Posted on Aug 25, 2019
SPC Jack Peoples
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I am currently in AIT and I was just notified my language was changed from Arabic to Russian for DLI. I want to focus on the Middle East if possible. What will I mainly be doing now that my language is Russian? Would this change much at all?
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Responses: 4
SGM Bill Frazer
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We have been training folks in arabic almost totaly now for a decade. Makes sense to do Russian since they want to rattle their sabers. You will just be collecting Intell from a different area.
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SPC Jack Peoples
SPC Jack Peoples
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That makes sense. Thank you for your response! What would interrogations look like if I was Russian-based? It's obvious what happens in the Middle East, but I'm not sure how it works for another major country.
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SSG Lyle O'Rorke
SSG Lyle O'Rorke
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SPC Jack Peoples you would be going thru a shorter school than Arabic. Russian is a lower cat language so shorter school. Other than that you will still do interviews and such even if deployed to an Arabic country with Russian language. They have interrupters that speak the dialects anyway. We don’t reach Iraqi as the basic dialect anyway at DLI or didn’t up until 2009 when I worked at DLI it was eqyption or Saudi we taught
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SPC Jack Peoples
SPC Jack Peoples
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SSG Lyle O'Rorke Thank you for your answer! I forgot that one or our instructors mentioned that our duty stations are still 'needs of the Army' so I may still be focused on the Middle East even with a Russian language. Thanks!
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MSgt Michael Smith
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Question: Why would you rather focus on Arabic rather than Russian? If your answer is something like, "I want to deploy more/close to the action/Combat Vet/etc." then you are doing it for the wrong reasons. If not, then Russian is a fantastic, difficult, language that is most likely far more relevant to future national security than Arabic. Also, Russian is spoken in a large number of Middle East countries, including most of the stans.
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SPC Jack Peoples
SPC Jack Peoples
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I've always been interested in Middle Eastern culture and language, I studied the language in Oman for several months.
That's a good point about Russian language being more relevant in the future, so this may be for the better. Thank you for your answer, Sergeant!
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MAJ Javier Rivera
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We on to the US Army. Where personal wishes take a back seat, if at all, and the service needs are priority #1!!

Your job day to day duties will not change at all so don’t worry about it. Perhaps better taskings every now and then since for the last 15+ years an absurd amount of Middle Eastern linguistics have bees trained.
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SPC Jack Peoples
SPC Jack Peoples
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Thank you for your help, sir!
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