Teaching English In Rabat, Morocco (the Badgers Abroad Blog)

 

 

Teaching English in Rabat, Morocco Rebecca Gilsdorf spent a month in Rabat, Morocco teaching English the summer after her sophomore year in civil engineering studies. She went through a program called Projects Abroad that was recommended by an international advisor on campus. Day 1: Arrival After nearly 20 hours of travel I finally arrived in Rabat. The taxi driver suddenly pulled over, and I got out and grabbed my things. I then quickly began a race through the crowded, narrow streets of the medina. By the time I arrived at the front door of where I’d be staying, I felt completely lost and overwhelmed by the sights and sounds of the medina. I went inside and met the family, ate a quick dinner, attempted to start unpacking and then laid down to rest and recall thinking, albeit briefly, that I had no idea what I had just gotten myself into. Day 7: Teaching Time has really flown. I teach an afternoon class full of anywhere from four to twenty-four students around the age of ten. The children have insane amounts of energy and thoroughly enjoy all of the word games that we play, particularly when it involves one team against another. Following the younger student class, I pair up with another volunteer to teach a more advanced class. We teach complex grammar rules for a short while and then we’re off into heated debates about Moroccan politics, immigration in the U.S. compared to Morocco, U.S. elections, whether women should work outside the home or not, idioms, and tons more. Day 15: “It’s a Hyacinth” I’m currently enjoying my second full weekend in Rabat. I spent the afternoon in Sweesee, near Takkadoum where I’ve been teaching, with a group of my students. We met near the building we hold class in and then walked to the coffee shop that my students recommended. Along the way one of the students started trying to teach me the Arabic names of flowers that we saw growing on fences along the sidewalk. He picked a large red flower, handed it to me and taught me the name

in Arabic. He then asked me what it was called in English. I, having no background in flower names, was stumped. “We call it red flower,” I said. We all laughed. The student then asked one of the other students if he knew what it was. The second student, a non-native English speaker like the others, promptly responded, “It’s a hyacinth.” Which lead to an even longer laughter session. I was surprised like this on more than one occasion, when my knowledge of things seemed to have a gap that could only be filled by one of my students. My Arabic teacher invited me to his house this afternoon for lunch and tea. After an amazing tagine shared with his parents and sisters, we retired to the living room. His mother served tea and biscuits. Two local university professors joined us as did his father. We then began a long discussion about Moroccan politics, southern Morocco, human rights and Islam, the environment, Catholicism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and whatever issues came up in between to bridge all of these ideas. The discussion was completely in formal Arabic! Having only studied Arabic for two semesters in the U.S. and three weeks in Morocco, I was amazed at how much I’d learned and how much I actually understood of what the others were saying. Day 29: Leaving I fly out tomorrow. I’ve decided to meet a few of my students down at the beach to enjoy the sun and ocean one last time. We spent a few hours sitting on the beach and talking. They helped me fix a few of my lingering pronunciation problems with Arabic and gave me advice on where to go in Morocco if/when I return. They then walked me home just in time for a final amazing cous cous lunch! Mid-afternoon I caught a taxi to the train station to Casablanca where I spent the night. I looked out over the old medina in Casablanca and listened to the Call to Prayer one last time while thinking back on all the funny stories from class, doing laundry by hand every weekend, taking the overcrowded taxis to work, exploring old Roman ruins, and most importantly all of the amazing people I’d met who taught me more about Arabic, Islam, and Morocco than I ever could have dreamed of learning. I still can’t quite believe that I spent a month of my life in Morocco, but I wouldn’t exchange a single memory for anything.

This is a publication of the Division of International Studies.

www.international.wisc.edu www.badgersabroad.wisc.edu/blog