Researchers: Russian government provided English training to online Russian trolls

[MineralMan]

2. Well, the US Government spent a pile of money

teaching me Russian while I was in the USAF, back in the mid 60s. They sent me and a bunch of other young enlisted guys to a 9-month total immersion, 24-hour-per-day Russian language school located at Syracuse University. From day 1, we were not allowed to speak anything but Russian while on the site. It was awkward for a week or so, but the whole thing started with everyday necessary speech, and had at least some of us dreaming in Russian by the end of that 9 months. At least some of us were accent-free and quite fluent in just 9 months. Everyone was very competent, due to the language aptitude testing that led to selection of students. All instructors were native Russian speakers and classroom size was less than 12 students. Intense.

I can't discuss why they did that or what use that skill was to the USAF, but it was interesting, to say the least, and very effective. We've been doing that for a very long time, as have other super-powers, and in many languages.

This is not a surprising story. The Russians have engaged in this type of training since shortly after WWII. So have we. It's a necessity, I suppose. It's sort of a standard thing. What nations do with the people they have trained varies widely, I suppose.