The Arabic Program in the Department of Modern Languages is the first major/minor program in Arabic language and culture in the state of Kentucky. Started in early 2014, it is growing swiftly. By summer 2016, over 50 students had declared a major in Arabic. Would you like to join us We recommend you start your study of Arabic as soon as possible after coming to WKU. Arabic is the 5th most spoken language in the world, one of the six official languages of the United Nations, the official language of 24 countries, spoken by over 400 million people., Arabic is a Critical Language as designated by the U.S. Government, and one of the priority languages for recruiting by the Dept. of Defense, National Security Agency, FBI, CIA, and many other agencies., Arabic is one of the fastest growing business languages in the world. Economic growth in the Arabian Gulf area alone is projected to be double the world average., Arabic is the liturgical language of Islam. Therefore, over a billion Muslims in the world have a basic knowledge of Arabic, even if they have a different native language., Arabic has one of the richest and longest cultural traditions., Arabic was the language of science and philosophy long before English came into existence. Arabic has had a great influence on other languages. Urdu and Persian, for example, use the Arabic alphabet and approximately 10% of Spanish words come from Arabic.