Decoding Foreign Accents

Press Contact: 202/225-4071 (office)

Project Name:	Decoding Foreign Accents
Project Address:	410 N. 4th Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Amount Requested:	$3,000,000
Federal Department or Agency:	Operation And Maintenance, Defense-Wide
Individual or entity requesting this appropriation:	The Accent Reduction Institute, LLC
Value to Michigan’s 15th Congressional District and the American taxpayer:
The purpose of this new program is to eliminate language and cultural barriers and create seamless communication by training military personnel to comprehend foreign accents before they are deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other overseas theaters. The objective of the Decoding Foreign Accents program, based on the Ravin Methodâ„¢ of language training, is to ensure that American service personnel engaging with foreign speakers of English can communicate clearly and efficiently; have the language, regional, and cultural expertise essential for meeting the DoD mission at hand; and the critical competencies to communicate with people in territories of deployment or transit. Absent this training, safety, security, and the ability to meet operational needs are critically compromised. ARI anticipates hiring 75 personnel into the 15th Congressional District workforce. This will have a measurable impact on the depressed economy of Ann Arbor and Michigan and provide a critical capability for service members.

Representative John Dingell