Corps adding languages to proficiency program

[unhappycamper]

Sgt. Shawn Kelly speaks to a village elder in Afghanistan's Korangal Valley.


Corps adding languages to proficiency program
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Mar 8, 2009 9:26:39 EDT

The Corps is showing Marines the money, expanding an incentive program that encourages leathernecks to learn foreign languages.

Eligibility for the Marine Corps Foreign Language Proficiency Pay Program has been bolstered to include new languages, officials said, giving Marines more options to collect bonuses of between $500 and $1,000 per month.

The Corps declined to identify which languages are eligible, saying only that Commandant Gen. James Conway and other top Marine officials developed the list based on the service’s needs. When the Defense Department increased language bonuses for service members in 2006, it counted Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Farsi and Pashtu among its “investment languages.”

“Mission accomplishment and efficiency can be greatly enhanced if Marines attain and maintain a proficiency in the necessary languages, even at the lowest levels,” said 2nd Lt. Josh Diddams, a Marine spokesman.

Although the eligible languages have now changed, the Corps’ requirements for earning FLPP have not. Marines must score at least a “1/1” on the Interagency Language Roundtable scale, which sets federal guidelines for measuring language proficiency.


Rest of article at: http://marinecorpstimes.com/news/2009/03/marine_language_030809w/%2e