Summer vacation is ending and students at American schools
and colleges are getting ready to head back to class. In previous years, many of
them would have been taking French or Spanish as a second language.
Knowledge of Arabic or Farsi is now considered "critical" to U.S. national
security and more Americans are learning these languages today than ever before.
American students learn Farsi at the
Middle East Institute in Washington, DC
Jason Kopp is practicing Farsi in Washington with his private tutor at the
Middle East Institute, an independent research center that offers courses in
such languages as Farsi, Arabic, Dari and Hebrew. Jason has been studying Farsi
for less than three months but he says the grammar is easier than he expected.
The Middle East Institute says the number of students clamoring to learn Farsi
or Arabic at its center has tripled over the last few years. Farinaz Firouzi
coordinates classes here. She says her typical student is a young American who
wants to be more attractive to the federal government.
"Maybe they first studied Arabic and now with the change in the news and the
international situation, they want to change jobs and are interested in either
Afghanistan or Iran," said Firouzi.
The Modern Language Association tracks trends in foreign languages on American
campuses. It says the number of students enrolled in Arabic or Farsi classes
was relatively low. But the rate of enrollments is now staggering. Arabic
language enrollment shot up more than 125 percent between 2002 and 2006 while
Farsi enrollment increased by nearly 75 percent during those years. In
comparison, enrollment in all foreign languages increased by less than 13
percent during the same period.
"After 2001 we noticed demand for classes went up. We were forced to go after
more instructors and add classes," Firouzi added.
Why so much interest in these two languages? A job search on the Internet
provides some answers. Hundreds of new jobs in the U.S. require applicants to
have some knowledge of Arabic or Farsi. Think tanks, consulting firms, the
federal government and the military are looking for translators, intelligence
analysts and IT specialists who have a working knowledge of either language.
Jason oversees translation and language projects for the White House and the
U.S. State Department.
"From a work standpoint it was a good language for me to become familiar with
because I'd be becoming familiar with the Arabic alphabet and another language
that we have work in more often than we used to," said Kopp.
The government labels Arabic and Farsi the new "critical languages" along with
Chinese, Hindi, and a few others. In 2008, it doubled the funding of a foreign
language initiative which encourages colleges and high schools -- even middle
schools -- to include these languages in their curricula. The aim is to create
a future American workforce that can interact with these critical languages by
starting as early as kindergarten and following up through the college years.
But despite the heightened interest in both languages the need for trained
instructors of Arabic and Farsi in the U.S. outweighs the supply. In 2008, the
last time data were available, the total number of people in the U.S. who
received a graduate degree in either Arabic or Farsi was just 13.
