Arabic draws in students

[Harold F. Schiffman]

>>From the Monterrey Herald,  Mon, Apr. 24, 2006

Arabic draws in students
Some plan travel to Middle East, others fascinated with culture
By CLARISSA ALJENTERA
Herald Staff Writer

The surge in interest in the Middle East that started on Sept. 11, 2001
has continued, with colleges offering Arabic classes reporting a steady
increase in students learning the language. This semester at Monterey
Peninsula College began with almost 40 students studying Arabic for
various reasons. Some want to study the Koran, others are hoping to travel
to the Middle East and a handful are fascinated by the culture and region
of the world. Instructor Aziza Ghanim said there are some students who are
native speakers who know how to speak Arabic and want to learn to read it.

"There are a lot of students learning Arabic and going to Arab countries,"
Ghanim said. Monterey Peninsula College and Monterey Institute of
International Studies have offered Arabic for at least 15 years. About 50
students signed up last summer for an elementary or intermediate Arabic
summer intensive language program at MIIS that runs eight weeks. "We have
a lot of people interested in governmental policy," said Martina Barth,
director of executive and foreign language programs at the school.  "We
primarily see people interested making a future job (choice) out of it."
The demand for Arabic has also been seen, perhaps not surprisingly, by the
military. The Defense Language Institute in Monterey has more than 1,000
students learning Arabic. That's about a third of the school's students.

A study conducted by the Modern Language Association showed that
nationwide the number of students at the college level studying Arabic
jumped 92.3 percent between 1998 and 2002. Nationally, educators have seen
large jumps in student interest, said Gerald Lampe, president of the
American Association of Teachers of Arabic. Lampe said at schools such as
Georgetown and the University of Michigan there are as many as 300
students enrolled in Arabic programs. "Language is the key to
understanding people in an area," Lampe said by phone from Maryland. He
isn't surprised by the increase in interest.

"For years I've thought more people should be studying languages like
Arabic or Chinese," Lampe said. "It seems everyone is studying European
language. Those skills are not really in need." Sarah Wilgress studied
Arabic at MPC almost 10 years ago and came back for a refresher this
semester. "From what I've read the interest has increased," said Wilgress,
who has traveled to Egypt. During Thursday night's Arabic class, Ghanim
led her MPC students in a discussion of culture, including other college
subjects and classes. With prodding and worksheets, Ghanim's students
spoke to each other and completed assignments. Nancy Gergawy knows the
language but wanted to learn more about her culture.

"I was thinking the class would be small except for the native speakers,"
Gergawy said. Arabic is classified as a category four language by the
State Department, which means it is among the most difficult to learn,
along with Korean, Chinese and Japanese. Spanish, French and Swahili are
among the easiest to learn and are considered category one. While the
future seems to hold a lot of opportunity for Arabic speakers, for now
school administrators at DLI have sought mostly native speakers with
teaching abilities. "We have difficulty hiring so many qualified
teachers," said John Shannon, dean of one of three Arabic language schools
at DLI.

DLI administrators have sometimes hired couples or multiple family members
from overseas to teach in Monterey. There are more than 250 native
language teachers at the school. "There aren't a lot of Arabic teachers in
the U.S.," Shannon said. Shannon lived in the Middle East for 11 years and
understands the fascination with the culture. "There has been a military
presence since the 1990s and people are focused on it," Shannon said. "It
is an area for so long that has been neglected by the American public. ''

The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.


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Clarissa Aljentera can be reached at 648-1171 or
claljentera at montereyherald.com.
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/14415379.htm