Taking into consideration President Bush's recent initiative that encourages Americans/students to learn "critical-need languages," this study explores the attitudes, perceptions, and motivation of American and international students regarding the teaching/learning of Arabic, one of the languages identified in the President's plan. The primarily quantitative study relies on the responses of 142 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in an HBCU. Results of the study indicate that, although most of the respondents agree that learning Arabic is important for utilitarian purposes, they seem divided on its specific usefulness in their future careers. The two groups, however, differ in their general perceptions of the Arabic language/culture. (Contains 7 tables and 2 notes.)