A Surprising Question

Yesterday I was a tutoring a student at the dar chebab (Darija, or Moroccan Arabic, for "youth center"), where I do most of my volunteering as a Youth Development PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) here in Morocco. He was asking me to explain certain words to him. He pointed to the verb "to mean." He asked me, "What does this verb mean?"

I replied incredulously, "But... you must know what it means! You just used it in a sentence!" He started to laugh and admitted that he knew what it meant.

Language Learning Strategies

I've received guidance from other PCVs, Peace Corps staff and Peace Corps recruiters on how to effectively learn a host country language. I figured that those tips could help others, so it recently occurred to me to share them here on my blog, so here they are.

Notebook.
It can be helpful to have a notebook in which you write new words and phrases you learn. By writing them down, you're likely to be learning them better for a couple of reasons. First, you're practicing them, or imprinting them onto your brain, by writing them out. Second, you'll be less likely to forget them if you write them down, partly since you can go back and look at them later.

You're also more likely to get more out of the notebook if you carry it around with you. Then when you hear a new word or phrase, you can write it down and not run the risk of forgetting the new word that you learned (or how to spell it, since you can write down the spelling when someone tells it to you, rather than later--or not at all).

Some people also suggest copying similar and related words and phrases over into new lists so that similar words and phrases are grouped together. If you do so, you might better remember the new words and phrases for a couple of reasons. First, again, you're imprinting them onto your brain by writing them out. Second, you'll be reinforcing the meaning of the words by making associations between similar words.

Tutor.
By having a tutor, you can benefit for various reasons. First, by having a consistent tutor, you'll get help from the same person, which can be efficient. Second, you'll have someone whom you can not only ask questions about the language, but also on a consistent basis. Third, you can set up usual times to meet, so that you are regularly spending time learning more about the language. Fourth, you can ask a tutor more technical questions, such as about grammatical rules, the answers to which you might not be able to discern from just having conversations with others.

Often a tutor is only as effective as you help him or her to be. While a tutor can help you spot your strengths and areas in which to improve, the primary responsibility of benefiting from your experiences with your tutor rests with you. Let your tutor know in which areas you are struggling, and how you feel he or she can help you. If you rely on the tutor to develop material for your meetings, you might end up focusing on areas which don't best use your time.

Language Partners.
Of course, the more you practice speaking the language, the more likely it is that you'll get better at speaking the language. Even though this point is obvious, people often don't think of having people with whom they regularly meet to practice speaking the language. You can do so just on a social basis, hanging out with a shop owner, in a barber shop, with people at a cafe, or just at someone's home. Often PCVs fall into the trap of not being social and sequestering themselves in their homes, which, of course, causes them not to be social, and thus not to practice their language skills. Because they have lower language skills, often PCVs then further avoid social contact. It's important to force oneself to get out there and be in the community, for various reasons, including to develop one's language skills.

Double Rainbow

So, to pick up where I left off in my last blog entry and to say a little more about the weekend on which I posted my last blog entry: I was away from my town for some training in another village which is a couple of hours away from my town. There were a dozen other PCVs at the training.

On one of the afternoons of the training, one PCV said that the moudir (director) of her Dar Chebab (youth center) had invited us over to his and his wife's house for kaskroute, or afternoon snack. Moroccans are quite hospitable, and certainly magnanimous with their hospitality. So, we went over to their home for kaskroute.

In addition to tea and coffee, some of the offerings included home-made doughnuts. Since some of you might be curious what the doughnuts, or shfinj, were like, if you think of the texture of the kind of doughnut in the USA which has a hole in the middle and which is powdered, they were of that texture, but without the powder. There were also some baked goods which seemed to be a little like brownies.

In addition to enjoying our hosts' hospitality, and the food, I also was enjoying how my fellow PCV's moudir was playing his guitar for us. Among other things, he played some Bob Marley for us, which was fun to hear.

When we emerged from their home, we were delighted to see a double rainbow. I only remember having seen one once before, in or near Yellowstone National Park, so I was happy to see that double rainbow earlier this month.

Upon arriving back in my town, I barely had enough time to shower, change my clothes and eat a very late lunch before I went to my Dar Chebab to tutor someone in English in one of my regularly scheduled sessions. He's actually a teacher of Arabic. Since he asked me to tutor him in English, I have been tutoring him twice a week. I find it very satisfying, as he is very attentive, and takes a lot of notes, and asks me questions, and comes up with new sentences to test his understanding of English.

It could be that I didn't feel down upon arriving back in my site because I immediately got to work. And, more than just getting straight to work, I immediately set out to helping someone. I have often found that when I feel down, I often feel better after helping someone else.

However, I can say, now that a couple more weeks have passed, that I also am just feeling more comfortable. I feel that I am coping better with being away from family and friends in the USA. And I feel more comfortable not being in the USA, being in a foreign country, in a foreign culture, being in Morocco, and living in my town. I'm here. I live here. This is where I'm living my life. And I'm enjoying helping people here. I'm happy doing this work.

I'm appreciating actually seeing and hearing Moroccans express themselves about what is important to them, instead of just reading about it. I was teaching an English class earlier this month about family trees. When I was teaching the students the words "aunt," "uncle," and "cousin," one of them incredulously asked me in Arabic, "What?! If I want to tell someone about my Emmi, Emmti, xali, or xalti, what am I going to say?"

(In Morocco, in Darija, speakers say "Emmi" for "my father's brother," and "xali" for "my mother's brother," whereas in English we say "uncle" for both of these people. In Morocco, in Darija, speakers say "Emmti" for "my father's sister," and "xalti" for "my mother's sister," whereas in English we use the word "aunt" for both of these people. In Morocco, there are multiple phrases for cousin, namely "wld Emmi," for "son of my father's brother," and "bnt xalti," for "daughter of my mother's sister." Through this greater vocabulary regarding family, you see that Moroccans place a high value on family. Islam plays a prominent role in leading Moroccans to value family; for example, Islam provides that children should take care of their elderly parents.)

I told the students that if one of them wants to tell a person that someone is his or her "wld xali," for example, he or she could say that that person is the son of his or her mother's brother. And then I added that in English, we typically just use the word cousin.

So while I was teaching English to the kids, we were actually teaching each other about our respective cultures. This little story, I believe, reflects how PCVs not only have different roles to play, among them both teacher and student (that is, that as PCVs we not only have things to teach, but also to learn), but also how we often end up quickly shifting between these roles. To phrase it differently, while the "first goal" of the Peace Corps is to "help the people of developing nations meet their need for trained men and women," in the process of doing exactly such work, simultaneously PCVs also often inextricably work on the second and third goals of the Peace Corps. That is, while PCVs are helping to train host country nationals, PCVs often at the very same time help them better understand US citizens and also gain a better understanding of those same host country nationals.

Not wanting to stay too theoretical, however, I sometimes deliberately try not to be too wrapped up in my own thoughts, so that I focus on my interactions with others, and open to what may come along. Yesterday on my way here to the cyber where I check and send e-mail around the corner from my apartment, a couple of the kids who play soccer on my dirt road where I live, called to me after I had passed them. I spontaneously played a little soccer with them, which was fun. I was a little amused by how one of the kids reacted with approval when I blocked the ball he had vigorously kicked to me.

To continue on, and to close on, a lighter note, yesterday I was amused for various reasons about how, during a tutoring session, I was teaching my student the difference in pronunciation between "dessert" and "desert." Of course, I was amused partly because we live in the Sahara Desert here. But also, I found it appropriate that I was educating on this point, because there is no paucity of sweets here in Morocco! And lastly, I was enjoying teaching on this point, because I myself love dessert, as those who know me well can testify.

Proposals

So over the last couple of months, I've had a couple of Moroccan girls (yes, as best as I can tell, they were girls, meaning under the age of 18) essentially ask me to marry them. To get more specific:

So at the end of December, before I had started teaching English classes, I had started answering random, sporadic questions about English in what largely resembled tutoring. On one of those days in late December, some teenage girls asked me to speak with them, so we stepped into a classroom together. I assumed that they had some questions about learning English. But there weren't any questions about English. There was some small talk going on in the room, all in Arabic. Then, seemingly out of the blue, the following exchange occurred, all in Darija:

Moroccan girl: How long will you be living in Morocco?
Me: Two years.
Same Moroccan girl: When you return to America, will I be going with you?

Since I've been asked how I replied, I'll add here that I gave the diplomatic response, "I don't know." She seemed irritated at my evasiveness, adding at that point, "You don't know much." I just let the conversation dissipate, since it was not a dialogue which I was particularly interested in having!

Then, last month, in January, I was sitting in a classroom, actually about to start tutoring some Moroccan girls in English, when another Moroccan girl walked into the classroom, and asked me in Darija if she and I were going to get married. Right after she left the classroom, when I turned back to the girls there for tutoring, one of them said to me in Darija, referring to the girl who asked me about getting married, "She's a little crazy."

Some comparative commentary here: while my experiences with discussions of marriage, or insinuations thereof, have tended toward the humorous, many female PCVs in Morocco have had very different experiences. Notably, many female PCVs in Morocco have experienced unwanted attention which has made them uncomfortable. And, some female PCVs have received actual marriage proposals, and some female PCVs have received many of them. One female PCV in Morocco in the 1990s received 60!

Just enjoying the simple things in life...

Since my last post... there was New Year's Eve. Moroccans tend to think of the new year as starting at the beginning of the Islamic New Year, which does not align with the new year on the Gregorian calendar, as I mentioned in my last post. Nevertheless, on December 31, at the bakery in my town, I found, and bought, a cake which said "Happy New Year" in Arabic, French, and Tashelheit, a Berber language spoken in my town. So, one of my Moroccan friends and I ate some cake, along with a couple of pizzas from a cafe in my town, as we watched some musical performances in Arabic being broadcast from Casablanca. Ten seconds before the stroke of midnight, they started a countdown on the show we were watching. That was the extent of the fanfare of the celebrations on NYE.

Also since my last post, I moved into my own apartment. I have had the good fortune of not being the first PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) in my site, in my town, several PCVs having preceded me in my town. Therefore, I have also been fortunate enough to move into the apartment which my immediate predecessor PCV vacated earlier in the month when I arrived in my site, in November 2010. So I am benefiting from all of the amenities which my predecessor PCVs in my town accumulated over the years, including furniture, appliances and accessories like blankets and sheets. So I have been extremely and frequently thankful for such blessings.

I also was thrilled last week when I met a great family I hadn't yet met. They sought me out because they've been friends with PCVs in town over the years. And they knew where to find me since PCVs have taken over the same apartment from each other for years. I am so happy that I met them because of their hospitality, because they're so friendly and welcoming. As I sat in their home enjoying soda and snacks with them, I was struck by how, even though I had never seen them before, I felt so comfortable that it seemed that I already knew them.

Earlier this month, I was also pleased when I went on my first serious hike since arriving here in Morocco. While I had been sitting at the cafe which I frequent most often in my town, I had looked straight across at the mountains, and had decided to hike to the top of the highest one on the particular ridge I admired from the cafe. When I felt that I had finally recovered from the cold I had had for weeks, I headed out on the hike. I think that the hike probably entailed at least 1,000' of elevation gain, and starting from the trailhead, it was at least a couple miles of hiking to get to the top of the mountain. Before that, I probably walked about a mile from my apartment to the trailhead.

And I've also been happy to be continuing to be tutoring and teaching English classes at the Dar Chebab, which doesn't always happen exactly as planned. Yesterday, there was a reception at the Dar Chebab, after which a group of some students and adults asked me to teach them some English, so I started spontaneously teaching them English.

And I've also just been enjoying random occurrences... like when I was playing chess with a young lad at the Dar Chebab, and then a girl walked in, and before she left, she gave him her phone number, then left. Not too long after she left, I won the game of chess. Usually he wins when we play. I couldn't help but thinking that he lost because of how distracted he was by just having gotten her phone number!

I also recently enjoyed teaching the same two Moroccans how citizens of the USA ride bumper cars, slamming into each other. There's a traveling mini-amusement park which has been in town for a while. Once in my town, I saw a group of Moroccans riding a bunch of bumper cars in a line, looping around in a line, and I couldn't resist the urge to demonstrate the US way of enjoying bumper cars, with a couple of my teenage Moroccan friends.

And then this morning, I was on my way to visit a fellow PCV in his town, and the grand taxi in which I was riding had to stop for a herd of goats crossing the road. Just enjoying the simple things in life...

Holidays

So this is a time of year with some holidays... Islamic New Year, Christmas, and New Year in the Gregorian calendar, among other holidays this time of year.

The Islamic New Year starts on the first day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic calendar. The Islamic calendar started with the year in which Mohammed took flight, in a journey known as the Hijra. In that first year in the Islamic calendar, when he learned that someone was planning to assassinate him, Mohammed fled from the city of Mecca to what is now known as the city of Medina. Moroccans celebrate the first day of the Islamic New Year as a holiday, such that some businesses are closed, as I experienced here in town.

And, Christmas was this month. PCVs are not allowed to take vacation during the first three months of their service. My service as a PCV started when I swore in as a PCV in late November. So, I was not able to go home for Christmas. But through the postal mail, I have been showered with various and great gifts, largely varied desserts, as people who know me know that I have a sweet tooth! Partly due to receiving care packages at Christmastime, I feel really encouraged by folks back home. But throughout all of my time thus far in Morocco, I have also felt really supported, partly and importantly by being in regular communication with people I know back in the USA, largely by e-mail, and also through communications in the postal mail.

In terms of work, I have been tutoring kids in English at the Dar Chebab more and more. While it started as a small affair, with just a couple of kids at a time, it has quickly grown to be a large group of students I've been tutoring. I've been enjoying helping them. I tutor them in the early evenings on most of the days when the Dar Chebab is open, which are Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Next month, I'll start actually teaching English at the Dar Chebab. Given how much I've been enjoying tutoring kids in English, I'm looking forward to teaching kids in English. Since I've started tutoring kids in English, I've felt more grounded and invested and involved in the community. I also feel fulfilled by the work that I'm doing now. And, while I have had more rough patches, they have become less trying and difficult than the first one I had in the first few days after arriving down here at my final site. So, things are starting to take off, for which I am glad!