Sometimes learning a new language comes down to what motivates you. For Spanish instructor Lucia Artacho, it was, as she describes it, "dancy" music that helped her.

The effects of poverty on education are well-documented. But because education is one of the few ways out of poverty, it leads to a cycle that is difficult to break. For Edward Wang, a Chinese Mandarin instructor at DLIFLC, it was one he knew well, thanks to the extremely poor and rural area where he was born and raised. It was a cycle his mother was determined to break for her children.

Baghdad wasn't always a war-torn city. To hear native-born Atoor Lawandow tell it, the Iraqi city is the center of the world. For more about Baghdad and how Atoor's journey brought her to Monterey, listen to the latest episode in our podcast, DLIFLC Lingo.

Kamola Umarova was born and raised in Uzbekistan, speaking both Uzbek and Russian with her family. A former Army linguist herself, Kamola talks about life before and after the Soviet Union, and what brought her to DLIFLC.

Curtis Powell is part of the 5% of instructors at DLIFLC who aren't native speakers. That means Curtis is so good at his second language that he can teach others to speak it at a high proficiency. From Maryland to Seoul, South Korea to DLIFLC, listen as Curtis tells his story.

In 1985, Lana Al Mudhaffar and her family moved from the peace of northern England to a war zone in Basra, Iraq. Over 30 years later, Lana shares her experiences living in Iraq and the journey that led her to DLIFLC.

30 years ago this December, Ceausescu's brutal regime abruptly ended in a public execution. Two-time DLIFLC graduate Branko Marinovich was a foreign area officer with the embassy at the time of revolution.

When the Navy called for a Persian Farsi linguist to deploy to the Persian Gulf and cover the Iranian revolution in late 1979, the only options Tom Chesno had to offer were three Airmen who had just finished their schooling. This is their story.

On the outset of the Iranian Revolution of 1978/1979, there were only a few Persian Farsi military linguists ready to jump into action. Michael Ruhm, Michael Sherman and Don Huntington, recent graduates of Persian Farsi, were working for Tom Chesno, when the embassy hostage crisis began.

As if it being a military linguist wasn't challenge enough, Sgt. First Class Matthew Peterson took it a step further by becoming an Army Ranger. Now he's back at DLIFLC for a third round, this time as a Military Language Instructor, passing on his Pashto knowledge and experiences in Afghanistan.