There are certain foreign languages in some countries that are considered to be critical from the security point of view. The classification and listing of critical languages is different from country to country depending, besides Language and National Security, upon several factors.
Some critical languages include Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin dialect), Persian, Hindi, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Swahili, and Yoruba.
Famous quotes containing the words critical and/or languages:
“Most critical writing is drivel and half of it is dishonest.... It is a short cut to oblivion, anyway. Thinking in terms of ideas destroys the power to think in terms of emotions and sensations.”
—Raymond Chandler (18881959)
“The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)