As we segue from a review of military colleges to officer production generally to utility of a university degree for an officer to the requirement for and quality of second language training all in the space of nine pages, I am heartened that the site continues to demonstrate the ability of Canadian leaders to focus their intellect and attenti . . . . . Squirrel!
Merde alors! Tu vois, je suis bilingue. Or I should be. I did the year long French course over forty years ago. As it was organized then (supposedly, it was the first year-long course for
ORs NCMs), the first half done locally (mine was in Calgary) and the second half in St Jean - I was posted in between (to Ottawa - after two other msgs, first to the Van Doos in Lahr, and then to a ship in Halifax, both being cancelled because my then wife's CM wouldn't/couldn't post her to those locs). I finished the course with a decent profile, but I wouldn't say that I was comfortable working in French (but that may just have been my fear of sounding stupid). Despite having been posted to a couple of BUs (supposedly), in most cases they (or at least I) worked in English. If you don't practise, you lose it pretty quickly. Actually, in my last posting to NDHQ, having some ability in German would probably have been better; we were building the new hospital in Lahr, which required frequent trips to Freiburg and Lahr to liaise with the German project managers. Luckily, my boss was fluent in German; I had to resort to a cassette learning package (what I was given after it was requested I be loaded on a short German language course) and a Langenscheidt German-English dictionary to use while I reviewed the updates to the plans and specifications coming from SHBA in Freiburg.
It was actually after being posted to Germany that the best opportunity for re-picking up (see, I can sound stupid in two languages) French came about. Not because I worked in French, though the occasional interaction with the Van Doos did require some limited language ability, but because of where I lived, Schuttern. Even though the village was at the end of the runway and not far out of Lahr, it had very poor TV and radio reception for CFN (Canadian Forces Network), but I did get exceptional reception from the French networks coming across the Rhine. Therefore, my usual viewing/listening of news (especially) and entertainment was either in German or French. It did wonders for improving my comprehension of both languages, and also upped my expression ability as well. When I get the urge (not often but occasionally) to renew my grasp of those additional languages I'll force myself to exclusively tune to only the French channels and the intermittent German TV programming found out here. Though with internet and streaming services (Netflix et al) I do find myself viewing (and preferring) a lot of foreign language programs without resorting to subtitles or translation.