They smile at the kids, they try to get along. Having the experience of wandering around Belfast trying to keep the peace, they've learned to be nice and stay cool with the population, because a lot less bad shit happens that way.

    The yanks, god bless 'em, seem to have a military with the Sole Purpose Of Wiping The Other Guy Out. That's great, except in Iraq, they're past that phase. Things need to cool down, everyone needs to try and refocus. I know, media is biased, but all I see of americans in Iraq are people all gung-ho.
    This is the mindset that needs to change if they're going to get anywhere, because nobody wants some asshole all "yeah! respect mah authoritah,biatch!" in their face, especially one that you think is beginning to overstay their welcome in your country.

    This program then, is a good idea, to promote some sort of cultural sensitivity. Not just arabic as some rather exitable people seem to comment on above, with their rants about why we should have to- any cultural sensitivity would be a good idea at this stage.
    • but all I see of americans in Iraq are people all gung-ho.

      Minor correction: "Gung-ho", the Marine core slogan, does not mean "go kill something." Rather, it's a bastardization of a Jappanese slogan that means essentially "work together", and the Marines use it in that light.

      (I am not a marine, just an American with respect for the military.)
  • DoD wants to be nice to Iraqis now.

    PR took a bit of a hurt when americans almost realized that their country's armed forces might actually be able to do wrong.
    To reaffirm the infallibility of all US actions in the eyes of the public, the Pentagon has instigated these little PR stunts. And to avoid future embarresements, all the dirty work will be done by iraqis from now on.

    Everybody wins, except the guy at the bottom.
    • DoD wants to be nice to Iraqis now.

      DoD has always (well, ever since they started planning the end of the Gulf War) wanted to be nice to the Iraqis. How else do you think we expected them to rise up and help us kick Saddam out?

      It's just a higher priority now, since the ass-kicking is out of the picture.

      Trust me--this isn't a PR stunt. It might be an Iraqi-relations stunt, but not a US PR stunt.

  • Why wasn't this done years ago? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by bluGill ( 862 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @09:22AM (#9631092)

    My only question is why this wasn't done years ago? Back when the build up started. All those soldiers were training to fight in the desert. They could have taken an hour from the day and learned the local customs and language. The human body works better when it has rests from time to time anyway.

  • ...that the US troops are planning on staying? If not, then why bother? (Yes, I'm european)

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