The rain stopped for a brief moment one overcast day in April and people pouring out onto the streets of Brighton Beach were surprised to suddenly see large groups of cadets from the United States Military Academy at West Point walking among them. 

What were students from the most elite military academy, which also ranks third in the country in level of education, doing here that morning? Some entered cafes, others went into the Russian bookstore St. Petersburg, and still others studied signs. What's more, if some Russians had asked these neat and trim young men and women (yes, yes, women!) what had brought them to these parts, they would have received an answer in Russian, albeit heavily-accented. 

The fact of the matter is that Russian is one of the foreign languages taught at West Point. Under an agreement with the Shorefront Y Jewish Center, West Point periodically sends a large group of its students studying Russian here to chat with Russian-speaking residents in Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach and to improve their knowledge of the language.  

But first, a brief look at the Academy itself. Admission is mainly based on nominations from members of Congress. Each member of Congress and the vice-president currently have five spots at the Academy. An additional 100 spots per year are offered to the children of officers. One hundred and seventy spots are reserved for active duty soldiers, 20 go to members of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC), and 65 are for the children of soldiers who were killed or seriously injured in the line of duty or who went missing in action. Also, about 20 foreigners are admitted every year. Applicants must be between 17 and 22 years of age and unmarried. There are currently 4,400 cadets enrolled at the Academy, which graduates 1,000 people every year. 

The academic program is made up of 31 classes.  

This free (except for foreigners) education lasts for four years. Graduates are awarded bachelor's degrees and the rank of Second Lieutenant. They are required to serve in the Army for five years. They fully meet the intellectual, professional, ethical, and spiritual requirements needed to be a commander in a modern army. 

So, how do these chats work? Two or three cadets (mainly first-year students) sit down with two or three volunteers – former teachers, engineers, professors – from the Russian community in the large auditorium at the Shorefront Y. Their mission is to tell each other about themselves, their lives and interests. The conversation flows freely, but each cadet has a cheat sheet in case they need help getting things started. The cadets have varying levels of proficiency in Russian, but they all have the desire and persistence to achieve the best results. 

I spoke with one of the officers leading the trip. 

"We used to just bring our cadets here and let them wander around and speak with random people on the street," explained Major Forrest Cook. "This time we decided to make the trip more organized. We hope that the cadets will get more use out of the trip this way." 

"Why do your cadets need Russian? I would think that military academies would teach the language of the enemy," asked this reporter.

"No, it's not quite like that. We started to study Russian around 1995, when, as you know, we were no longer enemies with Russia. We are continuing with this program because we believe that Russia plays an important role in international relations. It could even happen that our officers will serve alongside Russian officers to achieve common goals. By the way, we offer Spanish, Portuguese and German in addition to Russian, but this does not mean that these countries are our potential enemies. True, these languages are closer to English and it is easier for our cadets to learn them than Russian," said Major Cook.

This reporter inquired, "West Point also accepts citizens of other countries. Do you currently have any cadets from Russia? Are there any Russian-speaking immigrants or teachers of Russian descent?" 

"Yes, we do have cadets who are foreigners, including some whose native language is Russian. I don't have any information as far as teachers are concerned, but we did bring with us today Lieutenant Colonel Sergey Masyukov from the Military Academy in Almaty, Kazakhstan. He is at West Point for training," responded Maj. FC.

"I think that meetings like the one we are having today are very useful," said Captain Dwayne White. "Cadets can hear real Russian speech and intonations. But it is equally important that they are speaking with people from a different culture and who have a completely different psychology. And this encourages them to take an interest in another culture's literature, science, music. It broadens their intellectual horizons, which is what we strive to do at West Point." 

The author of these lines joined the volunteers in participating in conversations with the cadets. They came to West Point from different states and almost all of them are athletes. I spoke wit several cadets, including Boris Siber, Kyle Mader, and Henry Madzhetsky. All of these 19-year-olds are of different nationalities and countries. They believe in themselves and know exactly what they want from life.