Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Plans, Gail McGinn, recently implemented some ideas to encourage soldiers and DoD civilans to become multi-lingual:

To help boost language skills within the military, McGinn said, DoD has launched or plans to introduce several new initiatives:

-- Increased the Defense Language Institute's budget by more than $50 million to go toward curriculum development and improved foreign language testing, to develop more "crash courses" for developing troops, and to begin training students to higher levels of proficiency.

-- Received legislative authority to increase foreign language proficiency pay for military linguists from the current high of $300 a month to a top rate of $1,000.

-- Pays stipends to college students involved in regional studies and language studies who agree to seek jobs within the U.S. national security establishment, through the National Security Education Program.

-- Established the National Flagship Language Initiative (NFLI) in which colleges and universities offer advanced language training in Arabic, Korean, Chinese and Russian to students who agree to work for the national security establishment.

-- Initiated a pilot program within the Army encouraging Iraqi Americans to join the Individual Ready Reserve, providing a pool of Arabic linguists, ready when needed. Of more than 200 people recruited through the program, 44 have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and another 19 are awaiting deployment.

-- Will survey members of the current force, both military and civilian, to determine who has language skills that could prove useful in current or future operations.

-- Issued a white paper encouraging the United States to promote the emphasis placed on language skills nationwide.

-- Promoted the development of technology with language and translation software.

-- Is considering establishing a database in which American citizens can register their language skills or sign up for a civilian linguist reserve corps that could contribute to national language requirements as needed.

Pilot Programs in Arabic

• Emory University

• University of Washington

Pilot Programs in Chinese

• Brigham Young University

• University of Mississippi

Pilot Programs in Korean

• UCLA

• University of Hawai'i

Pilot Program in Russian

• Bryn Mawr College