(no subject)
I found out some extremely valuable information the other day. In my Russian literature class, we had a substitue teacher, Captain Tendetnik. He was born and grew up in the Soviet Union, and he came to the United States after the fall. He said that he's still only a captain after more than 12 years in the Air Force because his father was a general officer in the KGB, so they always give him a hard time with security clearance issues and stuff like that. Anyway, since he grew up speaking Russian, he said he constantly gets tasked as a translator for the Air Force. That's something I would really like doing, so after class I talked to him about it for a while. He had a lot of good information about FAO and IAS stuff, how to get flagged as a translator and everything. Contrary to what I initially thought, it does not matter at all what AFSC you have. He said that the most important thing is to do well on the DLPT (Defense Language Proficiency Test) and score a 3 on a scale from 0 to 5. Although that may not sound particularly difficult, you actually have to be able to speak Russian at least decently to even score a 0, and his current score is a 3. They have to get special people involved to run the test for 4 or 5, and a 5 is practically impossible for an extremely well educated Russian who has lived there their whole life. My score was 2 last time I took it. That was having no idea what to expect and not studying for it at all, though, so by the time I graduate I'll have more experience and be better prepared and hopefully be able to score a 3. Anyway, once you have a 3 and get flagged as a linguist, it doesn't matter what your job is because you'll get pulled to translate all the time. He said that the list of Russian translators with a 3 was only two or three hundred in the entire AF last time he checked, and even though his AFSC is comm he's hardly ever worked as a comm officer. And once you kind of get into the IAS track, he said they'll pay for pretty much any kind of degree you want to get as long as it's related and barely even ask any questions. So now I don't really care too much what AFSC I get. The single most important thing is just that I do well on the DLPT. The only thing I'd worry about, though, is that if I get a pilot slot it would be harder to just leave from something like that. But anyway, we'll have to see.
The other thing I just found out today is that I officially got the Critical Language Scholarship from the US Department of State. I still don't know for sure exactly what city in Russia I'm going to, but unless I turn down the scholarship I have a spot. I'm pretty excited about going, for lots of reasons. Not only will it be an awesome chance to live my life in Russian again, but it will be fun, and it will help me get better. And since I don't have to do any summer programs or anything, it will be like the first summer holiday I've had since highshool, I will just spend it in another country. It will be kind of fun to be a civilian for months in a row too. Thanks to everyone who prayed for me about it.
The other thing I just found out today is that I officially got the Critical Language Scholarship from the US Department of State. I still don't know for sure exactly what city in Russia I'm going to, but unless I turn down the scholarship I have a spot. I'm pretty excited about going, for lots of reasons. Not only will it be an awesome chance to live my life in Russian again, but it will be fun, and it will help me get better. And since I don't have to do any summer programs or anything, it will be like the first summer holiday I've had since highshool, I will just spend it in another country. It will be kind of fun to be a civilian for months in a row too. Thanks to everyone who prayed for me about it.