Should We be Learning Arabic?

31 March 2005

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Arabic is all around us these days. On news broadcasts we hear words like mujahideen, intifada and Al-Qaida (or is it Al-Kayda?). Middle-Eastern foods like hummus and falafel are gourmet goodies. And, if you look closely you'll see small ads in Arabic script -- for some reason often on the sports page -- seeking people who can read and speak the language.

Here, from the beginning of the tales of 1001 Nights, is what the language sounds like:

(Audio Sample of 1001 Nights)

It's an exotic sound to western ears. But we'd better get used to it. Because it's not just for linguists and gourmets anymore. It promises to be part of our lives for a long time to come.

Arabic is spoken by more than 250 million people in an area extending from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean. It's the language of the Koran, the holy book of Islam, so more than seven hundred million people have it as a spiritual component of their daily lives. The governments of 19 countries list Arabic as their principal language. And the UN made it one of its official languages in 1974.

Yet, while Arabic is one of the most important languages in the world, it's been pretty much neglected in the U.S. And that has to change. You’ve probably heard that the FBI and other government agencies have huge needs for Americans proficient in Arabic. And that military and civilians serving in Iraq don't have the language or cultural skills to deal with the Iraqis. Arabic is now the foreign language most critical to US national security.

So there are jobs to be had. A lot of them: Translator or interpreter, business consultant, market analyst, intelligence analyst, and of course, teaching and research positions. More than 80 federal agencies want to hire people with Arabic skills.

You've probably heard it said that Arabic is hard to learn. What's the hard part? Well, the writing system takes a little getting used to, because words and sentences are written from right to left, meaning that what you might think of as the back of the book -- is the front. The alphabet has just 28 letters, with a few extra dots that float above and below them. I've heard the letters described as a collection of "worms and snails," and to the western eye they can look... vermicular. But they're really quite beautiful. And it doesn't take more than a couple of weeks to learn them.

Probably the most challenging thing about Arabic is that you have to learn two variants of the language to get along well: Modern Standard Arabic, known as MSA, is the language of literature and media throughout the Arab world. And then you need a colloquial variant of Arabic, the language used in everyday talk in a given country. Which dialect to study? Well, the dialect of the country you plan to go to. While most Arabs understand MSA because they hear it in films or TV, local speech varies from country to country -- so that even Arabs may not understand one another when they travel in the Arabic-speaking world.

If you speak only MSA, you'll be understood by most Arabs.
But you won't understand them unless you learn their dialect --- because most Arabs don't speak MSA. The pronunciation can be tricky in spots, because there are 3 or 4 sounds that we don't have in English, like some in the back of the throat that remind me a little of German. By the way, the Arabic pronunciation of the word we hear in the news is: Al Qaida.

So yes, it takes some time and dedication to learn Arabic. But, it's well worth doing. Shouldn't we be teaching it more often in our schools?

That's the linguistic thought for today, which comes from Dr. Gerald Lampe at the National Foreign Language Center in Washington. And this is the Five-Minute Linguist at the College of Charleston, in cooperation with the National Museum of Language. If you're interested in a scholarship to study Arabic, go to our website at www.cofc.edu/linguist. In the meantime, keep in mind that wherever you are, and whatever you do... language makes a difference.

Arabic Scholarships

Scholarships are available for Arabic language study through the National Security Education Program. See also the National Flagship Language Initiative on the websites of the National Foreign Language Center or the Center for Arabic Study Abroad at Emory University.

Comments

Posted by: Michael Bennett at July 10, 2005 04:24 PM

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