Why the pool of Arabic speakers is still a puddle
Six years after the US awoke to the need for its citizens to learn Arabic, obstacles remain.
from the May 17, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
Large-scale infrastructure must be build from scratch
But providing vast amounts of the high-quality resources necessary will take a long time. An infrastructure for large-scale Arabic-language instruction must be built from scratch.
"It requires a readjustment of the educational system," says Jerry Lampe, deputy director of the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland in College Park.
Academic institutions are working to expand programs. Last year, the White House unveiled its major capacity-building plan for foreign-language instruction in the US. The National Security Language Initiative is a set of multiagency proposals that seeks to support students and build programs and resources at all levels of schooling.
"We talked about [the initiative] as generational," says Rob Slater, director of the Pentagon's National Security Education Program. "It's not going to happen in five years."
That timetable can apply to students as well. Arabic is among the most time-intensive languages for English speakers to learn. Reaching "limited working proficiency" takes 1,320 hours, almost three times as long as it does for Spanish or French, according to the Foreign Service Institute.
"It's hard for students who, after two years, can't really carry on a conversation," says Gilla Camden, a PhD student at Georgetown University who is also a teaching assistant in Arabic classes. "If you couldn't order dinner, you'd kind of think, 'How far am I really gonna get with this?' "
"The difficulties of the language are exaggerated," Granara explains, but "it takes more time."
Justin Stevens is probably just the kind of student the government is looking for. He's had well-trained, nurturing teachers, top-notch immersion programs, and "in country" experience. Between attending class, reading novels and newspapers, and watching movies, he devotes 35 to 55 hours a week working on his Arabic.
But there's no guarantee that he or other advanced speakers will work for Uncle Sam.
"The vast majority [of my classmates] really are not enthusiastic about carrying out the government's policy in the region," Mr. Stevens says.
High-level speakers often find that the government can't afford to pay them as generously as the corporate world will. "The government's biggest problem is that it has to compete with the private sector, so it just can't match the salaries," says the Pentagon's Dr. Slater.
Bureaucracy has also hindered some Arabic speakers from working for the government. Students are encouraged to study language and culture overseas. But they often return to the US to find that, because they went abroad, their security clearances will take so long that they can't start working right away.
It's too soon to say whether the US can expect a future generation of fluent Arabic speakers. In the meantime, the rush to learn Arabic is producing indirect results, including an improved understanding of the region.
"To be able to talk to people ... helped me understand the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict better," says Marin, who studied and worked in Jerusalem for six months. "My three years of Arabic has personally been valuable.... I wouldn't trade that for anything."
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