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| Parlez-vous Francais? |
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Richard and I are living in a country where very few natives speak English. I teach in a trilingual school, where many kids come in knowing Arabic and/or French, and English ends up being their third language. Communication can be challenging, but somehow we are managing.
Actually, we're getting by with a little help from our friends . . . Two GWA employees helped us a lot during orientation, Kaoutar and Abdeljalil. They were super positive as we struggled through basic language classes during our first few weeks in Morocco.
Thankfully, I took French many eons ago in high school, and Richard knows significantly more than I do. So, when Kaoutar, our awesome French teacher, began to teach us, a lot came back. We often use our basic knowledge getting around the city in taxis, ordering food at restaurants, and just trying to be friendly with the natives with whom we have contact.
Abdeljalil helped us learn some fundamental Arabic; Moroccan Arabic is also known as Darija. Abdeljalil was so patient as we struggled to learn just a few basic phrases. The written language would be impossible for us to learn in a short time as the characters are so complicated. So our teacher had to write the words out phonetically using the English alphabet. It is very hard for me to remember words and phrases in Darija, because it is so different from English. You really need to hear the sounds in Arabic to appreciate the language. I'm not sure I'll ever get that guttural sound that Abdeljalil tried so hard to teach us!
All that being said, there is so much more to communication here than just language. I tend to use a lots of hand motions, pointing, facial expressions, etc. It makes me appreciate what the children I teach go through learning English at GWA. They have to be totally exhausted by the end of each day. We'll keep trying and مشيئة الله, God willing, we'll figure it all out!
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| Our language learning curve, InshaaAllah! |
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