A seemingly harmless gesture could get a soldier in hot water, especially in a war-torn country. Body language that's meaningless in the United States -- such as showing the soles of one's feet -- is offensive in Iraq. So the American military is adopting a new video game created to help soldiers navigate the mysterious world of international nonverbal language.
Developed by the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute (http://www.isi.edu/), the Tactical Language Training Program is different from interactive language programs of the past, which focus solely on spoken language. In Tactical Iraqi, players navigate a set of real-life scenarios by learning a set of Arabic phrases, culturally relevant gestures and taboos. Other titles include Tactical Levantine and Tactical Pashto.
Following each lesson, the player is asked to interact with other characters using speech and gestures, while a speech-recognition system records and evaluates the responses. Accurate responses allow the soldier to build a rapport with other characters and advance to the next level.
The Army and Marine Corps have trained about 300 soldiers using the system, says Lewis Johnson of USC's Information Sciences Institute. Some of them traveled to Iraq with the game to continue their own training and share the knowledge with other troops. Johnson expects several thousand soldiers will have used the game by the end of the year.
Misunderstanding nonverbal cues such as proximity while speaking, handshakes and subtle gestures like bowing the head or placing one's hand over the heart can create or destroy trust, says Hannes Vilhjalmsson, the project's technical director. "There is a whole sequence of things that has to happen in connection with what you are saying, and it's that kind of rich context of interaction that we are trying to re-create in the virtual environment," he says.
Cultural taboos unknown to Americans can also lead to problems. For example, in Iraq, introducing yourself without also introducing everyone else with you is impolite. Vilhjalmsson recounts one situation in which an Iraqi man gestured to a female soldier by rubbing his fingers together. It was meant to indicate friendship, but the soldier interpreted the action to have an offensive sexual connotation.
Many new soldiers have little, if any, international experience, says Lt. Christopher Seeley of the Marine Corps Expeditionary Warfare School. "An 18-year-old who joins the military might be in a foreign land for the first time and think that everyone does it like we do in America," Seeley says.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,70576-0.html?tw=wn_index_4

NOW they think of this?! :eek3: I mean, I've heard the US operation in Iraq being criticised for not planning on how to keep the peace, but this is honestly beyond parody.

Is this true, didn't US troops going to Iraq learn this stuff?

Many of the troops are trained, just not with a video game.

The problem is in using soldiers instead of diplomats...

Kill them with kindness!

Not quite that-maybe we need armed authority too,but the abscense of qualified personel to talk to these people is stupid-interpretors arent enough.

Not offend > dead.

For example, in Iraq, introducing yourself without also introducing everyone else with you is impolite.

I would think that is an issue of manners, or really just common sense, no matter where you are. :shrug:

Maybe the fact that Iraqis as well as people in certain other countries never managed to get electricity and televisions means they believe everyone in the world is just like them.


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