[JoeFromSidney]

In graduate school I was required to take foreign language exams in two different foreign languages. I'd taken French as an undergraduate, so I picked that as one of the two. I chose Russian as the second, figuring it would be useful in my Air Force career.

As it turned out, I never had any opportunity to use Russian. However, I was stationed in Thailand, and my previous experience in learning a new alphabet along with a new language stood me in good stead.

[PIF]

I picked Russian over French because, while I had many years of French (and Latin) and understood it fairly well even to 17th Century French, French was a ticket to Nam. So I opted or Russian ...