Pentagon declares war on multiple language gaps with new system
Thursday, November 5, 2009 E-Mail this story Free Headline Alerts
WASHINGTON — The military has acquired a system that would enable soldiers and foreign area officers to learn any of 70 languages.
The CL-150 system, manufactured by Transparent Language, has been used by the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Special Operations Command and Defense Language Institute.
"In the government sector it's about real-world proficiency," Transparent Language chief executive officer Mike Quinlan said.
The U.S. Army has licensed Transparent's CL-150 Technology Matrix for Critical Languages for use by all its foreign area officers. Often, such an officer is the only U.S. military representative in a Third World country.
The U.S. military and government have been urged to improve their language skills for diplomats and officers. The Defense Department has identified several critical languages, including Arabic, Farsi and Pashtun.
Executives said CL-150 marked an extensive suite of software applications and content for language learning. They said the multi-platform software could support the learning of languages for government and military purposes.
"Transparent Language focuses on using technology to get the greatest result from the time someone spends learning a language," Quinlan said.