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103 They’re speaking Arabic in the Arab League! —Coach of one East Coast high school’s MUN team during a sponsors’ meeting, North American Invitational Model United Nations Conference, Washington, D.C., 2003 Perhaps the most apparent item of 1950s technology that reveals the cultural diversity residing within the Great Hall where delegates to the General Assembly convene is the beige plastic earpiece that adorns the delegation desks that carry each nation’s name. There are six official languages spoken at the United Nations, each simultaneously translated so that every speaker’s voice can be heard and understood in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, or Spanish. Beyond the official languages at the UN, one can easily overhear countless other languages and dialects in the hallways of the UN. That is certainly the trend in American high schools, where children of immigrant families as well as diplomats posted in the United States bring a rich cacophony of the spoken word into the classroom. It is the most audible evidence that high schools are experiencing the challenges and benefits of a society that values cultural diversity. The MUN coach’s protest at the 2003 NAIMUN conference over students speaking Arabic was an appeal for fairness rather than an indictment of those students whose voices, representing the Kingdom of Jordan, had found a safe harbor in which to be heard. In this instance, the coach was urging fair play in an MUN conference setting where English is usually the only language spoken. He and other advisors understood the advantage of foreign language abilities that are demonstrated in a competitive setting like Model UN. Curiously, most high school–sponsored and college-hosted Model UN conference rules do not outlaw languages other than English. They presume, probably incorrectly, that students come to MUN conferences unprepared to speak any other language, even if they are representing nonEnglish -speaking nations. 12 Diversity There is a strange asymmetry at play here. Universities, whose international relations graduates are among the most highly sought after by elite international commercial institutions and government agencies including the U.S. State Department, often make minimal effort to showcase their cultural diversity at MUN conferences. By offering no or only token opportunities to engage high school students in a language other than English, they are sending a too-telling signal. It is interesting to contemplate the reverberations of a high powered university hosting an MUN conference where all delegates were offered the opportunity to engage in negotiations and debate in Arabic, Chinese, Farsi, French, German, Hindi, Russian, and Spanish sessions, and yes, even one reserved for English. The multiplicity of languages and dialects spoken at the UN is mirrored by the variety of languages spoken today in many American high schools—languages that number well beyond those precious few taught there. While since 9/11 many school systems have made strides in expanding language offerings to include Arabic and Chinese, others have done well in difficult financial times to retain the Romance languages in their academic offerings. To the extent that students strive to retain their cultural identity through the use of their native language, especially when that language (and its literature and culture) is not among a school’s language offerings, Model UN offers these students an outlet to use their language skills in addressing international issues. We should not be wasting this opportunity. Some college Model UN organizations have recognized this situation as an opportunity to enrich the high school conferences they sponsor. Three examples at the collegiate level and two other high school-sponsored conferences merit attention , in part because they are rare but also because they are well-run and serve as examples to other colleges and high schools hosting MUN conferences of what can be done. The Princeton Model UN (PMUNC) has consistently offered at least one such “bilingual” committee, often a “crisis committee” dealing with a complex political or military threat, where the delegates are expected to speak in either French or Spanish. At NAIMUN, hosted by Georgetown University, a recent simulation of the Hugo Chavez cabinet in Venezuela offered students fluent in Spanish an engaging and authentic crisis where linguistic skills came into play in crafting nuanced policy statements and news releases. The Secondary Schools UN Symposium Simulation (SSUNS) run by students at McGill University in Montreal offered Canadian, American, and other high school students the opportunity to serve as ministers in the Quebec cabinet where French language skills melded with an understanding of Quebec’s...

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