Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center

About Welcome to the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center! DLIFLC is regarded as one of the finest schools for foreign language instruction in the nation. As part of the Army Training and Doctrine Command, the institute provides resident instruction at the Presidio of Monterey in more than a dozen languages, five days a week, seven hours per day, with two to three hours of homework each night. Courses last from 36 to 64 weeks, depending on the difficulty of the language. DLIFLC is a multi-service school for active and reserve components, foreign military students, and civilian personnel working in the federal government and various law enforcement agencies. The present facilities at the Presidio of Monterey accommodate approximately 2,500 Soldiers, Marines, Sailors and Airmen, as well as select Department of Defense and State members. To attend DLIFLC one must be a member of the Armed Forces or be sponsored by a government agency. DLIFLC students are taught by approximately 1,900 highly educated instructors, 95 percent of whom are native speakers of the languages they teach. Aside from classroom instruction, faculty also write course materials, design tests called the Defense Language Proficiency Test, and conduct research and analysis. To further advance student knowledge in a particular language, DLIFLC has designed an immersion program which consists of an offsite facility where students spend time in an isolated environment with their instructors and are not allowed to speak English. The facility is equipped with kitchens and break out rooms, while the program consists of real-world exercises, from bargaining for food and clothing at a market place, to going through customs, or making hotel reservations. DLIFLC also sends a number of students on 30-day in-country immersions to countries as far away as Korea and Morocco. DLIFLC also maintains Language Training Detachments sites in more than a dozen locations abroad and at home. Instructors at these locations are by and large from DLIFLC’s Monterey home base.