What language did your terp speak in Afghanistan?

2019-02-09T15:16:53-05:00

I find language in Afghanistan to be extremely interesting. Dari and Pashto are the two national languages, yet many speak other languages like Farsi. Did anyone try to learn a native language while in country? What resources did you use?

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 9 at 2019 3:19 PM

2019-02-09T15:19:44-05:00

Mine spoke Pashto. I tried learning for like a week and gave up.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 9 at 2019 3:53 PM

2019-02-09T15:53:36-05:00

A major in charge of our civil military operations center was taught at Defense Language Institute Farsi and Russian. The local Afghans in Farah province in Western Afghanistan near Iran were impressed that he spoke Farsi. Farsi was the language in that province.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 9 at 2019 4:59 PM

2019-02-09T16:59:31-05:00

Depends on where you were. In the north, you’ll find a lot of Dari. In the South, Pashto. Lots of them speak both. Some of ours spoke Russian, Uzbek, Urdu, Balochi, Arabic and others.

The alphabets aren’t hard for the above. Some of the sounds are tricky to learn how to make, and sentence structure is different, but the best way to learn is simply practice speaking. Pretty much every language has a version of the ‘ABC’ song. Go on YouTube and start from there.

(*remember if trying to learn language from a local terp. Often, we hire folks willing to work with us, simply because they speak passable English and they’re willing to work with us in a war zone. Their language skills aren’t always the greatest in their own language. They’re not necessarily language instructors. Imagine, taking three random, normal Americans. One from Massachusetts, one from Mississippi and one from Wisconsin. And then tell them to collectively teach a foreigner ‘english’. Hilarity will ensue).

Response by LTC Jason Mackay made Feb 9 at 2019 9:01 PM

2019-02-09T21:01:03-05:00

Mine spoke Nuristani, except we weren't in Nuristan. Only reason I knew this was because he was at Ft Polk and we had a KLE training engagement and his Pashto was so bad, the role players shut down the translating part and spoke English. They filed a formal complaint on him. We get in country and there's he is in the interpreter pool.

Most spoke Pashto or Dari. Dari sort of became the military/Security unofficial common language.

You have levels of interpreters. The highest level are the Afghan-Americans that are AMCITs with a security clearance. The lowest level ones are local contract hires.

They used to have online and DL electronic packages to learn Pashto, Dari, or Arabic if you were deploying. You could find them through AKO.

Response by Maj John Morash made Feb 9 at 2019 11:31 PM

2019-02-09T23:31:02-05:00

My main terp spoke Pashtu. My backup terp spoke Pashai as well. Both of the guys spent a lot of time with me, teaching me Pashtu. Ended up with a 2/2 on the DLPT after all that time in country and out in the hinterlands with the team(s).

Response by SGT Donald Croswhite made Feb 10 at 2019 3:26 AM

2019-02-10T03:26:47-05:00

Pashtu, here's a picture of my "terp" and me.

Response by CPT Ray Gilmore made Feb 10 at 2019 7:28 PM

2019-02-10T19:28:45-05:00

A good terp speaks at least 3 languanges....
- Pashto
- Dari / Farsi are very similar
- Uzbek, Tajik, Russian....

It all depends on the region you're in.... but learn the key phrases of interest in both Pashto & Dari, at a minimum.

Without knowing the language, learn to read body language & meta-communication.