<p>which will be more valuable for an IR-type career? i know persian is way, way easier to learn than arabic (at least grammatically) and i'm worried that even if i did slave away trying to learn arabic, i'd have to learn a whole new dialect for every country i wanted to work in. thoughts?</p>
<p>Both are in pretty high demand. Is the dialect of each country so radically different that a person in the "countryside" (aka most uneducated I'm assuming) wouldn't be able to understand the standard dialect. (if there is one?) If it's still intelligible, I'd say Arabic. But in the end, both are in really high demand, and it WOULD be supposedly easier to learn Farsi.</p>
<p>I know a person who learned Farsi and was recruited by the CIA. I haven't seen him since.....hope he is alright. Learning either Arabic or Farsi can be great, especially if you minor in economics or political science. With the globalization of todays world, those skills could help you alot</p>
<p>Either or, really. If you're still looking to apply to schools, I would highly recommend looking at University of Maryland- they're a government designated flagship school for teaching Arabic and Farsi due to proximity to federal government</p>
<p>Learning a language is difficult. Some are more difficult than others (Arabic is extremely difficult, apparently, though I have no personal experience). But to get to the level of proficiency you want, in any language, is going to take years of hard work. You have to ask yourself, which language do I want to learn? Do you want to know Farsi or Arabic? You have to figure out what is a fit for you, more than what you should be learning for some hoped-for opportunities. The world will change, you can't predict what will be in hot demand next year or 5 or 10 years from now. Look at all those people who studied Russian during the cold war...</p>
<p>That's my take.</p>
<p>but in the same vein, Russian is making quite the comeback now....</p>