Did I hear correct that the CIA or FBI needs Arabic speakers? I know six people that run our coffee bar they all speak it?
They speak English well too.
Is there a shortage of people who speak it or is the shortage that they need to be trained and speak it?
[btw I wanted to post this as a new thread but did it as a reply if someone has seen it before]
[thanks for the catch bibliophage]
According to this New York Times article, there is:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2001/04/nyt041601.html
Arjuna34
The problem with recruiting people who speak Arabic is that the spoken forms of Arabic vary so much from North Africa, to the Levant, to Iraq and the Arabian peninsula, that they are practically different languages.
In the “Ethnologue” you won’t find a listing under “Arabic”, but “Levantine, Moroccan, Iraqi Arabic” and so on.
So someone who learns Arabic as a second language probably learns the standard form used in writing, the media, and formal speech - but may not understand less formal dialects. So either native speakers or very knowledgable experts are needed.
The LA Times ran an article about this matter and the general reaction of the Arabic and Farsi speaking community was guarded. Many feared that it was just a way for the FBI to gather information about them. Some questioned whether or not the FBI was really short of qualified speakers of these languages.
I’ve also seen that Pushant speakers are needed? Is Pushant the preferred spelling?
It’s usually spelled pashto or pashtu. Of course there are various dialects …
Arjuna34
I just caught a TV news story. Apparently the FBI is looking for people to translate documents into English from Pashu, Dari, Farsi, or Arabic. Requirements:[ul]Must be a U.S. citizen and a permanent resident of the U.S.
Must pass rigorous language proficiency exams in English and the foreign language.
Must take and pass a polygraph.
Must submit to a background check.[/ul]Positions are part-time and pay $27-$38 per hour. It sounds like they have many more applicants than positions to fill. I think they said you can get an application at your local FBI field office.
Over the past year one of my major reasons for intending fitting Arabic into my university timetable has been the increasing trouble out in the mideast and specifically Israel, where my wife lived for a while and where it’s always seemed we would go as missionaries. However I did have considerable doubts about the usefulness of a reading knowledge of the kind of Arabic one finds in the Qur’an - if it’s even as far removed from modern-day usage as, say, modern Hebrew is removed from biblical, I’d be in for a fairly rude awakening.
So I think I’ll just learn Hebrew instead.
In case anyone’s interested, here’s the link the FBI page asking for translators:
http://www.fbijobs.com/FBIJobDesc.asp?r=54818796&JC=001402
Arjuna34
Don’t know about the FBI, but didn’t the various branches of armed service purge itself of a lot of cunning linguists in the pre-“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era?
“Don’t ask – Don’t tell” purged a lot of usefull personnel of all types from the service. Its irrelevance and intolerance also cost it a large portion of my faith in its competance overall.