FARGO N.D.
Students at North Dakota State University say they want more Arabic language studies.
NDSU offers first-year Arabic through the U.S. Arabic Distance Learning Network. A professor from California teaches over interactive television to about a dozen schools in the consortium, and a native Arabic-speaking teaching assistant in the area meets with the NDSU class two days a week.
Dan Zakopyko, 24, a cadet in the ROTC program, would like to advance beyond first-year Arabic. He is a former Army specialist who spent a year in Iraq.
“When I was over there, the language barrier was such a problem,” Zakopyko said.
Zakopyko is now a criminal justice major with plans to return to the military, and is enrolled in NDSU’s Arabic 101 class.
He is gathering student signatures for a petition for NDSU to expand the program.
