rikur_ wrote:.. in national security roles it is common place that all conversations in the workplace must be in English, because of the security risks of collusion between colleagues in another language...
I have worked in high national security governmental establishments in US UK and Canada, in which in the cafeterias there were on certain days of the week areas set up so that professionally employed linguists could meet up and converse entirely in their other languages to keep up their skills. Unsurprisingly in the Cold War era the largest group was of Russian linguists
Obviously, in the Canadian one both English and French flowed freely (sometimes changing mid-sentence!); my office was majority francophone, so that was the usual working language. In Ottawa I helped organise and host a multinational conference of obscure military specialists, for which the working language was announced in advance to be English. Most delegates giving talks followed the Canadian example in starting with formal greetings and thanks in French before switching to English (the US ones didn't try!); for her talk, the NZ Major started in Maori
Oh, and in one UK one, there was a regular corner of the cafeteria for the weekly meet up of the in-house Welsh society. And I worked in a UK office where two of the seconded military were British Officers from Gurkha units, who used to chat in Ghurkali, again to keep up their skills in anticipation of their return to their parent units
But I've never been deployed to a submarine (although colleagues were, to their surprise and that of their hosts, in 1982)
(mere guide at) Jet Age Museum, Gloucestershire Airport
http://www.jetagemuseum.org/TripAdvisor Excellence Award 2015
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction ... gland.html