Matt Worman: my career in languages  The army captain's Pashtu
and other tongues has taken him to second in foreign languages
at the army's defence centre matt worman 'You have to be rigid
with the effort and time you put in. With Pashtu, it’s about
reprogramming your brain.' Photograph: Guardian  Captain Matt
Worman, 30, was commissioned four years ago as an education
officer in the army. After learning some Pashtu on an
introductory course, he then opted to do another 15 months
intensive training in the language. Following a deployment as a
military linguist in Afghanistan, he is back in the UK and soon
to take up a position as second-in-command of the foreign
languages wing at the Defence Centre for Languages and Culture.
I'd studied French and German at school, and taught English in
China for five months before going to university. That time gave
me a profound insight into another culture. Even though I didn't
develop much of a grasp of Chinese, I came back home with a real
appetite to learn more about h