2. Why on earth hasn't the military perfected babelfish? It seems that it would be alot cheaper for the military to issue a small recorder device that can determine what language is being spoken and translate to English and back to the foreign language.
1. Not everyone has the aptitude for secondary language acquisition (they are doing really well just to be proficient in English!) A lot of people rock out of DLI and end up doing other jobs, more suitable to their abilities.
2. Babelfish is a national security risk that US is not ready to take. It would be cool though. Remember those gremlin-looking stuffed animal dolls that would "learn" to speak to you? Those are considered a national security risk, and were outlawed from MI installations (and confiscated from anyone who had 'em) as soon as they were marketed to the public. And all they did was babble.