Paras learn Pashto

Eleven soldiers from 2nd Battalion The Parachute Regiment (2 PARA), based at Colchester Garrison, have spent the last ten months learning Pashto, the language spoken in southern Afghanistan.
 
The new skills will help when later this month more than 500 troops from 2 PARA fly out to spend six months in Helmand Province.

Being able to speak the language will be vital when the troops work alongside members of the Afghan National Army but also when they conduct foot patrols in local villages.

Captain Joe Walker, 2 PARA education officer, said:

"They will deploy as soldiers on patrols but with the capability to speak to the local people we come across and build relationships with them.

"It's all about building a rapport with local people and we think it will be an enormous help having them on each patrol. One of the big jobs is to reassure and create a sense of empathy so it's very important that we engage with local people."

All soldiers are given basic language skills and cultural training before deploying but these soldiers have gone through a particularly in-depth training programme at the Army Education Centre in Colchester receiving lessons from native Pashto speakers from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The group is made up of one Lance Corporal and ten Private soldiers, which is quite an unusual composition. Captain Walker explained:

"It's the first course of its kind; normally it's more senior people learning languages but the Commander was very keen that younger and more junior soldiers would have an opportunity to speak Pashto. They've certainly been working very hard for the last ten months."

The eleven soldiers were chosen after Captain Walker conducted aptitude tests on 120 members of the Battalion, explaining what the training required and what job they would be expected to perform in Afghanistan, giving them all the chance to opt out, before choosing the best 11.

All have taken exams in speaking and listening to Level 2, a NATO-recognised level equivalent to a good GCSE standard. The students took their final oral examinations last week. One other incentive is that they qualify for extra pay if they pass the exam.

One Private, who did not wish to be identified, said the training of eight hours a day, every day, for ten months, had been "very hard" but had been well worth it:

"We can carry out a conversation with people quite confidently. Our skills will be invaluable. I think it will be quite heart-warming and help to gain trust from locals when they see that people from England have made the effort to learn the language and communicate with them. We won't seem quite so alien to them and hopefully they’ll trust us a little more.

"We've been on exercise where we had local Afghans being used as interpreters so it's not just been in the classroom, it's been practical as well."

For one 19-year-old this will be his first tour and, prior to the Pashto classes, his language skills had only extended to speaking a touch of French at school:

"It's been really hard to learn, but I think it will be very useful and good for the Army. The other soldiers in the Battalion all think it's a good thing and say how lucky I am to be on the course."

Their examiner was native Pashto speaker Kishwar Ali, from the Defence School of Languages at Beaconsfield. He said:

"I was here for the speaking examination and they have to get through three tests: transacting business, situational intercourse, and general conversation.

"They were quite good. Pashto is quite difficult and they have made good progress in that time. When they go out in contact with local people this will be very useful and this will definitely work for them."