A little off topic but I wanted to know if learning Arabic was an important and needed skill in the oil/gas industry. My local ISD decided to open up an Arabic Immersion school in my neighborhood. They cite growing Arabic community as well as a projected need for Arabic speakers. Anyone know if this is BS?
I worked in middle east oilfield years ago. They only folks I knew then that spoke Arabic past a few words were folks that were many years in construction over there.
In more recent times, I've been interviewed for work in Saudi, and still today get job inquiries to return to the Middle East. Speaking anything beyond Engish was never even brought up. They conduct most of their business in English.
Outside of work directly in the Middle East, Arabic for the oil industry is never mentioned. I've been in the industry over a couple decades.
English is the universal language.
Many years ago I thought Japanese would be required and went about learning it.
That didn’t work out either.