Some classes don't start immediately. Mine started nine working days after I arrived, so I wasn't on casual duty for more than two days. "Casual Duty" is a time-period used for those who are waiting for their class to start. Individuals in "Casual" are usually assigned to perform details. Some people are on casual duty for months, because they're not in a high-demand language, or because they get bumped from their original seat, or they could be taking a "head-start" course for their language rather than casual duty. When you start class, you take a duffle bag with you to the auditorium of your school, listen to a welcome speech made by the Chief MLI, an exceedingly busy man who you will never ever see again, unless you're in trouble. You will be issued a foot-high stack of paperbound books, some dictionaries, about 100 cassette tapes (if you're in Arabic, less for other languages) and a tape player. You go meet your teachers, and get assigned a name in your target language.
I don't care what language you've got. It is going to be insanely fast-paced and difficult. If it's a more difficult language, they may spend a month on basic alphabet and sounds, but once you've got that down, they pour on the vocabulary. If the language isn't in a different alphabet, they start pouring on the vocab from day one, because they've got a much shorter time to work with. Consider this: All teachers work to prepare their students to the same level of fluency. Some have 16 months to accomplish this, some only have 6.
Back to class. Class is from 0755-1530, Monday through Friday, with PT and other training AFTER scheduled class time. All classes ("sections") have no more than ten students (mine is down to six) at any given time. They share a teaching team with one or two other sections. There is often more than one teaching team in an "class", which consists of 40-60 students. The senior ranking student in each section is the section leader (mine is an Army SSG) and the senior ranking student in the class is the class leader (Mine is currently an Army major, but before he arrived, it was a CW-5. That man is a marvel to watch). This is your academic chain of command, along with your MLI. You will have between four and six teachers, who are all (with very rare exceptions) native speakers of the language you are learning. They will hit you with the target language from day one, and I don't think I've ever seen any of them write in English on the board. YMMV, of course.
So, you're stuck in a tiny room with nine other people and a teacher. You get a break every hour, and it's a good thing! By the end of the day -- heck, by the end of every hour -- your brain is numb and spinning from the amount of information you're trying to parse. If it's not, be happy. You may have a serious talent for this language.
You will have problems with at least one of your classmates, at least once seriously, during the course. You will seriously wonder if all of this pain is worth it. I'm going to tell you right now, it is. As I approach the end (OK, it's still a little more than four months away, but I've been in class for nearly a year now) of my course, my feelings of pride and sense of accomplishment grows.
So, what's a typical day like?
A Day on Phase 4
0530 Wake up.
0530-0655 shower, dust off boots, inspect freshly pressed uniform for stray threads, etc., dress, make bunk tightly (with military linen), find the vacuum and clean, straighten desk, dust, raise window shades to halfway, do your hall chores (clean bathroom, hallway, etc.) go to dining facility and eat (if you have time).
0655 Anything less than 10 minutes early is late, so it's time to start heading for the parking lot for 0710 formation. Take the trash with you; leaving any will get you gigs on any room-walkthroughs.
0700 Reveille. Face the music and salute. Shortly after this, platoon guides will start falling in the platoons. If you're a squad leader, find all of your people so you don't have to do that embarrassing (and droppable offense) counting-the-squad-as-the-PG-calls-for-accountability.
0710 Formation. The Drill Sergeants and other cadre stroll to formation. If you came running up within the last three minutes, you've probably done pushups as you went by them.
During formation, accountability is taken, information is passed out, awards are given, and uniforms and boots are inspected, both formally (open-ranks) at least once a week, and informally every day. Appearance standards are very strict.
