A few years ago, while General Abizaid was still CENTCOM commander, I flew a C-17 into Cairo to pick him up after a meeting. While I sat on the parking ramp with my engines running, knocking out checklists for the next takeoff, I looked out the window and saw General Abizaid moving among a circle of grinning Egyptian military officers. He was shaking hands, talking, doing the kinds of things a combatant commander is supposed to do: keeping our alliances strong at a time when the situation in Iraq was critical. Because he is fluent in Arabic, I presume he was doing at least some of this in Arabic. I remember thinking, Wow. This is why language matters.
Rob McTaggart on 08 Jun 08The community is the best thing about LIvemocha. People are always willing to help you improve. You can submit recordings of yourself speaking or writing submissions and other people will comment on them. You can also talk live with text, audio or webcam and there are tools to help with translation.
