San Diego State University will get a $1.8 million grant from the Defense Department to teach Middle Eastern languages to Marines, school officials said Wednesday.
About 200 Marines will be taught Arabic, Farsi and Pashto over the next year or so at SDSU’s Language Acquisition Resource Center, according to the school.
“In San Diego, this means providing men and women in uniform with the language skills to succeed when they are deployed, especially in Afghanistan,” said Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, who helped get the grant. “This training is a critical component of our overall readiness and I applaud SDSU’s efforts in preparing our service members for their mission.”
Arabic is the most common language in the Middle East. Farsi is spoken in Iran, and Pashto in Afghanistan.
Since 2006, SDSU’s language center has trained more than 2,000 Marines, including women who work with Afghani women in a mostly gender-segregated society.
