MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- The Air Force Culture and Language Center recently added Introduction to Japan and Introduction to Iraq courses to its free Culture Guide mobile app. The addition of these courses answers the call set forth by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr. in his Action Orders to “transform the way we learn across all facets of USAF education and training curricula.”
Airmen and Guardians will receive a Certificate of Completion ready to upload to their learning record for credit when completing a course.
“While our Iraq course was already heavily utilized by Airmen through myLearning, it is now fully accessible to any service member of any branch,” AFCLC Director Howard Ward said. “In addition, with our new Japan course, USAF Airmen, and other services within the U.S. Forces Japan, can enhance their capacity for interoperability with JASDF counterparts. This interactive course is of great benefit to our service members and their families.”
Each course provides baseline cultural knowledge of each country, untethered from government IT platforms.
The new Introduction to Japan culture course consists of two engaging learning segments. Part One delves into the overview of the concept of culture, social behaviors, and how the 12 domains of culture are defined. In Part Two, the student uses the 12 domains of culture to understand the cultural norms of Japan, ultimately enriching their understanding of the Japanese people and society.
The Introduction to Iraq culture course is a modified version of AFCLC’s USCENTCOM Air Force Culture-Specific Iraq course currently available on the Air Force’s myLearning system. This course helps provide baseline education on how an awareness of the fundamentals of Iraqi culture influence and achieve mutually beneficial results through cross-cultural interaction.
In addition to these two courses, the mobile app also hosts three other educational courses with certificates – Developing Cultural Competence, Introduction to Russia, and Introduction to China; a video library constantly updated with content on various geopolitical topics; and an online database of Expeditionary Culture Field Guides for more than 70 countries.
The Culture Guide mobile app is available in the App Store, Google Play, and is safe for Department of Defense devices. More than 27,000 users are already utilizing the tools and resources available in the app. For more information, visit https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/AFCLC/.