Issue Nr. 1 March 2006 - NATO School

NATO School
Community Bulletin March 2006 Edition
ISAF Deployment
by Major Sarah Scullion
I deployed to Afghanistan at the request of JWC in
support of the JALLC to participate in a team
study conducted Oct-Nov 2005. This team
comprised members of France, Italy, Norway,
United Kingdom and the United States. The Joint
Analysis Lessons Learned Centre (JALLC) was
tasked to analyze the relief-in-place of a US
Provisional Reconstruction Team (either under
NATO control or just prior to NATO assuming
control of the PRT) to another NATO or non-
NATO relieving nation and thereby identify
lessons to improve the transition process.
We traveled to Kabul, Farah and Herat within
Afghanistan. Central and regional headquarters
were visited, as well as two Provisional
Reconstruction Teams, Non Governmental
Organization offices, reconstruction worksites in
the civilian communities, and a Forward Support
Base. Our report was issued 31 Jan 06 and is
classified as NATO Confidential Releasable to
ISAF. Key recommendations were in the areas of
doctrine, organization, training, material, facilities
and interoperability. The lessons-learned report is
intended to facilitate and improve NATO’s
involvement in ISAF’s Stage 3 expansion.
Learning English with the Flying Cow
By Mandy Payne
Sixteen NATO School wives are taking part in a
unique trial of a remarkable English language
learning software programme.
The ladies, who between them come from thirteen
different European countries, among them
France, Spain, Poland and Lithuania, are all
working daily at fun computer games featuring
flying cows and talking turtles. While they are
clicking at the animals, they are being subtly
trained in the skills needed to learn and improve
their English – how to discriminate between
similar sounds, such as “d” and “t”, for instance,
and how to remember and follow increasingly
complex spoken instructions. The software, which
is widely used in the US but is relatively new to
Europe, appears to develop the human brain’s
language learning centres in a way that makes it
easier to absorb the English language. The
American company that developed the products
has agreed to make this normally expensive
course available to these ladies free of charge for
the purposes of the trial, and we are grateful to
the NATO School for generously covering the
trial’s running costs. Speech therapist Catherine
Ruckert, who practises in Starnberg and who has
been using the software successfully with her
clients in recent years, is giving up her own time
to analyse the data and manage the trial.
The NATO School currently employs personnel
from 23 different countries, many of whom arrive
here with wives and children who speak neither
German nor English. Can you imagine coming to
Oberammergau knowing that there will be not one
person outside the family that you can talk to in
your own language? Families can face an uphill
struggle to learn enough German or English to be
able to make friends and enjoy life as part of the
NATO community. While kids learn quickly, adults
who’ve had little exposure to English can find the
language almost impossible. This is why
European wives deserve all the support we can
give them. The software training will, we hope,
shorten the learning curve substantially – it is
claimed to achieve around a year’s progress in
English in the space of a few weeks.
The trial began at the end of January, and into its
second week it’s already generating plenty of
discussion. It is expected to continue until April,
after which the results will be published. Please
give your support by taking a moment to have a
chat with any NATO School English learners and
give them a bit of practice!