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Article: Arabic language students increase: Higher interest still won't meet demand
- Article from:
- Sunday Gazette-Mail
- Article date:
- December 26, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2004 Sunday Gazette-Mail. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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ST. LOUIS - People who can read, write and speak Arabic are a key
weapon in the war on terrorism. But they're in short supply.
True, things look rosy in percentage terms. At Washington
University in St. Louis, for example, the number of students majoring
or minoring in Arabic language studies has more than tripled in the
last four years and is on its way to quadrupling.
That rise mirrors a national surge. But locally and nationally,
the percentage jump masks a stark statistical reality:
In actual numbers, the ranks of U.S. collegians studying Arabic
remains surprisingly small - at last count, not quite 10,600. That's
less than 1 percent of the collegians studying any foreign language.
"When ...