Yet another neutered young male.
Posted on 05/13/2006 5:58:12 AM PDT by Puppage
(Guilford-WTNH, May 12, 2006 8:00 PM) _ It may be a sign of the times. Guilford High School's course in Arabic got such an overwhelming response they had to turn students away. This language course has many students thinking of a future helping their country.
They began the school year learning to pronounce the basic sounds of the Arabic language.
"You have um a lot of glottal sounds. Like ian, hein and humzah and haha," says Guilford High senior Michael Weston-Murphy.
Now students can read, write and greet one another as many people do in the Middle East. Their instructor says pronunciation is key.
"You have to know what you're saying to be able to convey the right meaning," says Radouane Nasry.
"There are a lot of sounds that are different than in English. You have Karf. A karf. Then a cough."
Guilford High is the only public school in Connecticut now offering a class in Arabic, a language the government calls critical to national security.
A Justice Department investigation found al-Qaida messages were intercepted the day before September 11th, 2001, but were translated days later. That prompted Radouane Nasry to create this class.
"We lack people qualified in different languages and that to help us," he says.
Now students like sophomore Becca Krumholz are thinking about pursuing Arabic in the future.
"I think it's going to be a really important language to learn and I want to go into foreign relations probably," she said.
"I definitely want to go into studying next year into international relations and political science," says Weston-Murphy.
Nasry says Arabic is a tough language to master, but he hopes this introductory course opens young minds to better understand the world we live in.
"I think growing up you're not really exposed to anything," says senior Marnix Weber. "You might see Aladdin and movies like that, kind of get a completely skewed view of what the Arab world really is."
Weber thinks it's a shame more Connecticut students don't have the opportunity to learn Arabic and he hopes this class sets a trend.
The trend may have already started. The Choate Rosemary Hall School in Wallingford and Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk plan to offer Arabic in the fall.
ping
Know thy enemy.
Yet another neutered young male.
He's right. But this should be used to teach those who will then open the young minds who are now being taught to spread hatred.
Hell yeah, in the 80's a few of my friends took russian in high school, know thy enemy.
There aren't enough people in this country fluent in Arabic who can be trusted to translate properly for the purposes of National Security right now??????
Actually, there is a shortage. Pashtun speakers in particular are in critical demand.
Perhaps it is necessary to understand Arabic in order to read the Qur'an correctly!!!
Don't want to misinterpret any of the Shar'ia Laws!
What's going to be required reading? The Koran? There's nothing to stop this from becoming an indoctrination session. If I want to learn enough about the enemy I can pick up a translated copy of the Koran and and do it without learning Arabic. Although it sounds very tolerant and benign, I'm pretty suspicious about it.
All I needed to know about Islam, I learned on 9/11.
Another hyphen male teacher. He has two names and that's the only two he's got...how I loathe men like this, understanding their way into hell.
On what do you base your comment?
Secret coding in the article.
Perhaps some people have a natural affinity for language and could learn the language much faster, with self discipline.
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