$200,000 a year

$200,000 a year working as Dari and Pashto. An interesting and possibly rare article in the Washington Post on the hot recruiting of US army interpreters in the USA to be sent to Afghanistan. For a shuddering read about a recent Iraqi interpreter allegedly killed by a son, this one tells about culture clash. I am not into the mere copy-pasting of links devoid of personal comments but the subject of interpreting at wars is a strong inhibiting subject. The Washington Post article gives brief hints through figures on the potential number of Dari and Pashto speakers in the US to work as interpreters. How many big countries have publicly known national strategic language initiatives? In this chicken and egg relationship between sudden needs and resources availability, there is a thorny issue where preventive action at a country level seems impossible. At the same time, the books that inform about the history of national crash courses in the enemy language for urgent situations is missing in giving details on methods, at a time where it has never been so easy for some language at least to self-educate granted there is a will. Maybe China has something to teach about the subject.