Not Quite the Tower of Babel...
The official language of Morocco is Arabic - namely Moroccan Arabic, or Dirija. Dirija has the dubious distinction of being radically different from Modern Standard or Classical Arabic. The Americans with me who spoke some Classical before have found themselves up a creek without a paddle, since Dirija is basically a different language, although it uses the same script. Every Moroccans' first language is Dirija. They speak it at home and among themselves, and it's very common to find only Arabic-language signs and ads in the less affluent urban areas.
French is the de-facto second language of Morocco, and is the sole reason I can function here. Most people in urban areas speak french, since it's the first language that's taught in school, and by the end of their high school, or Bac, they can pretty much speak fluent french. Most other people speak functional french, or at the very least know a few phrases and numbers. It's been difficult for me, because I'm always conscious that French is not the people's first language - it's essentially the language of the ex-colonial French, with a North African accent. In a sense, I've felt that I'm forcing French on people because I can't speak Dirija.
With that in mind, I've tried picking up some Arabic, but have been stuck at some basic numbers, "praise god," "god wills it (my favorite, because it's basically "it'll happen if it's supposed to" - a hallmark of Moroccan time)," and a smattering of useful curse words...
However, the languages sure as hell don't stop there. Complimenting Arabic is Berber - 3 dialects to be exact - that is the native language of the native (and predominant) ethnic group in Morocco (Moroccans are not entirely Arab). However, it's found more in rural areas, although people in the cities often know a few words.
Further complicating that is the addition of Nathalie, the German AIESEC trainee who works with me here at reseau - ostensibly to teach German, although classes have yet to start. Nathalie speaks German, Romanian, Norwegian, Mongolian, Russian, English, and some French. The thing is, for reasons involving study abroad, German is somewhat popular here, we've met two people here at the office who speak German quite well... which leads to situations like what happened yesterday, where Nathalie and I were in the room with two students and a reseau volunteer working on some difficult english grammar. I was talking to the students in french and Nathalie in English. Nathalie was speaking German with the volunteer, and the volunteer and the students were speaking Dirija among themselves... basically it turns into this huge jumble of languages.
Further complicating that is the addition of Spanish. Since Morocco is so close to Spain, Spanish, especially in the Meditteranean part, is more popular than French. And of course, we have two Americans with us who speak fluent Spanish (I'm not even going to get into the one that speaks Japanese fluently, or Ryan, who speaks Thai and Swahili), so sometimes we run into Moroccans in Rabat who speak Spanish...
Anyways, that's what it's like to be here... definitely makes me wish I spoke more than I do.
French is the de-facto second language of Morocco, and is the sole reason I can function here. Most people in urban areas speak french, since it's the first language that's taught in school, and by the end of their high school, or Bac, they can pretty much speak fluent french. Most other people speak functional french, or at the very least know a few phrases and numbers. It's been difficult for me, because I'm always conscious that French is not the people's first language - it's essentially the language of the ex-colonial French, with a North African accent. In a sense, I've felt that I'm forcing French on people because I can't speak Dirija.
With that in mind, I've tried picking up some Arabic, but have been stuck at some basic numbers, "praise god," "god wills it (my favorite, because it's basically "it'll happen if it's supposed to" - a hallmark of Moroccan time)," and a smattering of useful curse words...
However, the languages sure as hell don't stop there. Complimenting Arabic is Berber - 3 dialects to be exact - that is the native language of the native (and predominant) ethnic group in Morocco (Moroccans are not entirely Arab). However, it's found more in rural areas, although people in the cities often know a few words.
Further complicating that is the addition of Nathalie, the German AIESEC trainee who works with me here at reseau - ostensibly to teach German, although classes have yet to start. Nathalie speaks German, Romanian, Norwegian, Mongolian, Russian, English, and some French. The thing is, for reasons involving study abroad, German is somewhat popular here, we've met two people here at the office who speak German quite well... which leads to situations like what happened yesterday, where Nathalie and I were in the room with two students and a reseau volunteer working on some difficult english grammar. I was talking to the students in french and Nathalie in English. Nathalie was speaking German with the volunteer, and the volunteer and the students were speaking Dirija among themselves... basically it turns into this huge jumble of languages.
Further complicating that is the addition of Spanish. Since Morocco is so close to Spain, Spanish, especially in the Meditteranean part, is more popular than French. And of course, we have two Americans with us who speak fluent Spanish (I'm not even going to get into the one that speaks Japanese fluently, or Ryan, who speaks Thai and Swahili), so sometimes we run into Moroccans in Rabat who speak Spanish...
Anyways, that's what it's like to be here... definitely makes me wish I spoke more than I do.
posted by Isaac at 5:05 AM
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