Outside the Classroom: Learning Culture in Meknes

By Charles Nwaogu

I found myself one night trekking towards a small shop in a derelict Moroccan neighborhood in search of a cheap meal. People sat around the local gated mosque conversing in a dialect from which I could only process certain words. On my left lay a great field of rubble where children gleefully spiked around a soccer ball. Covered women walked beside their husbands dressed in traditional garb, and these couples were intermixed with other Moroccans wearing Western-style tanks and shorts.

Unsurprisingly, people stared blatantly, but unthreateningly, at me, as I was clearly a foreigner in a neighborhood which foreigners probably did not frequent.  The sudden, welcoming smile that popped onto their faces whenever I pelted out the greeting “Assalaam Alakum” (Peace upon you) was at the same time warming and humorous.

Looking out at all of this, it occurred to me the reason that I was studying abroad. I was not in this country to hunch tirelessly over a Moroccan textbook in a Moroccan room while Morocco waited patiently on the other side of the window. I was here in Morocco to study the parts of the Arabic language that would be impossible to adequately capture in an American classroom – namely, the culture.

Studying abroad, in respect to language acquisition, is an immersive device that has certainly converted my perspective of Arabic as a textbook language to one that is living and thriving. The daily haggling with shop owners, lively discussions with native Moroccan professors, and light conversations with people on the streets serve to bolster and affirm my capabilities in Arabic. Morocco has been a beautiful experience, and my memories of her will certainly be as sweet as the Coca-Cola (with real sugar) that is served here.

Editor’s note: Charles is completing the Summer 2011 Arabic Overseas Flagship Program in Meknes, Morocco.