<p>I'm not only in love with aviation but also very interested in the Middle East and South Asia, especially the languages. My girlfriend is a Persian Jew and she can speak Persian/Farsi and Hebrew (which I'm impressed with because I never knew someone who could speak Farsi). Of course, she speaks English. My question is are there any colleges/universities in the Mid-Atlantic states that offer a Persian language class? If not, what about Arabic or Hebrew, or even Hindi? I want to learn more about the culture of the Middle East and South Asia.</p>
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<p>You can run a search for courses on the University of Minnesota/CARLA site:
[The</a> Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) : Less Commonly Taught Languages](<a href=“http://www.carla.umn.edu/lctl/db/]The”>The Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA))</p>
<p>According to my search on that site, the only Mid-Atlantic school that teaches Persian is Princeton. Schools a little outside the region include UVa, Yale and Brandeis.</p>
<p>The University of Chicago and the University of Michigan are 2 schools that offer courses in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Hindi, and many other languages.</p>
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<p>I thought Rutgers University also teaches Persian and even Hindi.</p>
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<p>With my own interest in speaking a second language I find myself debating between: Spanish, Arabic, and French. Schools that I think offer those majors are ( and just to list four of the many): Boston University, New York University, Syracuse, George Washington University, etc…</p>
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<p>I know that my community college has Hebrew and Arabic as Middle Eastern Languages. I’ve always known that Arabic and Persian have very similar writing but I can’t tell the difference between the two. Does anyone know the difference?</p>
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<p>I also just founded out that William Paterson Univeristy, one of my possible transfer schools, has Persian, Arabic, Hindi, and Turkish as Middle Eastern and South Asian languages.</p>
<p>Also, just wondering, if some colleges and universities have a wide array of languages to study from, why can’t high schools have more interesting languages to choose from such as Chinese, Japanese, Hindi, Persian, Arabic, and Hebrew? I really want to know why.</p>
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<p>^ Many colleges and universities draw their students from a national applicant pool. Most high schools (other than a few exclusive boarding schools) serve a small local community. It would be prohibitively expensive to offer many courses in less commonly taught languages to only the few students who’d enroll in each one, don’t you think?</p>
<p>^^ Arabic and Persian (Farsi) actually belong to two distinct language families. Arabic is, like Hebrew, a Semitic language. Persian is an Indo-European (and more specifically, an Indo-Iranian) language. The spoken language is more similar in features to French than to Arabic.
[Persian</a> language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persian_language]Persian”>Persian language - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>The Persian writing system, however, is very close to Arabic.
[Perso-Arabic</a> script - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perso-Arabic_script]Perso-Arabic”>Arabic script - Wikipedia) </p>
<p>This situation is sorta kinda analogous to the relationship between Chinese and Japanese. They too belong to two distinct language families, but the Chinese writing system (Hanzi a.k.a. Kanji) was integrated into the Japanese. It entered the Japanese cultural sphere through the spread of religious documents (Buddhist sutras etc.)</p>
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<p>Many, many of my friends at Duke study Asian/Middle Eastern Languages</p>
<p>[Asian</a> & Middle Eastern Studies (AMES)](<a href=“Front Page | Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies”>Front Page | Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies)</p>
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<p>Schools in the mid-Atlantic states (which I take to include New York south to Virginia) teaching Persian/Farsi include Columbia, NYU, Princeton, Penn, Johns Hopkins, American, U Maryland-College Park, and UVA.</p>
<p>Hundreds of colleges teach Arabic, including all those listed above. </p>
<p>Any of these schools would also be good for Hindi, with the exception of American and Johns Hopkins. If you want to get into the more obscure languages from this region, like, say, Pashto, then Penn is probably your best bet.</p>
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<p>tons of schools teach arabic and hebrew these days.</p>
<p>Look for schools that offer majors in south asian and/or middle eastern studies. Odds are you’ll find your language classes there.</p>
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<p>[Asian</a> and Middle East Studies Program, WCAS, Northwestern University](<a href=“http://www.asianandmiddleeast.northwestern.edu/]Asian”>http://www.asianandmiddleeast.northwestern.edu/)</p>
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<p>American University and Georgetown offer some of the languages on your list</p>
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<p>i pretty sure the uc’s have asian languages</p>
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<p>OP, you mentioned wanting to find a university which offers classes in Hebrew, Persian, Arabic and Hindi. My university does, the University of Texas at Austin. They are among the 34 languages taught here. The Arabic department is superb. </p>
<p>[url=<a href=“Languages | College of Liberal Arts | The University of Texas at Austin”>Languages | College of Liberal Arts | The University of Texas at Austin]About[/url</a>]</p>
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<p>University of Washington has a ridiculous number of languages. I know it’s not mid-Atlantic, but I’d recommend looking it up.</p>
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<p>
UT Austin also recently acquired the foremost Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, and Akkadian experts (they’re married) in the country courtesy of Harvard, where rumor has it all is not well in the Near Eastern studies department.</p>
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<p>Is it possible that I could take a Persian/Hebrew class as an elective for fun? I want to learn more about my girlfriend’s culture and language.</p>
<p>Cornell offers a number of Near Eastern and South Asian languages:</p>
<p>Near Eastern Languages
Modern Languages
• Arabic
• Greek
• Hebrew
• Urdu
• Persian
• Turkish
Ancient Near Eastern Languages
• Akkadian
• Aramaic
• Heiroglyphic Egyptian
• Sumerian
• Ugaritic </p>
<p>South Asian Languages
• Bengali
• Hindi
• Urdu
• Nepali
• Sanskrit
• Sinhala.</p>
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<p>What community college was that that offered Hebrew ksai?</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins offers Persian [Persian</a> (Farsi)](<a href=“http://www.ltc.jhu.edu/persian.htm]Persian”>http://www.ltc.jhu.edu/persian.htm)</p>
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