Spoken by more than 500 million people world-wide and serving as the liturgical language of Islam, the world’s fastest growing religion, Arabic is fast becoming one of the most important languages to learn.
In America, especially, the demand for Arabic speakers has increased, particularly due to the presence of American troops in Iraq and the emergence of oil-rich Arab Gulf states as influential actors in the global economy.
That is why the University of Toledo’s Department of Foreign Languages is planning to expand its curriculum to include a minor in Arabic.
“Today, you can’t compete for jobs if you don’t have the skills and ability to speak a foreign language,” according to Gaby Semaan, a full-time lecturer in Arabic at UT. “Whether Arabic or something else, [with language skills] you can truly be a global professional as the world is moving more toward globalization.”
Arabic has been identified by the U.S. Department of State as one of 13 “critical” languages, which also include Persian, Hindi, Japanese and Chinese, to name a few. A critical language is any language the U.S. government finds to be important for Americans to learn in order to conduct business, politics and diplomacy with the countries that speak the respective language, according to the Department of State.
Ruth Hottel, chair of UT’s foreign language department, boasts the quality of her department’s Arabic classes and would like to see UT’s Faculty Senate approve the proposal for a minor in Arabic.
The proposal was approved by Arts and Science Council on Tuesday, March 23 and approved by College of Arts and Science Dean Nina McClelland as the first steps to getting community-wide support for an Arabic minor.
"[An Arabic minor] will make our students much more marketable in the global economy — the global market place,” Hottel said. “It will make it easier for them to find jobs because there are more and more people interested in doing business with the Arab world.”
UT’s first run at an Arabic program spanned the years of 1974 to 1977 and was terminated due to lack of personnel. In 1999 Samir Abu-Absi, professor emeritus in the department of English, led an effort to re-establish Arabic courses at UT.
Since UT began offering Arabic courses again, the program has experienced continued growth in terms of students and course offerings. According to Semaan, there are approximately 90 students enrolled in his Arabic language and culture courses every semester, which is partly due to more courses being added over time.
The Arabic classes that are offered in UT’s most up-to-date course catalog include two beginner language courses, two intermediate language courses, an introduction course to Arabic culture, a course on Arabic commerce and culture, and an advanced class in Arabic composition.
If Faculty Senate approves the Arabic minor, the department will add seven new course to its curriculum. Among these classes is a course surveying Arab civilizations, a class on Arabic syntax and style, and a course on media in the Arab world.
According to Semaan, several factors led to the foreign language department’s move to develop an Arabic minor. Two in particular are the state-level initiatives to increase Ohioans’ fluency in foreign languages and the nation-wide demand for Arabic speakers in numerous professional fields.
“It has been noticed in the past few years that there is more need for Arabic and that there is demand for learning Arabic, whether from professionals in business, whether from government agencies or other aspects as well,” Semaan said.
To help meet this demand for Arabic speakers, the state of Ohio has laid out a “language roadmap,” which seeks to expand programs in critical languages across the state.
According to the final report presented by a committee at the 2007 U.S. Language Summits, which included U.S. Departments of Labor, Commerce and Defenses as well as several Ohio institutions such as The Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences, Ohio would benefit by having different regions in the state concentrate on specific languages. Due to its large population of Arab-Americans and heritage-speakers in Arabic, Toledo was recommended to focus on fostering Arabic language proficiency for Ohio.
“Toledo has an Arab-American community that dates back to the late nineteenth century,” Abu-Absi said. “There is also a significant number of more recent first or second-generation immigrants from Arabic-speaking countries who made Toledo their home. They have established businesses, cultural clubs and houses of worship — churches and mosques — that incorporate the best of their Arabic heritage.”
Although the foreign language department is eager to establish a minor in Arabic, some worry the department doesn’t possess the personnel to effectively develop an Arabic minor.
Hottel thinks that the department is ready to add an Arabic minor in a sense, but still has her reservations due to the lack of a tenure-track Arabic instructors.
“We need more tenure-track faculty in the department, in all of our languages, and it really is a problem that we don’t have a tenure-track faculty member in Arabic. But due to the economic downturn, we’re not sure if we’ll get one. So rather than lose our place — lose our reputation for Arabic — and continue what I consider a disservice to the students in not having it, we had to go forward with it,” Hottel said.
Semaan has similar feelings toward the department’s preparedness for the minor.
“I think we have a good base in the department… In fact, we are ready as a department in the sense that we do have the courses,” Semaan said. “Do we have the manpower to do it all without at least hiring some part-timers? No, we do not.”
However, Semaan does not believe that adequate staffing is obligatory in order for the department to start a minor. Semaan said his philosophy is that academic programs are built for the students and institutions — not individual professors.
“We build academic programs not for us [faculty] or what we can do, and when we work, we are working toward what the students’ needs are,” he said.
Though his program is understaffed, Semaan said he believes that with the combined efforts of his department, the CAS and UT, the Arabic minor has the potential to develop into a program that can compete with other universities that have been building their Arabic programs for several years.
Some UT students, who want to study Arabic as either a major or a minor, have considered transferring to other institutions for the language specialty, according to Semaan. However, due to the pending Arabic minor, some students who have entertained the thought of transferring have decided to stay at UT to earn a minor in Arabic.
At one point in his college career, Ryan Pfaff, a junior majoring in history, was planning on transferring to OSU in order to major in Arabic, which he says will help him work for a government agency such as the FBI or CIA. Pfaff said he is pleased the Arabic program is expanding and adding on a minor.
“Everything I’ve learned in Arabic is from this program. It’s been incredibly in-depth,” he said.
Erica Olschansky, a sophomore majoring in English literature, said she is also pleased at the efforts of the foreign language department to create an Arabic minor.
“Now that the University of Toledo offers it, I am working to make it part of my degree,” she said.
Not all UT students feel as excited as Pfaff. Some students who are graduating and have been enrolled in Arabic classes throughout their semesters at UT feel they are missing out on an opportunity to add a specialty in Arabic to their transcripts.
Alex Floering, a senior majoring in criminal justice, said “I wish it had come two years prior… But it’s still great they’re implementing it right now.”
