(Michigan) State to get grants to teach Arabic

[sabra]

http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060405/News01/604050445/-1/NEWS01/CAT=News01

State to get grants to teach Arabic

DETROIT (AP) -- The state is expected to receive about $700,000 annually for up to 16 years in an effort to produce scores of young Michiganders who are fluent in Arabic.

The federal grants would pay teacher salaries and other costs of teaching the language in grades K-12 and college as part of an experiment that could expand nationwide, Robert Slater, director of the Defense Department's National Security Education Program, said.

President Bush told a group of college presidents in January that if more Americans speak Arabic and other "strategic" languages, such as Mandarin Chinese, Farsi and Hindi, it will help with national security and commerce.

The Michigan Arabic experiment is part of the National Strategic Language Initiative. Bush has said he will request $114 million in his 2007 fiscal year budget to expand the initiative's programs and create new ones.

[Poll_Blind]

1. Sounds like a good idea both in peace and wartime. n/t

PB

[saigon68]

7. Translators needed for the NEVER-ENDING WAR that is coming up

Be careful Rustics --- you too could be Corporal Tillman

[Botany]

2. Cat like response.

4 years and 7 months after 9/11!

[Dunvegan]

3. Good on my ole alma mater-Language is a gateway to understanding a culture

I just hope this isn't a "leading indicator" of war-without-end in the Middle East.

If this new curricula is funded by grants from outside the university, I'd be interested in knowing who or what entities are funding the department.

[Davis_X_Machina]

4. I hope they don't define their objectives too narrowly...

...and overlook a millenium of Arabic culture and literature in the rush to teach a generation how to interpret wire-tap tapes.

You need to understand the culture in addition to understanding the language.

[Dunvegan]

5. This program seems to be funded by the National War College.

And the National War College is collected under the umbrella of the National Defense University.

Wikipedia on National War College:

National War College

The National War College (NWC) of the United States is a school in the National Defense University.

It is located in Theodore Roosevelt Hall in Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C., the oldest Army post still active today. It was officially established on July 1, 1946 as an upgraded replacement for the Army-Navy Staff College, which operated from June 1943 to July 1946.

According to Lieutenant General Leonard T. Gerow, President of the Board which recommended its formation, "The College is concerned with grand strategy and the utilization of the national resources necessary to implement that strategy... Its graduates will exercise a great influence on the formulation of national and foreign policy in both peace and war...."

Most mid-level and senior military officers take a course of study at the War College in preparation for higher staff and command positions.


Institute for National Strategic Studies

INSS is the primary research institution of National Defense University. Its fellows conduct research regarding national security policy and design and conduct strategic gaming exercises. Because its goals for United States strategy aim for minimal conflict, the staff frequently hosts and visits the military research institutes of other nations, most importantly those of the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China, Japan, and the Russian Federation. The meetings are meant to foster collaboration and understanding.

To provide a forum for the reasearch conducted, INSS also publishes Joint Forces Quarterly, a magazine that covers the specific issues related to national security and military strategy. Similarly, since the institute's establishment in 1984, the fellows have published hundreds of scholarly papers under the NDU Press imprint as well as other specialized journals and fellows frequently publish in the op-ed section of many papers.

The director of the institute, Dr. Stephen J. Flanagan is also the vice president of the university for research.


Special Programs

NDU, as part of its mission offers several course programs for further education to selected officers and NCOs. Capstone, Office of Reserve Affairs (ORA), School for National Security Executive Education (SNSEE), International Student Management Office (ISMO), National Security Education Program (NSEP), Center for Technology and National Security Policy (CTNSP), Secretary of Defense Corporate Fellows Program (SDCFP), and the NATO Staff Officer Orientation Course (NSOOC), and the Regional International Outreach program.

[Craig3410]

6. Better learn Mandarin now....

considering all our jobs will be outsourced to about where that's spoken...

[Dunvegan]

9. I should brush up, then. Took Mandrin Chinese at Michigan State...

...oh, about a century ago.

But, even then, I did a simple calculation...and decided I should be able to speak a little of the formal business language that the majority of humanity spoke.

[noonwitch]

8. This is good in Michigan, having the large arab population we have

The article in yesterday's Free Press was discussing how Dearborn students are already involved in this program, and that it helps the arab kids learn english and it is good for the english-speaking kids to learn arabic.

I don't understand why languages aren't taught at a younger age, anyways. Kids can learn them easily when they are young, and are then better prepared to be multi-lingual in the future.