By abbymarco
Studying abroad anywhere is certainly a challenging experience; adapting to a new culture, environment, and language is never easy. For me, the most difficult adjustment has been living with my host family, which, despite its many challenges, has also been my favorite experiencing. Coming into my semester abroad, I found myself completely unable to communicate. I had been relying on my few semesters of French in high school to help me get by in Morocco. However, where I live in the old Medina, few people speak French. My host family made up of my mom, dad, and thirty-year old host brother, speak only Darija, which is the Moroccan dialect of Arabic.
Unfortunately, not only did I not speak any Darija upon my arrival in Morocco, I did not know any Modern Standard Arabic, either. Since arriving here, I’ve been taking an intensive Modern Standard Arabic course where I spend two hours a day in class, Monday through Friday. While this has helped my communication skills immensely in my daily life here, communicating at home is still challenging. My host family does not know very much Modern Standard Arabic, and I only know as much Darija as I can pick up in the streets, so a lot gets lost in translation. However, I have come so far with my language abilities since first getting to Rabat, and each day, communicating gets easier and easier.
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