Arabic mandatory at Manhattan public school

[Al B. Sure!]

Which version of the Arabic will they learn? It's more fractured than Spanish. Actually, do kids learn metropolitan Spanish or Mexican Spanish in the US?

Spain Spanish. Vosotros and all that.

[Al B. Sure!]

Soon it might be relevant in the western hemisphere. Or does "global" mean "covering less than half of the globe"?

Is Spanish at all relevant in the old world outside of Spain and the Philippines?

[The Mad Monk]

Spain Spanish. Vosotros and all that.

Not in my school.

[giblets]

Is Spanish at all relevant in the old world outside of Spain and the Philippines?

If you exclude enough countries, any language is irrelevant.

[Al B. Sure!]

If you exclude enough countries, any language is irrelevant.

Two countries. Two? That's excluding enough countries? 2?

Arabic's spread as a major language:



Then you have more people globally who know Arabic because of Islam, a religion that has spread globally.

Spanish is centered on Latin America, the Philippines, and Spain.

[giblets]

So irrelevant in Europe, most of sub-saharan Africa, most of Asia, Oceania, and of course the entire western hemisphere is a "global language". Spanish obviously comes closer to being an actual global language. A lot of the green territory in that map is wasteland so it really isn't impressive.

[C0ckney]

even portuguese is more global than arabic.

[Hauldren Collider]

It's just a fact that Spanish and French are substantially more useful than Arabic.

[OzzyKP]

I don't see any reason to knock Arabic or claim it isn't a global language, it is. It is clearly one of the most spoken languages in the world. Of the languages people around the world should learn it is absolutely in the top 5.

That said, among those top 5, I'd put Spanish above it. Especially in the US where Spanish is everywhere. But there is no harm in kids learning the #5 language as opposed to the #2 or #3 one. *shrug*

[giblets]

It's just a fact that Spanish and French are substantially more useful than Arabic.

Yes, although on the margin more people who know Arabic is probably better.

[DaShi]

They should be teaching the kids a real language like Java or C++, not Arabic.

Like people will still be using those languages in 20 years.

[Lorizael]

Like people will still be using those languages in 20 years.

30 years and going strong for C++.

[DaShi]

Pu^2 is the language of the future.

[Tupac Shakur]

Is Spanish at all relevant in the old world outside of Spain and the Philippines?

Why do you think Spanish is relevant in the Philippines?

[Elok]

Two countries. Two? That's excluding enough countries? 2?

Arabic's spread as a major language:



Then you have more people globally who know Arabic because of Islam, a religion that has spread globally.

Spanish is centered on Latin America, the Philippines, and Spain.

Spanish is also spoken by a rather large (and growing) number of people in the US. And while Latin America (i.e. everything south of Texas, in this case excluding Brazil) is starting to come into its own--albeit slowly--most of those green countries are bass-ackwards dictatorships and/or fundamentalist states who have little to offer besides oil. And we're starting to take green energy seriously. If we ever fill the road with electric cars (which is not inconceivable, especially within the lifetime of today's elementary school students), we will have essentially no reason to bother with the Arabic/Muslim world barring something totally unforeseen and unforeseeable.