When thinking of foreign language learning, most people think of the FIGS categories: French, Italian, German, and Spanish.  And with good reason: these are the languages most commonly offered at the high school level, and therefore, they’re the most popular within higher education as well.  Yet these are not necessarily the languages most critical to our nation’s economy, security, or future.

For this reason, it’s heartening to see increased attention given to Arabic, Korean, and Chinese, (all of which have been deemed “critical languages” by the Department of Defense,) at the college level.  The LA Times reported this week that these three languages have seen the fastest rate of growth in higher education: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-college-languages-20101208,0,6185717.story