Funding up for language study

President Bush's budget for the 2009 fiscal year shows an increased push from the government to encourage foreign-language study for national-security purposes.

But it seems unlikely that the increased funding will persuade students learning those languages to pursue careers in the government.

The budget, released on Feb. 4, estimates that the government will spend $59 million in 2009 on the National Security Language Initiative, more than double the planned spending of $26 million in the 2008 fiscal year.

The NSLI is a joint program between the departments of State, Defense and Education whose goal is to increase the number of students proficient in targeted languages seen as important for national-security reasons. These languages include Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Farsi, Hindi and Russian.

One of Penn's summer abroad programs, the Korean Summer Language institute, receives funding through NSLI.

The program might be affected by the increased NSLI funding, but the eventual impact is still unclear at this point, said Wanda Kraybill, programs manager of international programs in the College of General Studies, which runs the program.

NSLI's expansion will also expand the initiative's grant programs. Students interested in studying abroad in certain countries can apply for these grants to get funding. In return, they are expected to apply for a job in the U.S. government.

Roger Allen, chairman of the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department and Arabic professor, said Penn students studying have applied for these grants in the past and will continue to do so.

However, he said, the majority of students studying languages the NSLI supports have no interest in government service, and he said he thinks that will not change.

Mien-hwa Chiang, coordinator of Penn's Chinese program, agrees, saying that most Penn students studying Manderin do so to apply their language skills in the business world.

There are currently about 500 undergraduates studying Manderin and 200 studying Arabic.

While many Penn students studying the languages targeted by the NSLI said they do not intend to work for the government after college, they still approve of the NSLI goals.

College freshman and Arabic student Hannah Skop has a father in the foreign service and said she does not want to follow in his footsteps, but nonetheless supports the NSLI efforts.

"I think it's a good idea because it can help the government gain perspectives of other countries," she said.

Penn's foreign language departments have not received money from the NSLI to expand their offerings. However, Chiang said the Chinese department has received grants for two years in a row from the NSLI to fund a summer Chinese program for high-school students.

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