View Poll Results: Which foreign language will be most valuable in the next 20 years?

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  • Arabic

    8 27.59%
  • Dari

    0 0%
  • Farsi

    3 10.34%
  • Hindi

    0 0%
  • Pashtu

    2 6.90%
  • Urdu

    2 6.90%
  • Other

    17 58.62%
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Thread: Which foreign language will be most valuable in the next 20 years?

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  1. #1
    Council Member
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    Oct 2007
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    Default Which foreign language will be most valuable in the next 20 years?

    To a young college student who has an interest in contemporary issues in the Middle East and Afghanistan-Pakistan region – but no particular preference regarding any country – which foreign language/country studies would you recommend that he/she study if the intent is to play a role in the major national security challenges of the next generation? (At least the largest challenges among the locales applicable to the languages given).

    This is kind of a crystal ball question, since the answer depends on how you expect us to leverage our national power in those regions. I was recently asked this by a college junior (in the fall) who is considering pursuing OCS, State, or CIA. (My first question was to ask him, “you realize those are three different universes, right?”). I gave him my rationale – which is paraphrased below. I also made it abundantly clear to him that I have no idea what I am talking about and that he would be wise to ask his professors.

    For my pick, I am thinking Urdu. Pakistan has nukes. Even if we miraculously manage to extract ourselves from Afghanistan, we’ll still be knee deep in Pakistani security issues.

    Runner-up – I’m thinking Arabic. We’ll be living, working, and operating in the Arabic-speaking countries for a long time. Kuwait may as well be a PCS (maybe it already is?).

    I suspect that Dari and Pashtu will become exponentially less critical as we search for ways to escape from Afghanistan. There seem to be a lot of Indians who speak English, so I’m also thinking not Hindi. Iran may become as problematic as Pakistan, due to its pursuit of nukes and possible internal instability, but I don’t think we’ll have as much dialogue with them as with the Pakistanis – so not Farsi.

    Thoughts?
    Last edited by Schmedlap; 08-16-2009 at 06:27 AM.

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