Pentagon and Wall Street agree on which languages matter most in coming decades

ARTICLE: “U.S. firms becoming tongue-tied: Global trade requires foreign language skills,” by David J. Lynch, USA Today, 9 February 2006, p. 6B.

Weird, but neither side seems to pick Spanish. Instead we’re told by both to focus on Chinese, Arabic, Farsi (Persian or Iranian), Korean, Japanese, Russian and Urdu (getting into Central Asia).

Interesting that both the security and the business communities seem interested in the same New Core and Gap situations, apparently believing that these places are where security issues will be most fluid and profit potential most elevated, or a nice definition of what I call the military-market nexus.

Also interesting how the rest of the Western Hemisphere seems an afterthought in both camps.

Comments

[Nathan Machula]

Actually, Urdu is a language of South Asia, primarily Pakistan.