Bilingual Armed Forces?

boris116

boris116

Active member
some countries have more than one official language.
for example, Canada has English and French, Finland has Finnish and Swedish, Belgium - Flemish and French.

How these bilingual countries have their armed forces function language-wise?
Are both languages accepted?
Should all servicemen(women) know both languages as a condition for recruitment or conscription?
Paperwork? Radio transmissions? Verbal orders?


What about the National Guard in those states that have English and Spanish as their official language?

I would really appreciate if somebody enlighten me on this matter!
 
well i can tell you that while NZ has both english and maori, english is definatley the primary language. and i would expect that for any bilingual armed forces that they would standardise to on shared language


the swiss army is a good example....they are all trained in the german language
 
boris116 said:
some countries have more than one official language.
Finland has Finnish and Swedish,
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Finland have Swedish speaking battalions/brigades where orders and commands are in Swedish.
They are however nowadays quite few and I invision they will dissapear and melt into the Finnish speaking units in the future.

//KJ.
 
KJ said:
Finland have Swedish speaking battalions/brigades where orders and commands are in Swedish.
They are however nowadays quite few and I invision they will dissapear and melt into the Finnish speaking units in the future.

//KJ.
Click to expand...
How do they communicate with the rest of the Army?
Is it mandatory for the officers to know both languages?

If you are a Finnish 0fficer, can you give an order to the Swedish batallion's member in Finnish and get a reply: 'I don't understand your language'?
 
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As far as I know, US armed force's offical language are English language. (Most of you probably know about it already) Same goes for Mexican armed force, I think, they only speak Spanish including the training or field.
 
Fox said:
As far as I know, US armed force's offical language are English language. (Most of you probably know about it already) Same goes for Mexican armed force, I think, they only speak Spanish including the training or field.
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Fox,

I am interested to find what's going on in the Armies where the state itsef has two official languages! The US, as far as I know has none:)

However, Canada has two and every official word there has to be in English and French!
That's why I wonder: how do they do it in the Armed Forces?
If it is "English Only", do the French Canadians accept this?
If it could be both, should all personnel by bilingual?
 
boris116 said:
How do they communicate with the rest of the Army?
Is it mandatory for the officers to know both languages?

If you are a Finnish 0fficer, can you give an order to the Swedish batallion's member in Finnish and get a reply: 'I don't understand your language'?
Click to expand...

As far as I know, and I am by no means an expert on the matter is that the officers adapt.
If you are a Finnish speaking officer and you want to command a Swedish speaking company, battalion, brigade you will have to do so in Swedish.
Easier to have one officer learn swedish then a brigade finnish.
In any case, your adjutant will be bilingual and can translate any order you give to the preferred language.
There are usually alot of men in each unit that speaks both languages anyway so.

We may call it a hindrence, but you must remember that this practice worked very well for the Finns during both the winter and continuation war.
Most of the Swedish officers that volunteered commanded Finnish troops from the Swedish speaking parts of Finland thus no problems with the languages.

//KJ.
 
Also depends on the local culture.
If they have a long history and experience with dealing with two or more languages, generally they have ways to get around the problem like KJ said.
But try that stuff in a place like Korea and it's a certain disaster.
Heck, the French Foreign Legion has several languages within its ranks but still functions without major problems.
 
the_13th_redneck said:
Also depends on the local culture.
If they have a long history and experience with dealing with two or more languages, generally they have ways to get around the problem like KJ said.
But try that stuff in a place like Korea and it's a certain disaster.
Heck, the French Foreign Legion has several languages within its ranks but still functions without major problems.
Click to expand...

It is completely different!
French Legion recognizes one and only one language - French!
It doesn't care what other languages you speak - unless there is a need to interrogate someone:))
 
Yes I know the only official language in it is French but there are many languages within the Legion. They solve the problem by making sure everyone (eventually) speaks French.
 
boris116 said:
Phoenix,

could you, please, elaborate on this?
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Oh sure...

Belgium is a country where Flemmish and French are spoken languages.

The Flemmish also dislike the french Belgians even until today and the orders given by the French officers to Flemmish soldiers were disobeyed just because they were in French. I heard it from a friend of mine in Dutch military. Let me see if I can find a better documented source on this as well
 
There you go

More importantly, the experiences of the Dutch-speaking soldiers on the front led by French speaking officers catalyzed Flemish emancipation. Their suffering is still remembered by Flemish organizations during the yearly Yser pilgrimage and Wake of the Yser (the latter associated with Right wing extremists) in Diksmuide at the monument of The Yser tower.
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The French speaking Belgians of the southern region are called Walloons. The other French speakers are the Belgians from Brussels, but they are not Walloon. In most cases their last names are Flemish but their first names are French... mostly because back in the old days French was the "international" language of Europe and Brussels being a big city needed to follow suit. At least this did play a large role... and its proximity to Wallonia no doubt helped. (i.e. Jean Claude Van Damme... French first name, Flemish surname)
And yes
They HATE each other.
 
the_13th_redneck said:
The French speaking Belgians of the southern region are called Walloons. The other French speakers are the Belgians from Brussels, but they are not Walloon. In most cases their last names are Flemish but their first names are French... mostly because back in the old days French was the "international" language of Europe and Brussels being a big city needed to follow suit. At least this did play a large role... and its proximity to Wallonia no doubt helped. (i.e. Jean Claude Van Damme... French first name, Flemish surname)
And yes
They HATE each other.
Click to expand...

Ditto!

I also heard when I was in Europe 2 months ago that there is a great chance Belgium would split to two countries...
 
They've already moved towards federalization some time ago... I used to know quite a few details but I'm having some issues with them now...
It's a good thing both sides are absolutely crap at war or they would have blown themselves to bits by now.
Actually they used to be good in the old days but only against poor African countries with no Air Force.
 
the_13th_redneck said:
They've already moved towards federalization some time ago... I used to know quite a few details but I'm having some issues with them now...
It's a good thing both sides are absolutely crap at war or they would have blown themselves to bits by now.
Actually they used to be good in the old days but only against poor African countries with no Air Force.
Click to expand...

Flemish community of that country is well behaved and prosperous! While the French speaking community is having a rough time keeping up with them and also has some "Children abuse" scandals on hand.

Any ways, they have some troops in Afghanistan now. Dont they?
 
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