Japanese Translation career in air force?

Question

I'm a high school A-B student, good GPA, good ACT scores and all that, about to graduate this year (class of '09). I really love Japanese and wanted a good career that would take me somewhere, and I thought that the air force sounded really good, but I'm pretty much in the dark about most of it, and I've gone to their official web site, but i don't see too much of what I want to know. I want to become a English-Japanese translator, some people have told me that branch did exist in the Air Force (a man that just recently retired, and a lot of other people who have had simular jobs), and I really want to know more about it. Is it a good paying job? Will they help pay for college? Would I be able to go to Japan for this job (I want to work over there for awhile) and any other information you might want to tell me would be greatly appreciated. Also, is this job more of a civilian job or actual Air Force? Thank you for taking the time to read, and hopefully answer my question.

Answer 1

The need for translators in the military has tocorrespond with the current world situation!

WE are presently involved in the middle east, the emphasis is for translators of Farsi  and all the other languages and dialects in that region.

Look into a career as a translator in the UN or in the Business world!

YOU can join the military and ask to be assigned in Japan or the Pacific region!

Answer 2

go for it, linguist is a very good job as a first enlistment

Answer 3

The Air Force does have linguist jobs.

If you qualify for them by making a high enough score on the DLAB test.

But, you do not get to choose the language you will learn.

Right now, they need Arabic, Farsi and Pashto  languages.

So the chances of being trained in Japanese are slim.

They just do not need many linguist who speak japanese.

Answer 4

EVERY Branch has Linguists.   however, being selected to  attend DLI in Monterey is hard..and the chances of getting Japanese are about Nil.

furthermore, few linguists will actually TRANSLATE per se.  DLI does NOT impart fluency.   I believe only the Army and Marines have an interrogator  job classification..in which you would be speaking the language and translating.  but for the most part..you will listen and trsnascibe only.