 Defense Language Institute Located on a vast bluff that commands a sweeping view of Monterey Bay, on the site of the original Spanish landings of 1602 and 1770, the Defense Language Institute on the Presidio of Monterey is the largest language institution in the world. Its role is simple yet sweeping: "The mission of the Defense Language Institute is to provide foreign language instruction in support of national security requirements; to support and evaluate command language programs worldwide; to conduct academic research into the language learning process; and to administer a worldwide, standard test and evaluation system.'' The Defense Language Institute has called Monterey home since 1946. It began in November 1941 as a secret language school at Crissy Field on the Presidio of San Francisco to teach Japanese to carefully selected U.S. soldiers, most of them of Japanese ancestry. The school, called the Military Intelligence Service Language School, moved during the war, first to Camp Savage, Minnesota, then to Fort Snelling, Minnesota. It was relocated to the Presidio of Monterey after World War II and renamed the Army Language School. During the mid-1970s it became the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. With a faculty of about 750, most of them civilians and native speakers of the language they instruct, the DLI, as it is commonly referred to, today offers courses in two dozen languages plus dialects. Basic course lengths are from 25 to 63 weeks, depending upon the difficulty of the language taught. While a basic Romance language program lasts 25 weeks, language instruction in Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Arabic lasts more than a year. The DLI offers intermediate, advanced, specialized and refresher language instruction. The programs include instruction in the history, culture and current events of the nations in which the languages are spoken. The institute's academic programs are supported by more than 1,000 classrooms and faculty offices, about 50 audio language labs and eight computer-enhanced language training labs. The DLI's Aiso Library contains more than 5,000 foreign television programs and films, in excess of 80,000 volumes in more than 40 languages and hundreds of foreign language newspapers and periodicals. The average annual number of classroom hours taught per year is more than 500,000. Enrollment is about 2,500, nearly all of it from the four military services. Accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the DLI plays a key role in providing skilled linguists for the military. It teaches foreign languages to other Department of Defense agencies and also to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Border Patrol. American astronauts participating in joint United States and Russian space missions take tailored courses in Russian at the Defense Language Institute of through DLI instructors stationed at Houston. The Defense Language Institute also trains many law enforcement agencies in several languages for work outside the United States. The languages taught at the DLI reflect world affairs. The end of the Cold War meant a decrease in the number of students studying Russian, German, Polish, Hungarian and Czech. "But the study of Arabic is increasingly tremendously,'' said Jim Davis, chief of public affairs at the Defense Language Institute. "Enrollments have doubled and Arabic is becoming our largest language program.'' Enrollment in Vietnamese language courses is also up significantly. Ray Clifford, provost at the DLI, said, "We get a lot of students who would not have joined the military were they not given the promise of the chance to learn a second language.'' The Defense Language Institute is known for its intensive curriculum. Students study only their assigned language. They are in small classes -- 10 or fewer students -- six to seven hours a day. This is not an easy school. Davis put the academic attrition rate at about 15 percent. The DLI not only offers courses to students on the 395-acre Presidio of Monterey. It also uses satellites "to sustain our linguists in the field,'' said Davis. This 24-hour per day operation provides two-way visual and audio inter-action with a teacher to U.S. personnel who cannot leave their jobs to attend classes full time. About 10,000 hours are broadcast to military bases each year in several languages. Clifford said that the language capital designation means Monterey will benefit from an increase in tourism. "Speaking the languages of our visitors will make them feel more comfortable. They will stay longer, will return, and will tell their friends,'' he added. Each spring, the DLI holds a Language Day, the annual open house for high school students. It features cultural displays and activities, ethnic foods and entertainment. More than 5,000 visitors generally attend.
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