The Ship Has Sailed

So we actually make quite a few jokes about our name here in the Flagship program.  We make a lot of references to ships and flags and such, and we have officially named our resident director the Captain of the Flagship.

We really have embarked on a journey of learning, and one out of the ordinary.  How many Americans get to say that they spent a year in Alexandria studying Arabic?  More importantly, however, how many Americans would want to?  Clearly, we are unusual, trying to avoid monolingualism.  Meanwhile, back at the ranch, many of our fellow Americans (except for first- and second-generation immigrants and people who like learning languages) just learn English and sail through three years of mediocre high-school Spanish only to forget everything they ever learned.  But they don't need to learn anything other than English.  It's anyone's guess whether the USA has reached the peak of its influence and the focus of the world will soon move to another locus such as China, but seriously, we have an easy barometer: which language are people learning worldwide?  ENGLISH!!!  Why?  Because it is an easy language to learn, because people seem to love American things.  So they learn English.

This leads me to think of two points.  First of all, why should any American learn any language other than English (and learn it well)?  Second, if an American were to learn a foreign language, why would they want to study Arabic?

Well in response to the first question, there really is no good answer.  Everyone learns English so they can come to us, so why is there any need to meet them halfway?  To cross a river you need only one bridge, not two.  But I know why I learn foreign languages and why the U.S.G. is paying for us Flagship students to learn a foreign language well.  It is not just that the gesture counts-- although the gesture does count, as I can attest because of the number of times people have expressed how amazed and touched they are that I am here in Alexandria to study Arabic.   Learning foreign language teaches you to think about communication in different ways and opens up other worlds for you, and rich ones at that. 

So why Arabic?  The man who owns the stationary shop across the street from my apartment building in Rushdy told me that Arabic is not useful to an American, for the reasons I just elucidated above.  I laughed, but he was right, sort of, if only in a very general sort of way.  I could have learned Chinese instead, and I am not denying that, had I studied Chinese, I probably would have loved it just as much as I love learning Arabic.  But I see a big picture here.

There is something very strange about the way Egyptians approach the English language and the American culture.  As a friend of mine said to me recently, they "wear the culture" (i.e. clothes and music) very well but do not necessarily understand it.  And have no doubt that many Americans of non-Arab descent, and specifically foreign policymakers, are really lacking in education about Arab culture and all of the subcultures that constitute it, so there is a potential for making HUGE mistakes when dealing with the Arab world!  I am not saying that I understand Egyptian culture in its entirety, by any stretch of the imagination.  What I am saying is that I am trying to gain enough of a baseline comprehension of what Egyptian attitudes are toward everything that I can deal with them in the most respectful way possible.  Plus, Arabic culture is a goldmine, especially for me, the self-proclaimed music aficionado.  Each person has their reasons for learning Arabic, and it is important to be able to explain those reasons, so we can make learning and being functional in Arabic a worthwhile goal.

The Ship has sailed.