Iraq - English As A Second Language

Tigerhawk has a post about English as a second language in Iraq.

“I began to attend English courses after I found ads making learning a foreign language a necessary qualification to get a job,” said Khalil Atta, a 27-year old who had an MA in business administration.

The increased demand for translators to work for the US army, foreign contractors, foreign TV and Radio stations, or even to work as correspondents for dailies and magazines was only natural to give an added value to language centers in occupied Iraq.

Such centers were almost a taboo under ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s regime, but they flourished remarkably after US-led occupation forces rolled into Baghdad...

Some believe the changing atmosphere, generally, had some positive aspects to it.

According to Jassem Mohamed, a lecturer at Baghdad University, the tendency created an atmosphere of competitiveness in the Iraqi society.

And Tigerhawk observes "A land of language-learning, skill-honing, ambitious Arabs who are going to private night school to improve themselves. Will the new Iraqis become the basis of an Arab economy that is more than local agriculture and the extraction of minerals?"

Sound familiar?
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