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I returned last night from a long boring trip to MEPS (military entrance processing station), in Portland OR. This was my 3rd time going to MEPS, this time I was going up to quickly see a doctor for a checkup, then to swear in to the air force. The following day I was to take the DLAB(Defense Language Aptitude Battery[it's a test]).
My trip started with a 4 hour long shuttle ride. Once I arrived in portland I checked in to the hotel they provided, at about 3:30 in the afternoon. My roommate was the one guy who was with me during the shuttle ride. At 6 or so I go to the hotel's restaraunt to eat the dinner they provide, which really isn't a bad meal. And I was so hungry that even if it was bad I would still eat it.
I went to bed around 11, got up at 4 in the morning. Then it's downstairs for breakfast, lining up with the other guys, and taking a bus for a short ride over to MEPS.
The checkup with the doctor went fine as I expected, and I was finally qualified to enter the air force. I then had to wait about 5 hours before my swear-in ceremony happened. Then after that it was another 3 hour wait to take the bus ride back to the hotel. I spent the downtime playing pool with random recruits. Most were there getting ready to ship out to basic, but many were there for processing(something I had already done at an earlier date).
At the hotel I repeated the same process as the day before, and was assigned a new roommate. It's some guy from salem with a lot of tattoos. He was sad because he had to join the army instead of the navy, the navy wouldn't take him because of the tats. He said he regretted ever getting them.
Then it was back to MEPS, and a 4 hour wait to take the DLAB. I had gotten a good 7 hours of sleep the previous night (took a sleeping pill and was out at 9). Then I downed a 5 hour energy pre-test, so I was ready.
The DLAB was HARD. It was so freaking hard, and you can't really prepare for it. It actually humbled me in that I may be a bright guy but let me tell you anyone who scores very high on this test is a freakin genius. The test took about an hour, and when it was over, I did not think I passed it. I was prepared for that, I had good backup jobs ready, but I was going to be a little sad as I really was joining the air force in hopes of being crypto-linguist.
After about a half hour wait my test scores came in. It took a score of 100 out of 176 to pass. That may not sound very high but I can't stress enough how difficult this test is. I actually think the other branches require a lower score to pass, but the air force is stricter.
Anyways, I scored a 107. So I passed! Pretty close though. So I get to be crypto linguist.
It sounds like I will be shipping to basic in late spring/early summer. When that's over I will be heading to the "Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center" to become proficient in a foreign language over the period of a year. It's supposed to be basically the best linguist school in the world, but super hard. At the end of the year you are tested by native speakers and have to read/write/speak to complete proficiency as judged by them. So here is to taking it seriously.
ok that's all
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What kind of questions are on the test? Is it like an SAT or something?
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Austin10831 Posts
Good for you man, I was wondering how it was going after your last post about this stuff. Do you get to choose which language you want to learn, or are you assigned one on a need-basis?
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I love hearing about people who aren't just waiting for something to happen. Good job man.
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sounds awesome. What are you gonna learn?
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Damn that sounds awesome, first time I heard of DLI. I wasnt expecting it to be so hardcore. Everything sounds similar though since my brother is in the Marines(Aviation Ordnance). Anyway, hope for the best because being proficient in a year sounds nearly impossible to someone like me.
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Good luck man, all the best.
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Wow seriously? I'm really surprised they didn't let him join based on tattoos :| Was it perhaps the kind of tattoos he had? Were they something ridiculous like face tattoos? Very interesting and good luck.
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It's nice to hear you're doing well, keep it up.
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Congrats man, about 3 weeks ago I went to MEPS and got my physical and took my ASVAB, got a 94 on it and qualified for all jobs, so I went with Aerospace Medical Tech (medivac, rescue, civilian evac) for the Air Guard (plan on going to college).
I had to put on hold my swear in since if I wait till 2011, I get a 20,000 bonus and an additional 350$ monthly on my GI bill.
I am fairly certain I have basic in late spring/early summer, we might be at Lackland at the same time!
http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/airforcejoin/a/afbmt1.htm
A guide to basic, go for Thunderhawk or nothing!
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good luck travis
i have a question, do u get to pick the foreign language yourself, or is it assigned? because if you are forced to learn a dialect only used in some region of somalia, and have to break your ass to make it in less than a year, kinda sucks
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On December 16 2010 04:48 BroOd wrote:
Good for you man, I was wondering how it was going after your last post about this stuff. Do you get to choose which language you want to learn, or are you assigned one on a need-basis?
As far as I'm aware, you're assigned a language. I'm basing this off a similar blog I read a while back where the recruit was assigned Russian as a language, so I'm assuming this is accurate. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, Travis.
EDIT: Here's the blog in question.
http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/blogitems.php?site=piroko139&page=6
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That's pretty fucking sweet. Best of luck to you in the language course. That kinda shit is hopefully in my future too.
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There were 4 sections.
Section 1 asked about some school grades, study habits, interest in being a linguist, etc.
Section 2-4 were multiple choice questions, you could answer A,B,C or D
Section 2 required headphones and had 15 or 20 questions(i cant remember). They would say 4 words, each with 3-6 syllables. (if A had 5 syllables so would all the rest, if it had 4 syllables so would all the rest, it varied by question). For 3 of the words, a certain syllable would be stressed. Only 1 of the words would stress a different syllable. You were to answer which stressed the different syllable. Some of them the stress was kind of subtle and hard to differentiate, but this was by far the easiest part of the test. But it was still very easy to screw up on. You could only play the audio once. Good memory was important in this test. thank god i got a decent night sleep, i only had 4h the night before.
Section 3 also required headphones and had 4 parts. Each part had it's own rules, and 15-20 questions. Each question would have a sentence or phrase provided, and you were to pick the answer that was a correct translation based on the rules.
Part 1 of section 3 used the following rules
1.) "a", "an", and "the" have no counterparts
2.) nouns must come before adjectives
3.) nouns and adjectives must end with the same vowel sound
so it might have the phrase "the red bear"
and possible answers would be
A.) redi beari
B.) the beari redi
C.) bearo redi
D.) bearo redo
and the correct answer would of course be D, as it meets the rules.
the phrases got more difficult as they went along
also in this part... sometimes 2 of the answers BOTH sounded like the right answer. and i know what was happening is that the testers were assholes and made one of them sound SLIGHTLY different so that u had to listen extremely carefully to know the correct answer. they did this sometimes in the other parts, too.
Part 2 used the following rules
1.) possessives must come before possessors
2.) possessors must end with an "ee" sound
3.) possessives must end with an "oo" or "aw" sound
and then the phrase might be like
"the boys teacher"
with answers
A.) teacheroo boyee
B.) teacheree boyoo
C.) boyee teacheree
D.) boyoo teacheree
the answer here would be A.
but they might flip the phrase like
"the teacher of the boy"
so u need to understand how the possessive is still the teacher and not the boy despite being on the other side of the phrase
and as the questions went on they got harder
part 3 had the following rules:
1.) the subject has an "aa" sound in the middle
2.) the verb starts with "ya" and does not end in in a plural
3.) the object has an "oo" or "aw" sound at the end of it
and then the sentence might be like
"the possessor possesses the possessed"
with various answers but the correct answer would be the translation that says
the possaassor yapossess the possessedoo
and they got harder as the questions went on
keep in mind this is all audio, you have to listen for the right answer. and the kicker is that once u click play, it just plays answers A-D without stops, and you CANT PLAY IT AGAIN. so you have to just know which one is right, and if u are unsure u have to remember what they said.
now part 4... part 4 was INSANE. anyone who did good on this part is a fucking savante, seriously.
Part 4 took the rules of part 1-3, all of those rules, and COMBINED THEM AT ONCE
so the sentence might be
"the sad boy kicks the red ball"
and the translation would be(this might even be wrong)
balloo redoo yakick baayaw sadaw
but keep in mind they play A-D straight, and all the wrong answers are very close to being correct. They had all different kinds of sentences during this part, some of them required just 2 sets of rules, some of them requires you use all 3 sets. Some of them were very complex.
understand that this is a million times easier when ur looking at the answers so that u can read them. in the actual test all it had written was "A, B, C, D" and u had to choose the right one.
Section 4 of the test.. im not gonna try to explain too hard. They were basically puzzles using pictures and word-phrases. They were what im best at, thank god. But they were very difficult puzzles. They definitely knew what they were doing with the testing though. I would say that section 4 was the hardest part with the exception of part 4 of section 3. there were like 40 questions to section 4, and 2 different parts within that. the 2 parts had different styles of puzzles.
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On December 16 2010 04:48 BroOd wrote:
Good for you man, I was wondering how it was going after your last post about this stuff. Do you get to choose which language you want to learn, or are you assigned one on a need-basis?
I get to suggest, but the suggestion has more weight with a higher score. I want to learn an asian language but in general asian languages tend to be assigned to those with scores of like, 110+. So it might be close.
I will probably end up getting a romantic language like french, german, spanish, etc. I just don't want to have to learn farsi, lol.
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On December 16 2010 04:51 Glaven wrote:
Wow seriously? I'm really surprised they didn't let him join based on tattoos :| Was it perhaps the kind of tattoos he had? Were they something ridiculous like face tattoos? Very interesting and good luck.
they were all over him back/arms but i think the problem was that they covered his forearms.
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On December 16 2010 05:05 St3MoR wrote:
good luck travis
i have a question, do u get to pick the foreign language yourself, or is it assigned? because if you are forced to learn a dialect only used in some region of somalia, and have to break your ass to make it in less than a year, kinda sucks
I doubt they would have me learn anything that specific as it sounds like it would be a waste of training.
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On December 16 2010 05:09 travis wrote:Show nested quote +On December 16 2010 04:48 BroOd wrote:
Good for you man, I was wondering how it was going after your last post about this stuff. Do you get to choose which language you want to learn, or are you assigned one on a need-basis? I get to suggest, but the suggestion has more weight with a higher score. I want to learn an asian language but in general asian languages tend to be assigned to those with scores of like, 110+. So it might be close. I will probably end up getting a romantic language like french, german, spanish, etc. I just don't want to have to learn farsi, lol.
Don't they assign you languages based off you score, in 4 different sections?
I think they take your score and put you in one of 4 grades based on your score, the lowest passing scores are in one, then the next are in another grade, then another, then finally the last grade.
I heard the DLAB is:
You barely passed- languages closest to English (spanish, french, anything with the roman characters)
You did a little better- farther from english, but still with roman characters (eastern europe, russian)
You did better than ^- African, and some crazy ones
You did the best- Japanese, Chinese, other forms of Moonspeak, whatever it is, good luck your screwed.
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On December 16 2010 05:15 AP0LL0 wrote:Show nested quote +On December 16 2010 05:09 travis wrote:On December 16 2010 04:48 BroOd wrote:
Good for you man, I was wondering how it was going after your last post about this stuff. Do you get to choose which language you want to learn, or are you assigned one on a need-basis? I get to suggest, but the suggestion has more weight with a higher score. I want to learn an asian language but in general asian languages tend to be assigned to those with scores of like, 110+. So it might be close. I will probably end up getting a romantic language like french, german, spanish, etc. I just don't want to have to learn farsi, lol. Don't they assign you languages based off you score, in 4 different sections? I think they take your score and put you in one of 4 grades based on your score, the lowest passing scores are in one, then the next are in another grade, then another, then finally the last grade. I heard the DLAB is: You barely passed- languages closest to English (spanish, french, anything with the roman characters) You did a little better- farther from english, but still with roman characters (eastern europe, russian) You did better than ^- African, and some crazy ones You did the best- Japanese, Chinese, other forms of Moonspeak, whatever it is, good luck your screwed.
in general thats how it is but it's also based on job demand and some other factors, it's not really that cut and dry
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United States996 Posts
wtf. i thought you were grinding sc2
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On December 16 2010 06:35 krndandaman wrote:
just wondering, why did you decide to join the airforce/military in general?
how long will you serve?
and im guessing you'll be doing alot of translating shit? seeing the 'crypt', will you be possibly cracking codes also? sounds cool
im pretty sure the job is just spying on transmissions / translating what u hear, and probably also making reports on it. there might be more to it than that though
oh and i joined just cuz it's hard to get a job and this can get me a good one where i'd have a definite future and make a very nice living
On December 16 2010 06:44 Liquid`Zephyr wrote:
wtf. i thought you were grinding sc2
lol i am bro
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Hyrule19137 Posts
On December 16 2010 05:07 travis wrote:
Part 2 used the following rules
1.) possessives must come before possessors
2.) possessors must end with an "ee" sound
3.) possessives must end with an "oo" or "aw" sound
and then the phrase might be like
"the boys teacher"
with answers
A.) teacheree boyoo
B.) teacheroo boyee
C.) boyee teacheree
D.) boyoo teacheree
the answer here would be A.
but they might flip the phrase like
"the teacher of the boy"
so u need to understand how the possessive is still the teacher and not the boy despite being on the other side of the phrase
and as the questions went on they got harder
But....the boy is the possessor in both those examples...so the answer is B.
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On December 16 2010 07:38 tofucake wrote:Show nested quote +On December 16 2010 05:07 travis wrote:
Part 2 used the following rules
1.) possessives must come before possessors
2.) possessors must end with an "ee" sound
3.) possessives must end with an "oo" or "aw" sound
and then the phrase might be like
"the boys teacher"
with answers
A.) teacheree boyoo
B.) teacheroo boyee
C.) boyee teacheree
D.) boyoo teacheree
the answer here would be A.
but they might flip the phrase like
"the teacher of the boy"
so u need to understand how the possessive is still the teacher and not the boy despite being on the other side of the phrase
and as the questions went on they got harder
But....the boy is the possessor in both those examples...so the answer is B.
err yeah ur right, i switched my oos and ees
and yeah the possessive was never the boy, but that's what i said -.-
was kinda hard to write all the examples so quickly and not screw up
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Congrats!
I still regret ditching the AF while in basic but oh well. I have been considering joining another branch because I still have not found a job here.
I hope the people at your MEPS are more competent then mine were. My group ended up missing our first plane flight, instead of landing in San Antonio at around 6 in the evening, we didn't get there till about 11 at night. 2 hours of sleep the first night there just completely fucked me over.
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wow those tests are pretty bad-ass
I guess the stuff you end up doing can be life-and-death, so they have to -seriously- make sure you have the aptitude for it
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I for one don't think that those questions were tough at all
then again i speak 11 languages
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On December 16 2010 15:53 rkffhk wrote:
I for one don't think that those questions were tough at all
then again i speak 11 languages
damn dude ur amazing
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Man I speak 3 languages fluently and i wasn't even sure the difference between a possessor and possessive when reading this lol. Never learned any of them from a book naturally. It was funny cause when most people are like MAN that was hard you usually go oh well that's really not that hard, but i can see how it would be soooo easy to make that hard, and fucking listening to it too? jesus christ what a nightmare
Did they like fill you in on what you were in for going into this test? Like naturally it'd be pretty hard to prepare, but was any of it really a surprise, or did you have to/need to prepare in any way?
I find language stuff pretty cool
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On December 16 2010 17:17 Divinek wrote:
Man I speak 3 languages fluently and i wasn't even sure the difference between a possessor and possessive when reading this lol.
You have to worry about that stuff in Japanese and Korean.
In Japanese its の (no) and in Korean its 의 (ui).
example:
[The] boy's teacher
아들의 선생님 ( adeul-ui seonsaengnim )
おとこのせんせい (otoko no sensei)
(maybe there's other words for boy that are more appropriate in those languages than the ones I used, but I just wrote that off the top of my head so GET OFF ME rekrul and mani)
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On December 16 2010 17:17 Divinek wrote:
Man I speak 3 languages fluently and i wasn't even sure the difference between a possessor and possessive when reading this lol. Never learned any of them from a book naturally. It was funny cause when most people are like MAN that was hard you usually go oh well that's really not that hard, but i can see how it would be soooo easy to make that hard, and fucking listening to it too? jesus christ what a nightmare
Did they like fill you in on what you were in for going into this test? Like naturally it'd be pretty hard to prepare, but was any of it really a surprise, or did you have to/need to prepare in any way?
I find language stuff pretty cool
i had an idea about some of it because i did some research online
but u couldn't really prepare much
and yeah, im serious when i tell rkff that speaking 11 languages is impressive, but he is severely underestimating how difficult it is when u can only listen to the answers, and only listen once. especially part 4 of section 3, u really have to be like good will hunting lvl genius to do well at that
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taking placement tests for college and translator exams are in very similar formats~
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As someone that has started pondering the Air Force, I want to bump this and find out any updates from travis.
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oh shit, im at the defense language institute right now studying chinese haha. took my dlab back in september and went to fort leonard wood, mo for army basic and now i'm here in california. it's pretty awesome here.
also if u have any questions let me know, i know a little about how the air force does things at dli.
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If he hasn't posted in a while its because your not to use phone or internet in basic. You can only receive/send letters. I ship out for the Air Force April 25th if all goes well. Failed the DLAB. 
Good luck Travis. 
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United States10328 Posts
ooo linguistics ^.^ I did this funny contest called the NACLO a few times (N. American Computational Linguistics Olympiad), but it's mostly just some logic puzzles with some sort of linguistic bent. I did have to learn some actual linguistics for the international Olympiad, but still don't really know as much as I should... maybe I'll get a linguistics minor and actually learn some stuff -_-;
Anyway, GL Travis!
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Congrats man!!! Maybe you can start an american version of Airforce ACE???
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On April 05 2011 21:10 OverZero wrote:Congrats man!!! Maybe you can start an american version of Airforce ACE???
If it were that easy, I would have done it already.
The Air Force doesn't really give us much time to do stuff on our own, sadly. They understand that family and recreation are important, but in the end, the military mindframe has, and always will be, service before self.
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Always wondered.. Does a MOS-linguist get paid more than a non-MOS linguist that already gets FLPP pay?
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The enlistment bonus is likely higher than whatever non linguist job they have. The language pay is consistent throughout.
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On April 06 2011 00:25 RoadTrippin wrote:
Always wondered.. Does a MOS-linguist get paid more than a non-MOS linguist that already gets FLPP pay?
well you get an enlistment bonus if you enlist as a linguist on top of flpp pay. i got $12k for joining as a 35w in the army.
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EPT
