ADF's Tower of Babel





By Lt Simone Heyer
THE ADF School of Languages is approaching its 60th year of operation without deviating from its original goal to train ADF personnel as linguists.

While the school prepares for its birthday celebrations, it's business as usual.

Lt-Col Tim Gellel is the school's second Army CO, so it was with pride that he announced a new colour patch for Army personnel.

The patch bares tri-service colours of dark blue, red and light blue, and in the centre a green training command ellipse. It has given soldiers posted to ADF Langs an extra sense of identity.

The last sayonara for the Japanese Department will be heard on the completion of the year-long course.

It was the first language offered all those years ago, but now, Lt-Col Gellel said, the numbers just aren't enough, which well demonstrated the evolving nature of ADF Langs.

He said the establishment was required to reflect changes in the operational tempo of the ADF.

To that end, Japanese, like German and Italian would be outsourced and only offered to selected personnel.

Lt-Col Gellel said ADF Langs offered a unique language training capability.

"For languages like Farsi and Khmer you cannot find better institutions in Australia," he said.

The school's Pacific Island Department was top-notch, and the Indonesian Department was highly regarded around the world.

Another key player in the language stakes was, understandably, Arabic.

This year, military personnel from around Australia are studying with the Department's second year-long course. The Department is also teaching a three-month Military Basic Course, and an ad hoc course, for people being deployed to the Middle East.

The lecturers in charge of Farsi and Arabic, Yavar Dehghani and Yasser Abdel Ghafar, were recently awarded the Australia Day Medallion for the tireless work they had both put into their respective departments.

Lt-Col Gellel said the two men deserved the award for having put their departments together on the fly.

"It is another busy year for Arabic, with the operational need for the language," he said.

Mr Ghafer was quick to direct the praise to his growing body of staff.

80 per cent of ADF Langs students are Army personnel, and Lt-Col Gellel encouraged more to study at the school if they have what it takes.

"You must be passionate and interested in the country of the target language," he said.

"It's a life-long skill that requires self-discipline and a committed study routine."

And he should know, as a graduate of the Japanese course in 1990.

He said that ADF Langs is like the "Tower of Babel" without the confusion. This reflected the brew room area at breaks.

LAT dance for Langs courses

ADF School of Languages offers most languages related to ADF deployments.

In order to study 20-week and longer courses, it is necessary to sit the Language Aptitude Test (LAT).

Indonesian, Arabic, French, Farsi, Thai, Vietnamese, Khmer, Mandarin, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Malay are the languages that ADF personnel need the LAT result for.

Tour dates for the LAT are:

All full-time personnel - private and above, can sit the test regardless of corps.

The test is a prerequisite of the 20-week language courses and is not required for the 12 week courses.

LAT is an aptitude test, no previous experience or ability in speaking a foreign language is required.

Language capability is an all corps responsibility. There is no requirement for members to have to corps or trade transfer.

All enquiries should go to Sgt Dennis Misso on (07) 5541 6308. Nominations can be made by e-mail to dennis.misso@defence.gov.au and should include PMKeyS number, rank, initials, surname, unit and unit telephone point of contact. Nominations close April 16, for Holsworthy, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide, and April 23, for Perth, Darwin, Townsville and Enoggera.