eqtworld: All of them were gay?!

All the good ones. Well, by the end. Half of 'em started off gay, the rest just got sucked into it.

They were cunning linguists.

/Wait, what?

World peace is gay, anyway.

100 translators entered the State Department.
50 couples came out.

madmann: eqtworld: All of them were gay?!

All the good ones. Well, by the end. Half of 'em started off gay, the rest just got sucked into it.

They were cunning linguists.

/Wait, what?



thats some funny shiat right there...

Lost in sloppy translation? That sounds like a porn movie. A boring one.

puffy999: Lost in sloppy translation? That sounds like a porn movie. A boring one.

Subtitles do tend to ruin foreign gay porn, and dubs are just as bad. I don't know why they subtitle or dub porn. Do cultures really grunt and moan and stuff so differently?

Ceph: Subtitles do tend to ruin foreign gay porn, and dubs are just as bad. I don't know why they subtitle or dub porn. Do cultures really grunt and moan and stuff so differently?

Ask the Japanese.

pfft. I don't buy that for a second. The terps we had worked fine, and Im sure we got the shiattiest ones they could find.

When I was at the Defense Language Institute, a considerable number of the soldiers in our company were gay or lesbian. Since bigoted rednecks didn't usually make it into DLI, no one cared.

/of course, 8 years of a bigoted redneck in the White House is another story...

If only we had more Creole translators then Katrina might not have turned out so bad.

Our Republican friends always tell us the war on terror is the most important issue facing the United States today, but their actions suggest that it's not quite as important as hating the fags.

Threats to the United States, according to George W. Bushiateh GHEY!
2. Terrorism
3. Everything else

WellAlmet: Threats to the United States, according to George W. Bush
#1. Teh GHEY!
#2. Terrorism
#3. Everything else

Okay, profanity filter weirdness.

madmann: eqtworld: All of them were gay?!

All the good ones.

Arabic does involve a lot of tongue work.

As a gay Arabic translator, I'm really getting annoyed that people don't know Hussein means beautiful child.

Don't worry. I'm sure your Farsi translators are doing a "Heckuva job!"

meh. good excuse.

The word on one of the military blogs I've read was that most of the Arabic translators who were booted weren't really gay. They just decided to "come out of the closet" because they were pissed about being selected for the Arabic program at the Defense Language Institute. When they found out they'd be working in some Middle East shiat hole speaking Arabic rather than doing embassy duty somewhere in Europe, they all went running to their CO's claiming they'd suddenly caught "the ghey" . . . no great loss.

priapus54: When they found out they'd be working in some Middle East shiat hole speaking Arabic rather than doing embassy duty somewhere in Europe, they all went running to their CO's claiming they'd suddenly caught "the ghey" . . . no great loss.

But then, having been booted, they still wouldn't get the embassy gigs. Right?

Was an arabic translator in Iraq, SIGINT operator before that, so getting a kick from some of these posts.

/wife can vouch that I'm not gay
//but I did enjoy Brokeback Mountain
/// Ana aohib al-neesa al-jameela

Federal jobs require a security clearance, as well, but I can't comment on whether or not sexual orientation is a factor. It wouldn't surprise me, though, if some of those same people were hired by the government to do the same job as federal employees--at a much higher pay rate!

0Icky0: But then, having been booted, they still wouldn't get the embassy gigs. Right?

I read that they weren't "booted" so much as they flunked out. Apparantly when you flunk out of language school, they send you to infantry or some other pissy job. They didn't want the alternative when they started to do poorly in school, so they played the "I'm gay" card so as to get dismissed altogether rather than crawl in ditches and be shot at. It's rather telling that as far as anyone knows not a one of them went on to pursue an Arabic language job elsewhere or to even continue their Arabic language training at college or university.

Thanks for the update, Alien Robot. I did a little research, and supposedly the pass rate for the Arabic program at DLI was 68%. I can't verify the percentages from an official source, but knowing how the Army operates sometimes, your comment about being sent to the infantry or some other "grunt" MOS makes a lot of sense . . .

cjoshuav: /of course, 8 years of a bigoted redneck in the White House is another story...

THIS

I'm sure the whole outsourcing translations to a company that basically asked "do you speak arabic" and nothing more wasn't a part of the problem. Way to go Titan! Isn't war profiteering fun?

m0llusk: If only we had more Creole translators then Katrina might not have turned out so bad.

Didn't the FBI not hire a lot of Arabic translators because they were Jewish? Or am I making this up?

Quite a large number of translators (of all languages) were outed over the last 20 years--less victims of Bush & the Iraq war than the "don't ask/don't tell" policy and jealous rivals in what was then a fairly small theater of operations for foreign-language speakers during the mid-90's. Then when we needed them, they were already gone, and could not or would not be rehired or re-enlist.

However, I'm sure the current complaint of "poor translation" is just the latest attempt to shove the blame off on someone else.

Is subby even literate? What the Hell is that supposed to mean?

Man, I continue to be glad I don't pay for this garbage.

former military guy here, used to work with linguists.

and yes, quite a few of the linguists were gay. i'd say a high percentage.
don't know why, linguistic talent just seems to be correlated with bein' teh gay.

I was at DLI for two year for Arabic, failed the listening portion of the DLPT by three questions and then got sent to South Korea, so Im really getting a kick out of some of these posts.

On a sidenote, I asked to reenlist for a special assignment in Germany, but was denied, in part, because I was told my Arabic skills were needed in Iraq and it would be a waste of taxpayer's dollars if I didnt serve in Iraq after I'VE SPENT A FARKING YEAR IN SOUTH FARKING KOREA!!!

The Army is managed by farking assclowns.

/not bitter
//needed to vent
///lost count of how many buddies studying Arabic were sent to Afghanistan and how many buddies learning Farsi were sent to Iraq.

jefcor: Was an arabic translator in Iraq, SIGINT operator before that, so getting a kick from some of these posts.

sgtbarthel: I was at DLI for two year for Arabic, failed the listening portion of the DLPT by three questions and then got sent to South Korea, so Im really getting a kick out of some of these posts.

The Army is managed by farking assclowns.

I first went in 13F (my recruiter was trying to get me to go to Rucker for 153D but at the time I just wanted in and out for the college $), but they had me take the DLAB when I reported to Leonard Wood for basic. I got a 122 and they fast-tracked me into a 98C/G (Arabic) path. (As soon as the proctor laid the scoring guide over my answer sheet, he didn't even bother scoring before he looked up at me and said, "you're going to Arabic school.")

After basic, I was waiting for my clearance to go to crypto school at Goodfellow and ended up as a minion for a light bird doing battalion S2 for several weeks. We were out on an FTX and I ended up getting walking pneumonia; I guess mucking around in marshes in central MO will do that. As Murphy's Law would dictate, my orders for Goodfellow came in just as I was being released from the clinic. When I took a physical before entering AIT, they discovered I had asthma. They had not detected it before, and I had the second-best 2mi run time in my company.

Someone at DLI/Ord pitched a fit when they heard about my pending discharge, since they had several open Arabic slots and needed bodies. Didn't matter; the board said my MOS wasn't important enough to override my "condition" (my doctor told them, "if things get so bad that 98s have to pick up a rifle, some guy with almost non-existent asthma is the least of their problems"). My discharge was the first thing I ever saw the Army do with any sort of efficiency.

Eight months later, Iraq invaded Kuwait.

sgtbarthel: many buddies learning Farsi were sent to Iraq.

Wouldn't that make sense? There are now Iranians in Iraq. Iran is the only country to speak Farsi, and its right next door to Iraq.

jefcor: sgtbarthel: many buddies learning Farsi were sent to Iraq.

Wouldn't that make sense? There are now Iranians in Iraq. Iran is the only country to speak Farsi, and its right next door to Iraq.

40% of the Afghan population speaks an Afghan dialect of Farsi and from what I understand, Farsi linguists can usually pick up Pashtu and Dari pretty quickly as well.

sgtbarthel:
///lost count of how many buddies studying Arabic were sent to Afghanistan and how many buddies learning Farsi were sent to Iraq.

I'm glad our government has taken the time to distinguish between the brown people they insist on killing.