Arabic is spoken by more than 300 million people living in twenty three Arab nations, occupying a vast expanse of land from Morocco in the west to Oman in the east, and from the borders of Turkey in the north to Sudan and the Sahara in the south. Each Arab nation has a different form of colloquial Arabic, however, Modern Standard Arabic remains the formal Arabic which is written and spoken in all nations of the contemporary Arab world. Due to this rather wide span of Arabic usage around the world, the United Nations adopted Arabic as one of its six official languages in 1974.
Arabic is also the language of Islam and it is widely understood by over one billion Muslims from Morocco to Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia and from Turkey to Yemen, and all the Arabs and Muslims emigrated to western countries
Arabic is a very rewarding language to learn and understand for professional reasons, academic scholarship, and in order to enjoy a rich cultural exchange with a large population of the world. The following are some rather obvious advantages for learning Arabic.
• Events in the North Africa affect our daily lives, and only through the study of Arabic can one gain necessary insights into the cultural, religious, and political forces which motivate the inhabitants of that vital region--insights that our monolingual media seldom provide.
• The Middle East And North Africa contains some of the world's greatest archeological and religious sites. It is also rich with interesting cultures and warm, hospitable people. A good knowledge of Arabic will greatly enhance the enjoyment of your travels to the Middle East and your ability to work and interact effectively with Arabic speaking people.
• Many governments around the world currently consider Arabic a critical language. Therefore, study of Arabic can lead to exciting careers in various fields. The following are only a few of the many positions open to the Arabic speaker: foreign correspondent, translator and interpreter , international banker, international consultant, political risk analyst, manager of government relations for oil companies, market analyst for export companies, foreign service officer, development program officer, intelligence analyst, government relations specialist, contractual and corporative consultant and teaching and research positions.
