Achilles' Heel - Linguistic Security

[Salyer, Jeanie]

Hej Jacquelantern!

Here's another interesting article from the Sign Language Linguistics list.
One might begin to think that only Sign Language Linguists have a broader
point of view than the average American...

love,
jeanie

> ----------
> From:         Jean Boutcher
> Reply To:     For the discussion of linguistics and signed languages.
> Sent:         Sunday, October 28, 2001 7:18 AM
> To:   SLLING-L at ADMIN.HUMBERC.ON.CA
> Subject:      Achilles' Heel - Linguistic Security
>
> Emphasis in bold blue and red in the article enclosed herein is mine.
>
> Regards, Jean Boutcher
>
>
>
> Source: Op-Ed in NY Times, Saturday, 27 October 2001
>
> America Doesn't Know What the World Is Saying
>
> By DENNIS BARON
>
> URBANA, Ill. -- America has a problem of linguistic security: We don't
> understand the languages of our attackers. 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.
>
> But bilingualism is not widespread in the F.B.I. or in the Central
> Intelligence Agency. 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.
>
> The weakness is not new. 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.
>
> There are perhaps a million people in this country of Arab descent, but
> many don't speak Arabic. Bilingualism, considered normal not only in
> Afghanistan but in most parts of the world, is not valued in American
> culture and has sometimes been actively discouraged in schools and
> workplaces. Of those who do maintain their Arabic, many who apply for jobs
> with the security agencies are likely to be rejected as potential security
> risks. 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.
>
> What about training our native speakers of English to speak Arabic?
> 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. 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.
>
> Even if many more students enroll in Arabic, they could graduate without
> the ability to understand the kinds of communications our security
> agencies want to monitor. 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.
>
> The first step in addressing our language deficiencies is a national
> recognition that they exist. 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.
>
> Colleges that have dropped the once common foreign language requirement
> should consider reinstating it. Many more should offer Arabic, and those
> that already do so should concentrate more of their resources on building
> up their Arabic programs. Within those programs, we must emphasize not
> just literature or schoolbook language, but the living, spoken forms as
> well.
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> Dennis Baron is a professor of English and linguistics at the University
> of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
>
> Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
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