From UCSB
As the United States finds itself with increasing involvement in lands from Morocco to Kashmir, there's also been a continuing and deserved criticism of this nation's spare knowledge, understanding and even language abilities when it comes to dealing with distant cultures. Now, though, the university can teach students the tongues of the people from the Levant to South Asia, it says. With the help of the Fulbright Commission, the State Dept. and the Institute for International Education, young scholars who are from overseas and fluent in English will help students in Santa Barbara learn three new languages: Pashto, Persian and Turkish; the university already offers study in Arabic, Hindi and Punjabi. Pashto, a principle language in Afghanistan, isn't taught much in the U.S., despite this nation's military presence there. In Santa Barbara, officials say the many language offerings are a boon to students of religion, regional studies, history, political science and, yes, ethnomusicology; training in tongues uncommon in the U.S. -- including Arabic and Pashto -- could be invaluable to aspiring diplomats or international business people. Because of the university's high profile religious studies programs, an array of languages from around the globe already were in the curriculum, including Aramaic, Coptic, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and ancient and modern Israeli Hebrew.
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