Write a 5 pages paper on learning a foreign language is an asset in the military.

Write a 5 pages paper on learning a foreign language is an asset in the military.

All of the regions maintain very different cultures and social beliefs, as well as a completely different language other than English, which requires specialized knowledge of foreign languages in order to build positive relationships with indigenous citizens and governmental representatives. Therefore, learning a foreign language is an asset in today’s military.One reason that adopting a second language is such an asset can be illustrated by recent terrorist activities that impact both citizens and representatives of the military.

In 2001, a group of Arabic-speaking terrorists hijacked several American aircraft and used these planes to attack the World Trade Center in New York, as well as the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Because of this very real threat from terrorist activities, the need for military individuals who can speak both English and Arabic is necessary for issues of negotiation during terrorist activities and also to translate what might be said during surveillance efforts, such as with phone taps or email monitoring.

One notable publication suggests that there are only 1,850 people in the U.S. Army who maintain the ability to speak Arabic (The Economist, 50), which only represents an extremely small percentage of the total men and women currently serving in the armed forces.The need for Arabic translators, as well as other foreign language translators, is “woefully short”, which has led to countless hours of audiotape achieved through surveillance to go untranslated (The Economist, 50). Additionally, military efforts to achieve intelligence about the scientific activities of other foreign nations have produced a vast variety of technical papers regarding nuclear weapons ambitions and many other potential threats to U.S. security (The Economist).

What the aforementioned suggests is that there is a significant, potential threat to the stability of U.S. democracy which is posed by the inability to translate foreign language documents and audio, thus there is a major requirement for people to understand both English and other languages in order to assist in protecting the needs of American citizens.&nbsp.&nbsp.