Big Picture: Army Language School – National Archives and Records Administration – ARC Identifier 2569741 / Local Identifier 111-TV-492 – DVD Copied by Liz Pruszko – Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations. U.S. Army Audiovisual Center. (ca. 1974 – 05/15/1984). This is the story of the U.S. Army Language School which provides a program for training officer and enlisted personnel to meet Army requirements for linguists in at least one foreign language. As pointed out in the film, today forty percent of the U.S. Army serves throughout 73 different foreign countries. The contacts with the nationals of those countries offer both a challenge and an opportunity. Irrespective of rank and whether engaged in official duty or off-duty social pursuits, the overseas serviceman has become an important participant in the contest to win international friends. The most potent weapon in that struggle is language – the tool of direct communication. The film, after a close-range look at the operation of the school at the Presidio of Monterey, California, concludes by saying that with “language” as an instrument for building understanding and friendship we can look forward to closer ties with both the friendly and uncommitted nations of the world.
They seem to have put a lot of effort into teaching pronunciation, but yes, it is very difficult to get rid of your original accent. Some actors are noticeably successful at it in the roles they play, others fail miserably.
If you have never studied a foreign language in order to be fluent- it is very hard to lose your original accent. – DLI Graduate- Russian 1 and 2 and Serbo-Croation
@ 14:22 left side is the back of my fathers handsome head basically masacuring Spanish. God I miss him! RIP LTC John A Reinhardt.
I love how some of the students' American accents are so strong- even if that's not the intention.