Foreign Language Soldiers to get more money for insulting foreigners in native tongue

Fafhrd on 11/5/2006 at 08:30

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4760353.stm) Caught this on the BBC news RSS ticker.

The most interesting part to me:

Quote:

The US military listed Arabic, Dari, Pashtu and Mandarin Chinese among the languages it needs soldiers to speak.

Bolds mine. Strike anyone else as potentially ominous that they're planning on offering a significant bonus to Chinese speakers? Nothing for Korean speakers, or any African languages.

I hate to pull a "Discuss." but it's half past 1 AM and I can't quite get my thoughts on this in the right order, so...

Discuss.

Convict on 11/5/2006 at 14:34

I wonder if this bonus will damage unit cohesion due to jealousy?

PS I think the title is unfair on the soldiers.

tungsten on 11/5/2006 at 14:48

Not unfair to soldiers, soldiers are not human beings, they're tools.

But your title is misleading. Maybe Mandarin is the language of choice for a wider area than China itself. Maybe it't not about the native language of the place, but about some language that can be used for communication...

Convict on 11/5/2006 at 14:56

I think that the title "Foreign Language Soldiers to get more money for insulting foreigners in native tongue" is unfair on soldiers because it makes the generalised claim that soldiers insult foreigners. Of course there will always be a minority of people who insult other people (e.g. on this forum) but the majority do not and therefore it is unfair.

BEAR on 11/5/2006 at 15:08

God, I hope we go to war with the chinese. Have you seen this Futureweapons show? We have gotta find someone to have a good groundwar with, we're steeping in our own shit over here. America could use a good real war, not this iraq piece of shit.

tungsten on 11/5/2006 at 15:13

If you're serious about this, then let's set a meeting. I suggest the US mainland (enough space, not scarred by recent wars etc...) When should we meet? You should also evacuate one or two coasts, so that we can land our troops and set them up, then on the whistle we can fight.

Tony on 11/5/2006 at 15:23

I get to be Arm! You can be the Core.

Rug Burn Junky on 11/5/2006 at 17:13

Quote Posted by Convict

Do us all a favor, Convict. Take the stick out of your ass and hit yourself over the head with it a few times.

demagogue on 11/5/2006 at 17:29

Quote Posted by Fafhrd

Strike anyone else as potentially ominous that they're planning on offering a significant bonus to Chinese speakers? Nothing for Korean speakers, or any African languages.

Well, they are going by what they need.

They've already got Russian, covered; W. European languages (& S. America), covered ... And Arabic is just obvious. Pashtun & Dari because there's a military presence in Afghanistan now. That really just leaves, given current geopol hot spots Iran and Chinese (the nuclear developing States, plus Pakistan and N. Korea already covered). But going for Persian might be a little *too* sensitive a message to be sending right now. So Chinese.

As for Korean, my guess is the US has had a very strong presence in Korea for the last 50 years, they already have plenty of speakers, and the idea of ground troops in N. Korea would be ludicrous in virtually any scenario short of self-defensive strike given that Seoul is just off the border.

As for any African language ... pfft, after Mogadishu no US soldier will set foot on African soil for another 100 years if that no matter how big a genocide they can muster.

aguywhoplaysthief on 11/5/2006 at 17:57

I don't really see anything particularly ominous here. China is the next superpower. Only a retard wouldn't want to learn the language.