JI... I was in the USAF Security Service, and we weren't really like most other military units... most enlisted men had at least a year or two of college during the time I was in... I had 4 years, and was missing my language requirement for my BA.... if you were stationed in any country for a period of time picked up idiomatic expressions and phrases just by interaction (typically with bar girls)... I made it a habit to ask a kid (they typically wanted to learn English) to make me a set of flash cards with a few phrases when I got to a new duty station... take me to the hospital, police station etc... written out in the characters of the native language with the phonetic spelling underneath....if you live down town and on the local economy speeds up the process

shortly before closing our intercept site in Japan I was offered a job teaching English phrases and expressions to Japanese business men and women at a cultural center... $15 (4500yen)/hour was a lot of money in 1972, but we worked trick work (3 of 4 flights worked mids, swings, days, and one was off, and hard to schedule my available time)