Study Arabic!

The best advise to students of Middle Eastern languages is to study Arabic and become fluent in it.
In an article in the daily newspaper of the University of Pittsburgh (2/1/2010) Simone Cheatham quoted a statement made by Cheryl Finlay, Director of Student Employment and Placement Assistance, who said “knowing a second language can help students find jobs in an unsteady economy.” Finley further quotes Alan Juffs a linguistic professor at Pitt who stressed the importance of learning French, Chinese and Arabic. People who are fluent in those languages “might have a higher chance of getting key jobs in government offices, especially with the FBI or the CIA.” Professor Juffs went on saying that students “could also use foreign languages to help them teach English to others, …or volunteer for organizations like the Peace Corps.”
Arabic and Chinese are both languages that play important role on the global stage. Hence, studying them is not only valuable for students to find jobs with the FBI or CIA or as English teachers. The knowledge of both languages will facilitate communication in the business world. They are international languages. In our global setting the knowledge of Arabic and Chinese will create many opportunities for employment in the international business sector. Knowing both the language and the culture of ones business partner will definitely facilitate and enhance all business deals.
Reuters reported on 1/27/2010 that Arab members of the World Trade Organization are pushing for Arabic to be made a fourth official language of the global trade body. Presently, English, French and Spanish are the official languages.
As mentioned in a previous post, the US is a leading power in advocating globalization. The American educational system must drastically improve the “concept of global education.” We have to train American students to be linguistically and culturally more aware of other cultures in order to succeed in any business undertaking.
In addition to the study of foreign languages, Professor Juffs advise students to study also linguistic. “Linguistic and modern languages complement each other.”












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