Guest Author - Julie L Baumler
When people find out I'm studying Arabic, they often ask why. I already have my college degree and a successful technical career. I'm not dating a native Arabic speaker. I'm not a Muslim. I don't live in a town with a huge Arabic speaking community. In short, I don't have any of the typical reasons Americans tend to think of for "needing" to learn a foreign language. And Arabic is not one of the languages people generally think of as a necessary or useful language, unless they are Muslim. So, why else would someone want to learn Arabic?
Charlemagne said "To have another language is to possess a second soul." Learning another language helps you to be able to think in different ways and better understand the culture and thought of speakers of that language, even if your language skills aren't good enough to do more than make polite greetings or ask someone where to find the restroom. Although there isn't a lot of emphasis on language learning in the US, in many countries, speaking more that one language is a basic requirement to be considered an educated individual. Also, translators and translations lie. This isn't necessarily intentional. It is rare for two words to mean exactly the same thing to two native speakers and even rarer for two languages to have words that have exactly the same meaning in all contexts. As an experiment, try using Google Language tools, or any other translation tools to translate a sentence from one language to another and back. For example, I translated the Charlemagne quote above to Arabic and back and got "It is the language of spirit possession of the second." While professional translators can do better than automated tools, translation still obscures intended meaning. Added to all of that, learning another language can be fun.
As for why Arabic specifically – why not? On a more serious and specific note, Arabic is the language of the Koran and an important book even for non-Muslims due to the large number of Muslims in the world and the importance they give to the Koran. (Don't forget that Muslims believe that the Koran can only be transmitted appropriately in Arabic.) There is also a large body of literature and history in Arabic, as well as translations of otherwise lost historical and cultural documents from throughout the Mediterranean. Due to my upbringing and background, Middle Eastern cultures are more foreign to me than most European, Oceanic, and Asian cultures, so I have more need for the cultural window that language study opens than with other languages. Arabic is important in world politics, and while I may never get there, it would be really great to be able to go watch news interviews on Al Jazeera directly rather than see excerpts of important events in my local news while the reporter gives his interpretation. Finally, Arabic is widely spoken – there are a quarter of a billion native speakers and it is one of the official languages of the United Nations. Not to mention, that it can be a lot of fun!
These are just a few of my reasons for learning Arabic. Other people will have additional reasons. Feel free to share them in our forum.
