The Arabic Language

The Ara­bic lan­guage has a rich artis­tic, reli­gious and intel­lec­tu­al his­to­ry that dates back thou­sands of years and encom­pass­es a myr­i­ad of mod­ern cul­tures and tra­di­tions through­out the Mid­dle East and North Africa (MENA). Today, Ara­bic is spo­ken by near­ly 300 mil­lion peo­ple and is an offi­cial lan­guage in over 20 dif­fer­ent coun­tries as well as the Unit­ed Nations, play­ing a key role in glob­al com­mu­ni­ca­tions and inter­na­tion­al affairs. Mod­ern Stan­dard Ara­bic (MSA) ties the Ara­bic-speak­ing world togeth­er as the lit­er­ary writ­ten lan­guage of offi­cial com­mu­ni­ca­tion, while each region fea­tures its own dis­tinct dialect and cul­tur­al tra­di­tion. The CLS Pro­gram focus­es on MSA, while giv­ing stu­dents the oppor­tu­ni­ty to devel­op their col­lo­qui­al Ara­bic skills that pro­vide a foun­da­tion for build­ing strong relations.

Ara­bic has been grow­ing in pop­u­lar­i­ty among Amer­i­can stu­dents for years and has attract­ed intel­lec­tu­als from across the aca­d­e­m­ic spec­trum. Whether you’re study­ing eco­nom­ics, anthro­pol­o­gy, pub­lic health, or his­to­ry, there is a great demand for pro­fi­cient Ara­bic-speak­ers with on-the-ground expe­ri­ence in the MENA region.