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Thursday, January 05, 2006
Pentagon to sponsor foreign language training
Interesting story from Inside Higher Ed:
President Bush is expected to tell dozens of college and university presidents tomorrow of an administration plan to spend hundreds of millions of additional dollars on training in foreign languages deemed critical to the United States. Arabic, other Middle Eastern languages, and Chinese are expected to be a focus — potentially providing for a significant expansion of study by American students, who are notoriously monolingual.
The story also mentions how some professors and observers are a bit nervous about the program, saying that the United States' damaged reputation in other parts of the world (notably the Middle East) will make it hard to put foreign language education to practical use. On the surface it seems like a great program considering the monolinguistic nature of America, but the fact that it's government-sponsored raises a set of interesting questions. Any readers have a more informed opinion?
Posted by Will at January 5, 2006 12:04 AM in