Arabic is a beautiful language with a rich heritage of literature, scholarly work, and ancient culture. It was adopted by the United Nations as one of its six official languages in 1974. Students of Arabic become familiar with many of the cultural patterns, social issues, historical events, artistic traditions, and elements of daily life of the people whose cultures are rooted in Arabic. Arabic will give students a career edge in such fields as diplomacy, intelligence, business, engineering, international development, and academia.