<p>GA, </p>
<p>Thank you, I wasn’t aware of that, I’ll ask my Mid if he was. </p>
<p>Thinking about your comment two things come to mind; communication in English and the ability to articulate and present ideas or more importantly, orders through speech or the written word are as critical as any of the skills we are discussing, perhaps more so. Given the reality/perception suggested by those that pursued non-technical majors that us engineers suffer in that regard, should we not support or reinforce a very important skill through “normal” humanities requirements for those pursuing a technical degree? The majority of time an officer spends communicating in our Navy is going to be though the English language. The ability to speak Arabic or Chinese would be great so long as that officer is at least reasonably competent in English to begin with. Time and money are most often expended in a zero sum game, when you have only so much of either to throw around, you have to choose where you will get the greatest return on your investment. Unlike our government, people can’t deficit spend either commodity without facing bankruptcy. Mastering English shouldn’t be an elective spent on another language. Those that have the skills to begin with may indeed have that option. </p>
<p>Second, and this may be more my perception than reality, I think languages are a great challenge for some to learn and are often viewed as a somewhat intimidating course addition. I took a few semesters of Russian while pursuing my engineering degree and it did about as much good for my GPA as Thermo 2. If the goal of the Navy is to pursue a path that leads to a large percentage of the service population developing some skills in a language, I think the greatest benefit will come from providing a path that encourages as many as possible to give it try. Some may fail and come away with little, others may surprise themselves and pick it up quickly.</p>