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<P>Emphasis in bold blue and red in the article enclosed herein is mine. </P>
<P>Regards, Jean Boutcher</P>
<P> </P>
<P>Source: Op-Ed in NY Times, Saturday, 27 October 2001</P></FONT><B><FONT
size=5>
<P>America Doesn't Know What the World Is Saying</P></FONT><FONT size=2>
<P>By DENNIS BARON</P></B></FONT>
<P>URBANA, Ill. -- <B><FONT color=#0000ff>America has a problem of linguistic
security: We don't understand the languages of our attackers.</B></FONT> Just a
week after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was
offering $38 an hour for translators of Arabic or of Pashto, the language of
about 35 percent of the people of Afghanistan, including the Taliban. Many in
Afghanistan, where bilingualism is widespread, understand both. </P><B><FONT
color=#0000ff>
<P>But bilingualism is not widespread in the F.B.I. or in the Central
Intelligence Agency</B></FONT>. Admittedly, there are only 25 million speakers
of Pashto around the world, and there may be few opportunities to learn it. But
Arabic is the fifth-most widely spoken language in the world; our government
should not need to place help-wanted ads for Arabic speakers.</P><B><FONT
color=#ff0000>
<P>The weakness is not new</B>. </FONT><B><FONT color=#0000ff>The F.B.I.
acknowledges that before the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 it had tapes,
notebooks and phone taps that might have provided warning signs - but it hadn't
been able to decipher them because they were in Arabic.</P></B></FONT>
<P>There are perhaps a million people in this country of Arab descent, but many
don't speak Arabic. <B><FONT color=#0000ff>Bilingualism, considered normal not
only in Afghanistan but in most parts of the world, <FONT color=#ff0000>is not
valued in American culture and has sometimes been actively discouraged in
schools and workplaces</FONT>. </B></FONT>Of those who do maintain their
Arabic<FONT color=#0000ff>, <B>many who apply for jobs with the security
agencies are likely to be rejected as potential security risks</B></FONT>.
<B><FONT color=#0000ff>To translate Arabic or Pashto for the F.B.I., you must be
an American citizen who has spent three of the last five years in this country
and you must renounce dual citizenship</B></FONT>.</P>
<P>What about training our native speakers of English to speak Arabic<B><FONT
color=#0000ff>? Overall, foreign language study is in decline in the United
States. In 1998, only 6 percent of students enrolled in American colleges were
taking foreign languages. </B></FONT>Enrollment in Arabic was on the rise even
before Sept. 11, but the numbers are still small: in 1998, only 5,505 American
college students were taking Arabic.</P>
<P>Even if many more students enroll in Arabic, <B><FONT color=#0000ff>they
could graduate without the ability to understand the kinds of communications our
security agencies want to monitor. </B></FONT>The Arabic taught in classrooms is
formal Arabic, the shared language used in newspapers and books. But many
varieties of colloquial Arabic are spoken around the world, and even many Arabic
speakers have to learn modern standard Arabic in school as a second
language.</P><B><FONT color=#0000ff>
<P>The first step in addressing our language deficiencies is a national
recognition that they exist</B></FONT>. For now, federal security agencies
should realize that in recruiting native speakers of strategic languages they
may have to rely more on background checks and less on rigid rules about
citizenship and residence. In the long run, much more needs to be
done.</P><B><FONT color=#0000ff>
<P>Colleges that have dropped the once common foreign language requirement
should consider reinstating it</B></FONT>. Many more should offer Arabic, and
those that already do so should concentrate more of their resources on building
up their Arabic programs. <B><FONT color=#0000ff>Within those programs, we must
emphasize not just literature or schoolbook language, but the living, spoken
forms as well.</P></B></FONT>
<P>The federal government might give financial help to colleges trying to
improve their programs in Arabic and other strategically important languages.
Congress could offer subsidies to students at accredited four-year colleges who
choose to study these languages.</P><B><FONT color=#ff0000>
<P>If we really want to understand the words of our enemies - not to mention
those of our friends - we need to put more emphasis on learning languages and
show more respect for the bilingual people in our schools and communities.
</P></B></FONT><I>
<P>Dennis Baron is a professor of English and linguistics at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.</P></I><U><FONT color=#00007f size=4>
<P>Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
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