Arabic is the most widely spoken language in Iraq. Apart from Arabic, a number of minority languages are spoken in Iraq. The only language group with a population over 1 million is Kurdish, in its various forms, and the only other language groups with a population over 100,000 are Chaldean Neo-Aramaic, Azeri and Farsi.
The following table reflects the numbers of personnel trained in Arabic since 2003. Defence has not trained personnel in Kurdish. While Defence has a Farsi capability, no personnel have been trained in Farsi specifically for operations in Iraq, and neither Chaldean Neo-Aramic nor Azeri has ever been required in an Operation Telic context.
The following table provides the available figures for training in Arabic.
Arabic SLP1 SLP2 SLP3 SLP4 Total 2009 1 3 0 0 4 2008 16 37 13 4 70 2007 67 88 26 5 186 2006 38 38 20 4 100 2005 40 16 19 3 78 2004 10 10 19 1 40 2003 1 3 16 0 20 Total 173 195 113 17 498
The above figures do not include figures for the special forces, and do not include personnel who have left the services since their language training and whose details are no longer available. The figures for 2009 are to date and do not include expected outputs for the remainder of the year.
Entries are made against the year when qualifications were achieved. SLP levels can be defined as follows: SLP 1—Survival, SLP 2—Functional, SLP 3—Professional and SLP 4—Expert. Qualifications in speaking and listening skills have been used to determine the SLP level against which personnel are listed.
The figures do not include personnel who received SLP 1 level training but were either not examined or did not pass the exam at this level. It is estimated that up to 200 personnel fall into this category.
The figures do not reflect the very basic Arabic language training provided to all deploying personnel. During pre-deployment training, they have received some instruction in greetings and responses, words and phrases, and have been issued with a language aide-mémoire to enable basic communication.