Posted on 09/16/2009 7:58:17 AM PDT by george76
A federal education grant will soon be used to introduce Arabic language and culture into Missoula high schools.
The five-year, $764,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education comes to Missoula schools with the help of University of Montana.
(Excerpt) Read more at billingsgazette.com ...
“No no no little Mary, it’s pronounced “INFADEL!”, you have to say it with meaning while you start cutting the neck...”
Missoula?
Montana?
How the hell many Arabs are in Missoula Montana?
Maybe we are looking at it wrong.. how many ROTC programs are there in Missoula and how many colleges in the area does the CIA and NSA recruit from?
I thought Frank Zappa was thinking of moving to Montana at one time.
While you make a very valid point the real issue here is one cannot teach the Arabic language without teaching the religion of Islam. The two are as interwoven as your blood vessels are to your flesh.
Soon to be Mosquetana if they’re not vigilant.
Well, if I were personally bankrupt, and if I had a massive debt that would take generations to pay off, the first thing I would do, would be to spend almost $1M on Arabic language lessons.
Yeah. I work half a friggin' year, so I can send money to Washington, so they can send it to MONTANA to teach kids how to speak Arabic. This makes a lot of sense. /sarc
A good language to learn.
Once you learn the alphabet, you can get past the script’s intimidation factor pretty quick.
But the lack of vowels can still be a killer.
How about teaching them first how to spell their own name and add 2+2?.....
I really do think there shouldn’t be a federal Dept of Ed. If people in Missoula want to teach their kids Martian, whatever, but they should fund it themselves.
We do need more real Americans who can read and speak this language, so we can know for certain what they are really saying. I used to date a blonde haired blue eyed beauty from Peru who obviously spoke fluent Spanish. One time, we were on an elevator with some Mexican looking guys who started talking in mexicaneese, my girlfriend turned around and proceeded to read them the riot act in their native tongue. The look on their faces was hilarious! I could not get mad at them because I agreed with everything they said when she told me what they said.
Gonna be a dental floss tycoon.
Jimmy Carter suspects racism is what is driving this.
“While you make a very valid point the real issue here is one cannot teach the Arabic language without teaching the religion of Islam. The two are as interwoven as your blood vessels are to your flesh. “
Incorrect. You can learn Modern Standard Arabic without ever touching the Koran or a Koranic phrase.
You may as well claim that a person cannot learn Hebrew without teaching them Judaism.
Bous Zipy !
Kil zegy !
The first words of arabic I learned !........:o)
One teacher, $60K a year, 5 years, = $300,000
Where does the other $464,000 go?
Yes, students should be firm in their own language and in their cultural/religious background before embarking on this.
Know thine enemy.
I think we should begin teaching young children a second language. That’s when they learn them best. However, I agree with you that it wouldn’t be Arabic. Or Chinese for that matter. I’d teach them Spanish for several reasons. A Spanish-speaking country borders ours. Teaching a child a romance language will help them learn how romance languages work and it will make it easier for them to learn other romance languages in the future. If they want to give an option for additional languages, then add Chinese or Arabic.
DING! DING! DING!!!
We have a winner!
I had a cousin who decided to major in Arabic, which I thought was great. In her case though, her parents brought her up in a typical agnostic/egalitarian/P.C. manner and she ended up getting engaged to her Algerian Professor.
However, she was from Central Jersey, hopefully that kind of cancerous thinking/upbringing isn't as ubiquitous in God's Country.
I think it is a good thing to learn Arabic. How else will we know what our enemy is doing if we can’t understand what he says or writes?
That is one of the logistal problems facing our military & law enforcement; nobody seems to know what our enemy is up to because nobody can speak Arabic. We are forced to rely on Muslim translators, whom I don’t trust at all.
“Dirka Dirka Muhammad Jihad.”
That's not necessarily a bad thing, so long as islam's absolute intrinsic evil and barbarity are shown for what they are.
Really, you'd have to be pretty twisted or gullible not to see that. Some folks are though.
Reminds me of the NCIS episode where they're visiting Guantanamo and one of the times for Moslem prayer arrives. One of the agents asks the Arab translator accompanying them, an immigrant to the U.S., why he isn't praying as well and he says, “I'm Presbyterian.” (It's television, it's fiction, but still, when you assume something...)
The CIA and other agencies need Arab translators - and a lot of other Moslem region language translators. How do you think we should recruit them?
Interesting fact: Johnny Cash spoke Russian. He was trained by the U.S.A.F. as part of his service, working radio intercepts. He was the translator that heard the first announcement of Stalin's death on Radio Moscow and his transcript of the broadcast went all the way to Eisenhower's desk. Under your concept of language he must also have been a godless commie traitor. Wrong on all three counts.
We need to have more americans who understand arabic. And farsi, and korean, and oh yeah chinese. We are weaker as a nation when we cannot understand the chatter that is happening all over the world and the net.
Thanks for the example.
Been there. Done that. Learn English first.
Unfortunately the radical left is infesting Montana with their agenda and are taking over one the state one step at a time. They are like a worm in an apple and are destroying it from the inside. I have lived in Montana for 38 years and I cannot recall seeing a resident Arab in all of those years. What a waste of taxpayer funds. God Help the USA
I agree with you but there are two problems. First problem. Those that would be teaching Islam will not be the ones that believe Islam to be evil and second: The one light that would be able to truly expose Arabic and the Islamic cult for what it is is the Bible and liberals and moderates have allowed the Bible to be removed from our classrooms.
The best advice I can give to anyone is if you love your children you will pull them out of the public school system and teach them yourself.
JMHO
There are lots of Arabs, Pakistanis and other muslims here is Missoula. The University of Montana is here and so is the Mansfield center. It’s a very liberal town replete with patchouli soaked hippies.
UM does have an excellent ROTC program. The ROTC cadets are at all the Grizzly games firing a cannon every time the Griz score. The Griz usually win.
I suppose the best way for you to understand what I am talking about is for you to study both the way I have. I’ve made a statement based upon knowledge accumulated from experience and I’m not going to try to defend it. This is still the United States of America and if you want your children to be indoctrinated by this administration into the religion of Islam knock yourself out. As for me I suggest everyone else take their children out of the public school system and teach your children yourselves.
I would have no problem with a school system offering Arabic language and culture as long as they offer the same for other languages/cultures. I do have a problem with requiring students to take such classes, or with offering only the Arabic language/culture option.
Instead of being snippy, why not present facts to support your statement?
I can see you saying that they cannot teach the Arabic culture without teaching about the Koran. (Of course there are Arabic Christians as well, so I guess they'd also have to teach about the bible.)
But as to teaching the Arabic LANGUAGE - nah, no need to teach the Koran.
Zrabbat biha!
(Ooops....did I say that out loud?) ;-)
Nevertheless, it remains true that your statement was profoundly ignorant, appears to be based largely on religious bigotry and is entirely unsupportable.
I say it again, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) is readably teachable and regularly learned without any use of the Koran or Koranic phrases.
LMAO !!!
GRIT !
As to the problem of government indoctrination, that is long-standing in the U.S. and it must be opposed. We haven't been doing a good enough job of opposing it.
Excuse me. I never mentioned the Koran. You did but since you keep mentioning it let's use another of your examples shall we? Can someone teach Islam without the Koran? Not likely. Likewise one cannot teach Arabic without teaching Islam.
Look... I would have to teach you both Arabic and Islam in order to prove to you my point. You want "evidence?" There it is. Learn both then get back to me k?
Have a great day.
I have nothing against teaching the language. We are going to need linguists to interpret all of their chatter (if we ever get another President who is serious about defending us, that is)
And I say again that I have not mentioned the "Koran." YOU do.
Listen.. here is the bottom line without your ad hominem to spice things up k?!
If you want to teach your children Isl.... er... Arabic you knock yourself out. Have at it. Do what billions of other people around the world have been doing for hundreds of years but do it on your own dime and don't make it mandatory for me to pay for it or for my children to be forced to learn it.
I think the reason you protest my stance on this subject is because I am exposing this proposed policy for what it is. People like you want to open doors to communicating with your Islamic brethren in their language rather than trying to teach them our language and communicating with them here. I personally don't want to talk to devil worshipers in any language.
Have a good day.
Two things. One: You know nothing about my life and hence owe me an apology for trying to pigeon hole and insult me by implying that I am not as versed as you claim to be. Two: We are not talking about teaching me Arabic. We are talking about taking my money and teaching impressionable young children Arabic (Islam.) If you doubt me then let's hear your impressions of using tax payer dollars to teach Yiddish or Hebrew?
Nuff said!
I do not “protest your stance..”. I point out that you are flat out wrong.
Simply, you remain wrong on this matter and appear to be satisfied with your ignorance.
That's OK.
If you want to make an argument that public schools shouldn't teach foreign languages, or only languages of which you approve, fine. That's OK too.
But to resort to unsubstantiated ad hominem attacks on the matter? That's just plain sad.
And please note that there was no ad hominem attack in my post, however there was one in yours.
If you’re rusty on logical fallacies, “You are wrong” is not an ad hominem attack.
Actually a knowledge of Arabic, Pashtu, Urdu, Farsi, Chinese, Russian, etc. would give the kids a much more marketable skill than, say, French.
I complained to my son’s school that they should teach languages that would make kids more marketable upon graduation. I haven’t heard back yet
Look. I'm not a troll and I will no longer respond to you. Those that are educated in these matters know of what I speak. Those with an agenda to force people to pay for the indoctrination of children can keep beating this dead horse. Parents are reading my words. They can agree or disagree or check out what I've said for themselves but you and I are through on this topic.
Ciao!
We’ll agree to disagree then.
As long as we are clear.
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