 | Most instructors at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center may find their hardest task while teaching is attempting to relate to their students. But for Russian instructor and three-time graduate of DLIFLC Joe Phillips, identifying with his students has never been an issue. Phillips, who scored a 3/3/3 on each of his DLPTs in Polish, Russian, and Serbo-Croatian, returned to teach at the Institute in 2009 after an immense career saturated with travel.
Other than being a DLIFLC graduate, what mainly sets Phillips apart from most of the Institute's instructors is the fact that he is a non-native speaker of the language he teaches. Currently, 98 percent of DLIFLC's teachers are native speakers, with English being either their second or third language.
"I constantly have to remind myself that although I'm not a native speaker, I'm far enough above [the students] level that I could still be of help to them. I think the counterbalance to that is I'm able to communicate with them more effectively because I've been where they are, and I know exactly what they're going through," said Phillips.
One challenge Phillips occasionally faces is trying to relate with students who have no desire to learn the language, because for him, there was nothing better than having someone pay him to go to school.
"I was insatiable; I would always read everything I could get my hands on, even if I couldn't understand it. I would do that every day, and I'd understand more every day. The joy of seeing that progress in myself kept me driven," related Phillips about his time as a student at DLIFLC.
Overall, Phillips attended DLIFLC for 188 weeks as a student. Between his stretches at the Institute, he worked for the U.S. Intelligence and Security Command as a recruiter, received his Master's degree, graduated from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's intensive Russian program, and spent his last three years prior to returning to DLIFLC at the DTRA office in Moscow, Russia.
His field experience and extensive knowledge of the language he teaches make for a unique perspective in the classroom, and have provided him with a "mixed bag of tricks" which he uses to help make the language learning process as easy and enjoyable as possible.
"I always tell my students at the beginning of every group that comes through, that it is my intention they will never recover from their encounter with me. And I usually succeed." |
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