Teaching Arabic

If you noticed the recent international scholarships won by UGA students, a common thread of their degrees and/or undergraduate training is Arabic language instruction. This commentary in the Chronicle of Higher Education expands on the notion that, To Make the World a Better Place, [we should] Teach Arabic:

Today few would doubt that the reach and power of American culture is global, nor that the country is an international power. Colleges take a significantly different approach to teaching about the world than they did in 1941, and American studies has sought to be more global in its outlook. More foreign languages are taught than in Luce’s time, and study abroad has become a rite of passage for many students.

Yet a creeping monolingualism is overtaking higher education, despite the efforts of so many in the trenches. The signs are everywhere: Major universities are closing German departments and cutting Russian and French programs; general foreign-language requirements are easing up. Over all, college language enrollments tumbled 6.7 percent between 2009 and 2013, according to the Modern Language Association. Despite the growth of study abroad, it is increasingly easy for college students to take their courses in English in such countries as Jordan, the Czech Republic, France, and Turkey. The widespread sense that English has become a global lingua franca contributes to an unfortunate sense that learning other languages doesn’t matter.

Arabic is one of the languages that suffers in this climate, both because of its difficulty and the resistance of many language programs to embrace its spoken colloquial forms. Although it has been the fastest-growing language of study since 2001, enrollments fell 7.5 percent between 2009 and 2013. Given the enormous military and political focus on the Middle East, it is urgent that Americans learn Arabic. If the United States is going to try to understand, rather than bomb, invade, and occupy part of the world that has been our government’s central obsession for almost a decade and a half, then more colleges need to teach Arabic and do so in a vibrant way. Higher education has never had a more crucial role to play in achieving peace.

Continue reading the whole thing. The only thing that will ever end the so-called Pax Americana is a retreat within our own borders. We encourage students to get out and see the world; study abroad programs have arguably never been more vibrant and robust. Langauge instruction programs are an active piece of this puzzle, and their fate on campus is directly tied to that of the other humanities, social sciences, even the arts. Strengthening these programs strengthens our country, if you need to think of it that way, by making it a more integral part of the larger world. Those who are engaged are usually best informed and able to effect positive change.

Image: salām سلام, the Arabic for "peace"