I really enjoyed my experience learning Turkish at Indiana University with the help of a FLAS fellowship. Because I learned Arabic while in the Army and studied in Amman as a Boren Fellow, the Turkish FLAS really helped me to expand my understanding of the Middle East and its peoples. Learning Turkish also encouraged me to learn more about the Turkic world and its people too—before this I knew little about Central Asia. I am currently an assistant professor at the Defense Resources Management Institute (DRMI) at the Naval Postgraduate School. At DRMI our mission aligns with and we report to, among others, the Department of Defense Comptroller and the Defense Security Cooperation Agency; a core aspect of our mission is to build and develop international military partnerships through education. Our participants are primarily mid-career U.S. and international military officers and defense civilians. We rarely have a course that does not have an international participant. In our courses that are primarily geared towards international audiences we usually have several participants from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia. I find that my language learning experiences supported by the U.S. government (including learning Turkish through FLAS) remain invaluable for me in this environment. The linguistic and cultural awareness these opportunities afforded me allows me to connect with our international partners on a human level. In my opinion, this significantly increases my performance in my job. For this reason I am grateful for the opportunities afforded me through FLAS.