Language assignment at DLI

jzhaun · 12-08-2014, 10:24 PM

Dlab score over 100: Spanish.
Dlab score over 105: Spanish, Russian, Farsi, Hebrew (rarest language)
Dlab score over 110: Spanish, Russian, Farsi, Hebrew, Chinese, Korean, Arabic (variants including Iraqi dialect, levantine dialect, modern standard Arabic)

Waivers do exist, but the one guy I knew who got Chinese with a 109 dropped pretty early.

There are cooler languages like Indonesian, and Hindi available for 2nd tours. I have also heard of people fluent in Spanish taking Portuguese.

chemelle1 · 12-09-2014, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jzhaun

Dlab score over 100: Spanish.
Dlab score over 105: Spanish, Russian, Farsi, Hebrew (rarest language)
Dlab score over 110: Spanish, Russian, Farsi, Hebrew, Chinese, Korean, Arabic (variants including Iraqi dialect, levantine dialect, modern standard Arabic)

Waivers do exist, but the one guy I knew who got Chinese with a 109 dropped pretty early.

There are cooler languages like Indonesian, and Hindi available for 2nd tours. I have also heard of people fluent in Spanish taking Portuguese.

Wait, you have access to other languages after reenlisting?
I scored a 103, so it looks like I'll be doing Spanish. I'm not particularly interested in Spanish, but if there are other languages after the first tour then I guess there is a silver lining.

chemelle1 · 12-19-2014, 09:48 AM

what is housing like for married sailors?

jzhaun · 12-19-2014, 02:36 PM

There's only enough houses for some army officers on base, everyone else lives out in town or over on ft. Ord. Generally you'll get set up in the barracks for a few weeks until you find a place and get the paperwork done.

Living off base can be a hassle for uniform changes and you'll probably have to wake up earlier than everyone else to get on base for stuff like morning pt or quarters.

Memzicle · 05-11-2016, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jzhaun

Dlab score over 100: Spanish.
Dlab score over 105: Spanish, Russian, Farsi, Hebrew (rarest language)
Dlab score over 110: Spanish, Russian, Farsi, Hebrew, Chinese, Korean, Arabic (variants including Iraqi dialect, levantine dialect, modern standard Arabic)

Waivers do exist, but the one guy I knew who got Chinese with a 109 dropped pretty early.

There are cooler languages like Indonesian, and Hindi available for 2nd tours. I have also heard of people fluent in Spanish taking Portuguese.

Curious...
I understand that language assignment is mostly based on what the Navy needs... But I was wondering if there are instances where they assign a language in a higher category than what you scored on the DLAB? For instance, I scored a 102 (I know I could've done better, ugh)... Now, that score places me with Spanish, which I'm content with if that's what I get. But say for example they are in need for Russian or Korean... Is there any possibility they would pair a lower DLAB score with a higher language category, if that is what the Navy needed at the time?

Also, you mentioned waivers... How does one go about getting a language waiver?

jzhaun · 05-12-2016, 09:35 PM

If you have a 102, you are not getting Korean. Full stop. Korean's generally considered the most difficult of the CAT IVs.

There's a possibility for Russian if no Spanish slots are available in your window, but it's a small chance. The guy I mention upthread got Chinese with a 109 because only Chinese and Spanish were available at the time and the Spanish slots went to people who had lower DLAB scores than he did. He wound up taking Spanish in the end though. DLI drop rates are no joke.

As I understand, if the detailers did place you in Russian, they would do a waiver. It's not something you get to decide.

Memzicle · 05-15-2016, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jzhaun

If you have a 102, you are not getting Korean. Full stop. Korean's generally considered the most difficult of the CAT IVs.

There's a possibility for Russian if no Spanish slots are available in your window, but it's a small chance. The guy I mention upthread got Chinese with a 109 because only Chinese and Spanish were available at the time and the Spanish slots went to people who had lower DLAB scores than he did. He wound up taking Spanish in the end though. DLI drop rates are no joke.

As I understand, if the detailers did place you in Russian, they would do a waiver. It's not something you get to decide.

Yeah, I figured there would be a higher chance of the sky falling, than me getting a CAT IV. As mentioned, I'm totally fine with Spanish... But it's nice to know there is a chance, however small, that I could possibly get Russian. I've read somewhere on here or on Reddit that after your 1st tour, some are given the option to study a sort of sub-language? Like for example, some who were initially given Spanish, end up studying Porteguese. Where can I find perhaps a list of other offered languages besides the big 6? I'm just curious as to what else is offered. Also, is someone designated to only one of the big 6? Say, after a coupe years or so, I've accomplished Spanish...with a high profitiency.... Am I given an option to continue with another language among the big 6? Thank you so much for your help btw!

clk128 · 05-18-2016, 06:16 PM

So I scored a 118 and got put into Hebrew, after having studied Russian in school and telling them Russian would be my number one and Hebrew my number two. She said they had 8 spots in Russian but my score was too high (even though Hebrew is also a CAT II??). The others I in my division had a 129 and a 110. She put the 129 in Iraqi Arabic, the 110 in Persian Farsi, and then because they didn't get enough people in Modern Standard Arabic moved me to MSA a couple weeks later. To my knowledge I'm the only one out of the nine CTIs in our training group who didn't get my top choice.

ejrwelch · 06-03-2016, 08:11 PM

So I know this thread is a few weeks old! but figure I'd put my two sense in... For the DLAB they made anyone who scored under a 110 retake it when I went through boot camp in the hopes of being able to give us higher cat languages. It worked for all but one of us! Being from ATL you should probably try to steer clear of the middle

eastern languages unless you want to end up back in Ga. You can study anything on your own. Navy likes to stick to the the main 6 though. Certain languages like spanish, farsi, and Arabic will also prepare you to test for additional languages (dialects and or languages that are just very similar) which can mean additional pay. ALERT program is also an option for your 2nd tour where you will go back to DLI to learn another language and then get put on deployable status. I'm hoping for those orders when I'm up for them next year! anywho good luck!

Memzicle · 11-18-2016, 02:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ejrwelch

So I know this thread is a few weeks old! but figure I'd put my two sense in... For the DLAB they made anyone who scored under a 110 retake it when I went through boot camp in the hopes of being able to give us higher cat languages. It worked for all but one of us! Being from ATL you should probably try to steer clear of the middle

eastern languages unless you want to end up back in Ga. You can study anything on your own. Navy likes to stick to the the main 6 though. Certain languages like spanish, farsi, and Arabic will also prepare you to test for additional languages (dialects and or languages that are just very similar) which can mean additional pay. ALERT program is also an option for your 2nd tour where you will go back to DLI to learn another language and then get put on deployable status. I'm hoping for those orders when I'm up for them next year! anywho good luck!

Thank you for this post! I'm very relieved that I will possibly be given another chance to retake the DLAB in boot! I originally took it on a whim, because my first MEPS visit was a disaster (I had a high heart rate), and so my navy liaison advised me to just take the DLAB to distract me from being temporarily DQ'd.
Needless to say, that test was something else. I ran out of time on a couple sections and didn't answer at least 4 questions. So I have no idea how I passed. Haha But alas, I have a 102... hoping to score higher.

I'm ok with Spanish... But Russian is my aim honestly. If I do somehow score high enough for a CAT IV and get a middle eastern language, I knew it would keep me on the east coast in GA. Haha Which does kind of suck... because I am kind of over GA living. (I'm originally from California)...

But anyways, reading about all of the drop out rates for CAT IV's kind of make me wary... Still gonna give it my all. Best of luck to you! Any more advice/info is so greatly appreciated! Ty!

Headed to boot 2016DEC13 😱☺️

12-08-2014, 10:24 PM	#1
jzhaun Active Duty Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 627 Rep Power: 127	Dlab score over 100: Spanish. Dlab score over 105: Spanish, Russian, Farsi, Hebrew (rarest language) Dlab score over 110: Spanish, Russian, Farsi, Hebrew, Chinese, Korean, Arabic (variants including Iraqi dialect, levantine dialect, modern standard Arabic) Waivers do exist, but the one guy I knew who got Chinese with a 109 dropped pretty early. There are cooler languages like Indonesian, and Hindi available for 2nd tours. I have also heard of people fluent in Spanish taking Portuguese.

12-19-2014, 09:48 AM	#3
chemelle1 Junior Member Join Date: Sep 2014 Location: Philadelphia Posts: 27 Rep Power: 8	what is housing like for married sailors?

12-19-2014, 02:36 PM	#4
jzhaun Active Duty Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 627 Rep Power: 127	There's only enough houses for some army officers on base, everyone else lives out in town or over on ft. Ord. Generally you'll get set up in the barracks for a few weeks until you find a place and get the paperwork done. Living off base can be a hassle for uniform changes and you'll probably have to wake up earlier than everyone else to get on base for stuff like morning pt or quarters.

05-12-2016, 09:35 PM	#6
jzhaun Active Duty Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 627 Rep Power: 127	If you have a 102, you are not getting Korean. Full stop. Korean's generally considered the most difficult of the CAT IVs. There's a possibility for Russian if no Spanish slots are available in your window, but it's a small chance. The guy I mention upthread got Chinese with a 109 because only Chinese and Spanish were available at the time and the Spanish slots went to people who had lower DLAB scores than he did. He wound up taking Spanish in the end though. DLI drop rates are no joke. As I understand, if the detailers did place you in Russian, they would do a waiver. It's not something you get to decide.

05-18-2016, 06:16 PM	#8
clk128 Newbie Join Date: Jul 2015 Posts: 16 Rep Power: 7	So I scored a 118 and got put into Hebrew, after having studied Russian in school and telling them Russian would be my number one and Hebrew my number two. She said they had 8 spots in Russian but my score was too high (even though Hebrew is also a CAT II??). The others I in my division had a 129 and a 110. She put the 129 in Iraqi Arabic, the 110 in Persian Farsi, and then because they didn't get enough people in Modern Standard Arabic moved me to MSA a couple weeks later. To my knowledge I'm the only one out of the nine CTIs in our training group who didn't get my top choice.

06-03-2016, 08:11 PM	#9
ejrwelch Active Duty Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: GA Posts: 185 Rep Power: 25	So I know this thread is a few weeks old! but figure I'd put my two sense in... For the DLAB they made anyone who scored under a 110 retake it when I went through boot camp in the hopes of being able to give us higher cat languages. It worked for all but one of us! Being from ATL you should probably try to steer clear of the middle eastern languages unless you want to end up back in Ga. You can study anything on your own. Navy likes to stick to the the main 6 though. Certain languages like spanish, farsi, and Arabic will also prepare you to test for additional languages (dialects and or languages that are just very similar) which can mean additional pay. ALERT program is also an option for your 2nd tour where you will go back to DLI to learn another language and then get put on deployable status. I'm hoping for those orders when I'm up for them next year! anywho good luck!