Language is key to communicating with other people. When it comes to learning other languages, our students trail the rest of the world, particularly in critical need languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Korean, which are spoken by less than one percent of our students.

The National Security Language Initiative (NSLI) is designed to increase the number of Americans learning these and other critical need languages.

Schools in Alexandria, Virginia, and Dearborn, Michigan, are teaching Chinese and Arabic with NSLI support. See a glimpse of how they are doing it by watching these brief videos:

• Learning Chinese at West Potomac High School in Alexandria, Virginia
  Real Player (15.1MB; 4 minutes, 40 seconds)
  Note: to see this video, your computer must have Real Player, which is free from Real.

• Learning Arabic at Iris Becker Elementary School in Dearborn, Michigan
  Real Player (17.2MB; 5 minutes, 17 seconds)
  Note: to see this video, your computer must have Real Player, which is free from Real.