The Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures collaborated with the 412^th Civil Affairs Battalion (Airborne) for enhanced joint operations in Interpreter Training Workshop Phase 2. Phase 1 (held on February 11^th) consisted of common themes used in the Civil Affairs community that help to build rapport with local population in general.  Phase 2 included more structured activities as the participants were given roles to perform. The goal was to conduct conversational, interpreter-style communication where graduate students from SEELC and the Center for Slavic and East European Studies acted as interpreters and/or as native Russian speakers.

US Army Civil Affairs units frequently communicate with local populaces in various regions of the world, primarily through interpreters. This workshop helped prepare the men and women of this unit to work with Russian interpreters and gave OSU graduate students an insight into what it would be like working as an interpreter for the US military.