Why doesn't the embassy require courses on remedial Arabic for it's non-Arab speaking employees? How hard can it be? A few 1 or 2 hour classes? How do you say "duh" in Arabic?

CIA or is that NSA wants cash.

Why do they need to speak Arabic? They're stuck in the Green Zone playing tidly winks all day.

I'm not sure that their playing tidly winks (what a cool, dorky name for a game, btw), but yeah, maybe they don't officially need to speak Arabic (an embassy is considered a temporary territory of the nation being represented.)

I'm just thinking it would serve them better to learn the language of the host country...

Arabic is actually NOT all that hard. It just looks hard, because the writing is different. I found Arabic relatively easy to learn. It's just that Bush and all of his little fan-boys are INCOMPETENT.

This is so laughable when you consider that the military discharged 55 or more arabic or farsi speakers on the basis of their gay sexual orientation. This has to be the dumbest, inept government in history. I blame the equally dum American electorate for voting these people in, not once, but twice.

Another thing, get rid of that anachronistic electoral college and maybe an\d Independent or a Green can run for a change. I'm so sick and tired of this two party system and there isn't much difference between them either. They're all corrupted by money and so self-serving.

Robert, NYC.

let ask anyone, why did we the people have to build a 600 billion dollar embassey?????????? thats our tax dollars that could of went to our americans that need help here in katrina for example!!!!! what we couldn't used one of 20 palace left ther doing nothing..why why why

Arabic may not be that hard, but it is the second hardest language for a native English speaker to attain. It takes the average student at Defense Language Institute 17 months of study, 8 hours a day Monday through Friday, to achieve the levels State (and DoD) requires. And since I just finished that course, and am on my way to an Embassy in the Middle East, I will simply say that unless you've been down that road, calling anyone out for not speaking Arabic is a bit like quarterbacking the Super Bowl on the Monday morning after.

people who are saying they learned arabic so well really quickly are lying, or else they don't have any experience with real arabic (i.e. they can count to ten...not that they could have a realy conversation). i'm not sure why they would bother to falsely boast anonymously.

Not too many rhodes scholars 'round these parts pardner.

Remember reading article in The Atlantic about "The Arabists," diplomats who pride themselves on thoroughly knowing Arab customs, language, history, culture, and affiliations. There was no diplomatic pride or competence going into this war by our country. Our Embassy should hire some Brits, perhaps, as they've been involved in the Middle East for a century. We, Bush and all, didn't know what they were doing, now everybody's paying.

If the url didn't take from the form, look up Atlantic magazine online, and then search for Arabists. The article is by Kaplan.

I don't think these postings capture the point. The point is that our government is clearly not concerned with forming a relationship with the country we now occupy. Our efforts are focused on imposing our own beliefs, cultures, and systems upon Iraq. We have no intention, and never had the intention, to work with the Iraqi government to address their concerns. Our will reigns supreme, and the Iraqi government is supposed to serve no interests other than ours. Global domination, as opposed to multilaterialism or shared responsibility, has been the objective of this administration from the onset. We must do more the combat it.

Sounds like par for the course for American foreign policy.

I think we should only invade and occupy english speaking countries. That would solve a lot of problems.

I Speak Arabic, Pashto, Dari, Farsi, Urdu, Hindi and English.
When I asked the USCIS that I am going to Help our troops so please process my Citizenship Faster which is stack on Check Name or Background Check they said oh I am sorry but the rules are rules we can’t process it faster I told them I am not going somewhere for fun or vacationing I have a knowledge and Ability to Speak, Write, and Reading of those languages and I can be A Big Help since there are some dialogs that I understand as well but WHO IS THERE TO LISTEN. I did worked on Contract basis with US Army and I loved working there to teach our solders The Culture out there in Afghanistan and Iraq and to teach them basic daily language But as I said WHO IS THERE TO LISTEN.
Thank you,
Sultan

I studied Arabic at FSI and graduated with a 3+S/4R level. Arabic and Japanese are "superhard" languages at the 7-level before proficiency is attained. I studied Vietnamese which is harder than Chinese and Arabic is much harder than Vietnamese.

All the Arabist experts in the State Dept were fired by Donald Rumsfeld at the beginning of the Iraqi occupation because DR wanted "fresh thinking." You can read about it in Cobra II, the best book on Iraq. Rumsfeld didn't want experts in rebuilding Iraq, only bureaucratic yes-men like L. Paul Bremer.

Ben Fisher, you nailed it.

By the way, I believe Arabic to be the most visually appealing language in existence.

I was in the Peace Corps in Morocco and learned several dialects of Arabic,,,Arabic has 29 letter or so and the letters are not that hard to learn,,it is easier to learn written arabic than written Chinese,,spoken dialectical Arabic is easier than Classical or Book or Proper Arabic,,there are some sounds in Arabic which we do not have , particularly with the K or G sounds,,,Arabic grammar is hard though,,,,Persian is easier than Arabic and some words are the same,,,

sounds like typical East Coast arrogant state dept heads who make stupid decisions not to have more Arabic speakers on hand,,arrogance in State Dept runs high especially by those "elite" Ivy league types who enter the state dept and look down upon the rest of us from the West or South who did not attend their snobby schools.

When the State Dept becomes run by ordinary honest plain down to earth types who represent all kinds of Americans, the elitism of these creeps will go away and things will get better. This has been a historical problem with the brats of brats keep getting these jobs because someone's grandfather went to Princeton or Yale with some muckydemuck....

we just stay dumb

they way you say DUH in Arabic is : George W. Bush

Just following in the footsteps of the RAJ:yelling loud enough in English at the beggars is more than sufficient.

Ben, you may have a solid point, but to keep this in perspective and parallel to other embassies around the world (and knowing that a news story tends to skew reality), I wonder what percentage of the US embassy employees in, say Bankok, actually speak fluent Thai, how many of the US embassy staff in Moscow speak Russian, etc...

Also, what percentage of a given embassy staff from China, for example, speak Russian at their embassy in Moscow...and so on...

Maybe, YOUR post, although a good one, does not capture the real point...

Well I guess firing all those gay Arabic-speaking military personnel wasn't such a good idea after all???

However, we did salvage marriage!

BB7117

17 months, 8 hours a day??? That's why "military intelligence" is an oxymoron.

I don't care if there isn't a single arabic speaker in the entire army OR government, as long as we're sure we're discriminating against those darn gays as much as possible! You let one gay in and before you know it, you'll have their linguistic skills saving lives and streamlining bureaucracy left and right, and then we'll all be screwed!

Actually pvm, the military has some of the brightest, most dedicated professionals in the workforce. Period.

HAS WASHINGTON LEADERS LOST THEIR MINDS !!!
THE U.S. IS BUILDING A NEW EMBASSY FOR MULTI-BILLION DOLLARS IN A COUNTRY THAT DOES NOT WANT US WHICH OUR WOUNDED RETURNING TROOPS ARE BEING MISTREATED IN OUT OLD UNDER-FUNDED VA HOSPITALS.

WHEN IS SOMEONE GOING TO STOP RUN-AWAY SPENDING?

Can someone tell me whats easier to learn..persian/farsi or Arabic..Is it true that Persian/Farsi will be easier to communicate to other farsi speakers? I heard thats not the case with Arabic because it is so regional...

Tara let's see you pick up the language and go over there and do something good for our country...

Ben Fisher, if we didn't want to learn about other countries, please explain the mission of the Defense Language Institute. Also all military services now teach classes on different cultures.

PVM, Perhaps the reason military intelligence is an oxymoron (according to you) is because a lot of Military Intelligence units are being run by people who have not worked in Intelligence ... go figure.

Daveinboca, Thank you for bringing up Cobra II and L. Paul Bremer. Very enlightening and gets to the heart of why we're really having problems over there now. Went over with two few troops to begin with, micromanaged by Rumsfeld --who was probably too senile to figure out what military leaders we're really trying to tell him, and then they sent L. Paul Bremer over there to goon things up and ruin relationships that had been forged with the local populace. Don't know if any of you will remember, but Clinton only had us projected to be in the Balkans for 1 year. Ten years later we're still there. So, for all of you criticizing Bush (and I'm not saying mistakes have not been made), suggest you take a look at Clinton and figure out what he could have done to thwart bin Laden when we had the chance.

For the record, anyone who balks at 17 months 8 hours a day five days a week, I challenge you to learn it faster.
the grammatical structure and phonetics are so completely different that one cannot comprehend. Ponder this; you can conjugate a verb in arabic 122 different ways. They do not write their short vowels, they are inferred, therfore many words with completely different meanings look exactly the same on paper, just for starters. The plural form of a wprd is nearly always a broken plural with eight different skeletal consonantal forms to infer from exposure, meaning only time and repetition will allow a true ability to have a clue as to what you are reading or writing. The infinitives verbal nouns, etc, are all rife with the same complexity, so it is hard.