More than 1,000 years ago, the Arabic language came into use in the cultural centers of the Arabian Peninsula. Now, students at Iowa State have the opportunity to learn it themselves.

For two years, the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures offered Arabic as a short course, a half-semester class not offered for college credit. But this summer, for the first time, students will be able to receive college credit while learning one of the world’s oldest languages.

“I am excited to teach [the class] for many reasons,” said Jean-Pierre Taoutel, lecturer of foreign languages and literatures. “It will help make people aware of the Arabic culture, because we’ll learn about it while studying the language.”

Taoutel said the Arabian Peninsula served as the cultural center of the world for at least six centuries, and he said he believes the rich legacy that region has given to the world has gone largely unnoticed.

“It’s interesting specifically to see how many words have an Arabic origin,” he said. “Take the word ‘alcohol,’ for instance — that’s an Arabic word. People use these words every day and have no idea these words are Arabic.”

Dawn Bratsch-Prince, professor and chairwoman of foreign languages and literatures, said Arabic is a difficult language for most people to learn because it uses a different alphabet than languages similar to English.

Bratsch-Prince said this, as well as the consistent enrollment in Arabic short courses from students, faculty, staff and community members, convinced her to offer the longer course.

“I think we’ve proven there’s enough interest in Ames,” she said. “It’s a difficult language to learn, and suited for a longer learning period as well.”

Taoutel said at the end of the class, students will be able to read and speak in standard Arabic.

“It’s challenging, but rewarding because you’ll discover a whole new writing system,” he said. “The writing is from right to left.”

Bratsch-Prince said including Arabic in the languages the department offers is a part of reaching its goal to broaden students’ experience with foreign languages.

“Traditionally, foreign language departments are heavily slanted toward [the teaching of] Western European languages, but now there’s a trend to offer less commonly taught languages [like Arabic],” she said. “Russian and Chinese are already regular course offerings, and we just wanted to continue to diversify with some [other] languages.”