After years and years of teasing students by listing the classes in the schedule books but never allowing registration, CMU finally added Chinese language classes to the curriculum.

CMU first offered Mandarin (or, as Chinese call it, standard Chinese) in fall 2001 and stopped in May 2002. It’s been six years since CMU has offered the world’s most popular language.

Seven years after American troops began major Arabic military engagements, this fall CMU will finally begin offering applicable courses in both the language and culture of the regions.

It’s a good thing, but it’s late.

It is no stretch to say the lingua franca of the world is, or will soon be, some combination of English, Chinese and Arabic. The Latin and French of yesteryear have taken a backseat to the native tongues of a growing Asia and a turbulent Middle East.

There is no way CMU can compete with the likes of Michigan State University, which offers Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Russian, two other African languages and many more. But earlier effort would have paid dividends in terms of employability for CMU graduates, prestige for CMU’s language program and given the university a head start in the biggest language boom of our generation.

Now we are several years behind and several years away from being able to graduate fluent, or even halting, speakers of those two language groups.

Officials say plans for the classes – suggested at times by Student Government Association members, faculty (namely, Moataz Fattah) and others – always ran into money shortages. Budget problems are real and they force difficult decisions.

Chinese and especially Arabic instructors can pretty much write their own ticket, so attracting tenure-track personnel has been difficult, to say the least. But it should have received higher priority, since either new language would arguably give a graduate more employability than French and Germen languages, despite Michigan’s proximity to Canada.

CMU was wise not to institute an African language program, as had been suggested earlier this school year. One reason given for the African program was that every other Michigan university had a similar program – but that’s like Taco Bell selling burgers because other fast food joints do.

CMU’s focus on diversity needs to extend to positive courses about cultures, instead of several of the current offerings focused mainly on defining discrimination. Chinese and Arabic courses are one way to show a genuine commitment to diversity, extending beyond statements and feel-good mission goals.

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