History of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center

EVOLUTION OF THE DEFENSE LANGUAGE INSTITUTE
By Benjamin de La Selva

High Street Gate

any things impress the ordinary citizen when first getting acquainted with the Defense Language Institute. Among them are the number of languages taught, the number of students from all services, the impressive size of the faculty and the kaleidoscopic variety of nationalities.

This microcosm of the American melting pot has matured in more than 60 years to produce the most renowned language institution in the world. At one point DLI instructors taught more than 30 languages and dialects. In recent years international events and national security considerations have caused the Institute to consolidate to its present size. Sloat Monument

Currently several hundred faculty members from all corners of the globe teach more than two dozen languages and several dialects.

The Institute started on 1 November 1941 at Crissy Field on the Presidio of San Francisco as the Fourth Army Intelligence School when second-generation Americans of Japanese descent called Nisei-helped the nation by teaching Japanese to American soldiers. The U.S. Army recruited these instructors, mainly from the West Coast. Most of their early students were also Nisei.

The expanding importance of China and Korea during World War II led to the programming of one class of Chinese in February and one Korean in October 1945.

In the early 1940s the Institute moved to Camp Savage and then to Fort Snelling, Minn. as the Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS). In 1946 it relocated to the Presidio of Monterey to become the Army Language School. (ALS). As the preeminent leader in a post World War II world, the U.S. military saw the importance of teaching the languages of its new friends and old enemies. Chinese and Korean were re-established at the Presidio in 1947, followed by Russian, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Greek, Turkish and Persian Farsi.

Initially, minority communities in large cities such as San Francisco, Chicago and New York were the source of DLI instructors. The first group of Russian instructors was composed mainly of European émigrés. Spanish attracted its faculty from immigrant communities originally from Mexico, Central and South America and Spain. French drew its instructors from France, Belgium, Switzerland, Haiti and North Africa. Portuguese language teachers came from Portugal and Brazil.

The teaching of Arabic also began in 1947, with a faculty composed mainly of Iraqi immigrants. Later the Institute hired instructors of other Arabic nationalities, with Egyptians becoming the largest group. These Arabic instructors now teach Modern Standard Arabic as well as Egyptian, Syrian and Gulf dialects. Then in 1948 came Albanian, Czech, Bulgarian, Danish, Italian, Swedish, Hungarian, Norwegian, Romanian, Polish, Serbian/Croatian and Slovenian. During the 1950s, German, Finnish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Italian were introduced.

Millions of professionals had left the ruins of Europe and the Soviet Union during and after World War II, and some of them applied for and obtained language-teaching positions at the Institute. The continued need for teachers of Chinese attracted immigrants from mainland China who'd fled to Taiwan before and after the communist revolution. In the early 1950s immigrants from the Korean peninsula who'd left a war-torn country joined the Korean faculty after the first several years of the fledgling Korean program.

More Asian languages were added to the Institute's programs in the ensuing years. In the mid-fifties the school began teaching Burmese, Chinese-Cantonese, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay and Indonesian. Once again, recently arrived immigrants, this time from Asia, came to form a part of those early faculties.

In 1963 the Army Language School became the Defense Language Institute (DLI), with headquarters in Washington, D.C., and began accepting members of all the military services. Thus, the Monterey school became the Defense Language Institute, West Coast Branch (DLIWC) while a branch opened in Washington D.C. became the East Coast Branch (DLIEC).

Several languages were also added in the 1970s and 80s: Dutch in the 1970s, drawing its instructors from the Netherlands. Hebrew, Tagalog, Dari and Pashto came in the 1980s. As many native born Americans as Israeli instructors taught Hebrew. Tagalog drew teachers from the Philippine Islands, and the Dari/Pashto instructors came from Afghanistan. As some languages were added, others were discontinued. For example, in the late 1980s, several language programs were brought to a close in Monterey. These languages, which included Bulgarian, Danish, Hungarian, Norwegian, Romanian, Serbian/Croatian, Dari/Pashto, etc, continued to be taught on the East Coast by contract thru the DLI Washington office. Teachers in those languages were either laid off, retired, went to teach other languages, or were employed in staff positions.

In 1973, the US Army Training and Doctrine Command took charge of the Institute and in 1976 the Army consolidated all the resident training programs from the east and west coasts on the Presidio of Monterey and renamed it the Defense Language School Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC).

The problems in the former Yugoslavia and Haiti in the early and mid 1990's resulted in the reactivation of the resident Serbian/Croatian course, and the temporary teaching of Haitian Creole in 1995. Czech and Polish were discontinued in 2001, and 2002 respectively.

In the mid 1980's the Institute opened branches in Lackland Air Force Base, Texas (Russian), and in San Francisco, California (German, Korean, and Spanish). These two branches were closed several years later.

Presented another way, the historical picture of languages added to the DLI curriculum looks like the chart at the bottom of the page.

After the September 11 tragedy, which began in earnest the War on Terrorism, a number of languages and dialects were added to the Institute's resident program. These included Dari, Pashto, Uzbek, Georgean, Tausug, Yakan, and other South West Asian languages.

After additions and deletions the present count includes the following languages: Arabic, Chinese-Mandarin, Dari, Dutch, French, Georgean, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Serbian/Croatian, Tagalog, Tausug, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese, Yakan, etc.

Four Presidio of Monterey buildings have been dedicated to faculty members. Nisei Hall, home of the European and Latin American School, honors the Nisei pioneers. Munakata Hall, home of Asian School III, and Aiso Library, were dedicated to the memories of Yukata Munakata and John Aiso, members of the first Japanese faculty. Munzer Hall, home of the Evaluation and Standardization Directorate, honors Hans Munzer, a German scholar who spent his last few years working for DLI's System Development Agency in the 1970s.

The War on Terrorism, including the conflicts with Iraq and North Korea, are switching U.S. interests from some languages to others, and no one knows what future impact these events will have on the Defense Language Institute. Certainly the learning of languages will continue to be of paramount importance to this country, and the American-and foreign-born faculty of DLI will continue making significant contributions.

YEAR(S)	LANGUAGE PROGRAMS
1941	Japanese
1947	Chinese, Korean, Russian, French, Portuguese, Greek, Turkish, Persian, Arabic
1948	Albanian, Czech/Slovak, Bulgarian, Danish, Swedish, Hungarian, Norwegian, Romanian, Polish, Serbian/Croatian, Slovenian
1960s	Swahili
1970s	Dutch
1980s	Hebrew, Tagalog, Dari, Pashto
2001/2002	Uzbek, Georgean, Tausug, Yakan, and other South West Asian languages