She sent me this but she does not want to be identified: "I am a frequent reader of your website and often agree with your posts. I especially commend your coverage of Palestine and the Zionist occupation. However, I did not enjoy reading your post about European students of Arabic 'faring so much better than American counterparts.' I also went to Georgetown and just graduated last May. I think Georgetown produces the best undergraduate students in Arabic in America, at least given the success of our students in study abroad programs in the Middle East (Georgetown is disproportionately represented in study-abroad locales like Jordan and Egypt). I am currently working in X and my Arabic far exceeds the other internationals I work with (many of whom studied at SOAS and other European institutions). My Palestinian friends and coworkers are often surprised that I can speak/read/write, because most internationals here claim they 'know' arabic and then cannot string a sentence together in 3aamya. I am not fluent, but it is feasible that within a year or two, I will attain fluency. And I owe much of my knowledge to the strong basis in grammar I received as an undergraduate at Georgetown.
Basically, I wish to point out that yes, you may have met several Americans who suck at Arabic, but I assure you that there are Americans who are more than capable of speaking and writing fluently in Fus7a and various Arabic dialects. I guess your post also struck a nerve since so many of the British/French/Australians here are quick to malign American education and Americans abroad in general, of course adding the addendum "You are not the typical American, Michelle." Of course these are the same foreigners who are unable to integrate into their host societies and end up not making any effort to improve their minimal Arabic skills.
When it comes down to it, I think language acquisition and mastery depends on each individual's skills and personal motivation."
PS (now Angry Arab speaking here) I, of course, fully agree with the last sentence. Of course, I never intended to generalize about all Americans. Some of those Americans whose Arabic is excellent (or those whose Arabic is not excellent) are friends of mine. But I was making a generalization based on my impression. I received many responses to this post I wrote. One person also made a good point about the tendency of American universities to send their students to Cairo--instead of Yemen or Syria, for example--where people tend to converse in English mostly. Another colleague at Oxford also commented that British and European universities tend to send the students as undergraduates to the Middle East to practice the language, unlike in US universities where travel happen in graduate years.
