Students Taking Spanish, French; Leaders Pushing Chinese, Arabic.

The article presents information about the American children to take up the languages of Asia and the Middle East to help buttress the United States' international competitiveness and national security. According to a survey, more than 90 percent of the nation's secondary schools are offering Spanish courses, serving nearly 5 million students. Far fewer schools offer French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Russian, in descending order. But only 1 percent give students the option of learning Chinese--20,000 students, more or less--and far fewer have Arabic classes.