The linguist occupational field in the Marine Corps has numerous jobs broken down by specific language skills. To qualify for one of these jobs, a Marine must obtain and maintain a minimum proficiency of level 2 in two modalities (listening, reading or speaking) on the Defense Language Proficiency Test.
The DLPT is the Department of Defense standard to determine foreign language proficiency and maintain quality control.
Duties of Marine Corps Linguists
The work of linguists in the Marines may involve direct supervision and participation in language translation/interpretation activities in support of the full range of military operations and intelligence matters encountered during contingencies, operations, and exercises.
Formal schooling is provided to those Marines entering this occupational field (OccFld) as a part of the comprehensive training program for designated military occupational specialties (MOS) within the 26XX OccFld. However, required foreign language skills may be obtained through any combination of formal or informal training. These MOS will be assigned and voided by the Commandant of the Marine Corps only.
Qualifying as a Marine Corps Linguist
Marines in this field need a score of 105 or higher on the general technical segment of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) tests, in addition to the aforementioned qualifying scores on the DLPT.
Since they'll be involved in high-level, potentially sensitive conversations linguists in the Marines must be U.S. citizens and need to be eligible for a top-secret security clearance and for access to sensitive compartmented information (SCI), based on a Department of Defense single scope background investigation.
Marine Corps Jobs Within the Linguist Field
Below are the Marine Corps Enlisted MOS which are organized under this occupational field:
2671 Middle East Cryptologic Linguist
2673 Asia-Pacific Cryptologic Linguist
2674 European I (West) Cryptologic Linguist
2676 European II (East) Cryptologic Linguist
2691 Signals Intelligence/Electronic Warfare Chief
2711 Afghan Pashto Linguist (MGySgt-Pvt) EMOS
2712 Arabic (Mod Std) Linguist
2713 Arabic (Egyptian) Linguist
2714 Arabic (Syrian) Linguist
2715 Persian-Afghan (Dari) Linguist
2716 Amharic Linguist
2717 Bengali Linguist
2718 Hebrew Linguist
2719 Hindi Linguist
2721 Kurdish Linguist
2722 Persian-Farsi Linguist
2723 Somali Linguist
2724 Swahili Linguist
2726 Turkish Linguist
2727 Urdu Linguist
2728 Arabic (Iraqi)
2733 Burmese Linguist
2734 Cambodian Linguist
2736 Chinese (Cantonese) Linguist
2738 Indonesian Linguist
2739 Japanese Linguist
2741 Korean Linguist
2742 Laotian Linguist
2743 Malay Linguist
2744 Tagalog Linguist
2746 Thai Linguist
2754 --Dutch Linguist
2756 --Finnish Linguist
2757 --French Linguist
2758 --German Linguist
2759 --Greek Linguist
2761 --Haitian-Creole Linguist
2763 --Italian Linguist
2764 --Norwegian Linguist
2766 --Portuguese (BR) Linguist
2767 --Portuguese (EU) Linguist
2768 --Spanish Linguist
2769 --Swedish Linguist
2776 --Albanian Linguist
2777 --Armenian Linguist
2778 --Bulgarian Linguist
2779 --Czech Linguist
2781 --Estonian Linguist
2782 --Georgian Linguist
2783 --Hungarian Linguist
2784 --Latvian Linguist
2786 --Lithuanian Linguist
2787 --Macedonian Linguist
2788 --Polish Linguist
2789 --Romanian Linguist
2791 --Russian Linguist
2792 --Serb-Croat Linguist
2793 --Slovenian Linguist
2794 --Ukrainian Linguist
2799 --Military Interpreter/Translator