DLIFLC’s Korean School hosted Lt. Cmdr. Yeonwoo Kim and Capt. Yunjeong An, Naval Postgraduate School international students who are active-duty officers from the Republic of Korea military, to speak with DLIFLC students.
In a move to bolster inter-service collaboration and linguistic readiness, the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center has officially reinstated a key partnership with the Naval Postgraduate School that had been dormant since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The initiative, designed to bridge the gap between classroom instruction and operational reality, kicked off last week as DLIFLC’s Korean School hosted Lt. Cmdr. Yeonwoo Kim and Capt. Yunjeong An, NPS international students who are active-duty officers from the Republic of Korea military.
The visit centered on a deep dive into Korean military life, providing DLIFLC students with an opportunity to test their proficiency against native-speaking subject matter experts. Because the DLIFLC students are 13 months into their language training, the session was conducted entirely in Korean.
“It gives our students an opportunity to talk to Korean officers and learn more about life as a Korean military service member and ask questions in their target language,” said Lt. Col. Jorge Avila, Dean of Students at DLIFLC.
Capt. Yunjeong An, an international student at the Naval Postgraduate School, speaks to DLIFLC students during a visit. The talk is the result of a partnership between DLIFLC and NPS, and is designed to bridge the gap between classroom instruction and operational reality for DLIFLC students.
Avila noted that the exchange is critical for developing fluency, adding, “It also introduces different terminology and words that they might not usually get to use in the classroom.”
The collaboration is part of a broader strategy to leverage the unique assets within the Monterey-based military education community. By connecting DLIFLC’s linguists-in-training with the seasoned international officers at NPS, both institutions enhance their global perspective.
“DLIFLC and NPS’s International Graduate Programs Office are part of a shared educational ecosystem, and this collaboration brings mutual benefit to both institutions,” said Dr. Mowafiq Alanazi, associate director of the NPS program.
