[Dogbert41]

I graduated the basic russian course back in 86. It was tough, I'll tell ya, and that was before all this nice equipement and the internet. DLI in Monterey was one heck of a nice place to live though. Wish I were younger to do it all over again, only in one of the Arabic languages or Persian...

As for hiring trustworthy natives, when dealing with intel, there's only trustworthy Americans who have passed a background investgation and received proper clearances. That's just life. And what you get in return is one well trained professional soldier, airmen, marine or sailer.

[Seselj]

I've always wanted to learn Russian. How long did it take you to learn it?

[Miss Marple]

Exactly my point. We can't know about native language speakers; Americans can be thoroughly investigated.

I myself was the subject of an investigation due to my marriage. They even interviewed my grandmother.

[billorites]

"I graduated the basic Russian course back in 86. It was tough, I'll tell ya"

Central Asian languages and Arabic is where the action is these days.

If a youngster wanted to be on the fast track, that's what I'd recommend they study.

People who spend the next couple years in Uzbekistan, or some such place, are the people who'll will have stories to tell their kids and grandkids.