Habla Espangol?

Being in Morocco has inspired my latest goal, which is to become conversationally fluent in Spanish within the next two years.

I think about the Moroccans I interact with on a daily basis, particularly those who speak English. No matter how they learned it, if they speak English, two things are likely to be true:

1) They speak French

2) Arabic is their native tongue (definitely true).

Which means it would be accurate to hypothesize that Moroccans who speaks English know three languages. And it’s not necessarily because they sought it out–well, this may be the case with English–but rather because they had to.

Think about it: you grow up speaking Moroccan Arabic with your family and friends. You go to school and learn more Arabic (probably Fusha, or standard Arabic) as well as French because it was imposed on your country as a result of colonization, and it has remained as the official language of business. By high school, you have three languages down. Then, you most likely feel the need to learn English due to its global importance, or you somehow pick it up from your friends, music, television and movies, etc.

Now, reflect on your own American education. You may have been fortunate enough to attend a school where you learned one or multiple foreign languages early on, but I didn’t officially start learning French until my first year of high school. Tenth year of public education. Age 14. It’s taken me six years and I’m not perfect at it, but I can hold conversations and conduct interviews, and my reading and writing skills are solid. Imagine if I’d started in, say, fifth grade.

Imagine if that language was Spanish, and pair that with the plenty of native Spanish-speaking classmates I would have been able to practice with.

We recently took a trip to Ceuta, the Spanish enclave in Morocco, to have our passports re-stamped. During this trip, I realized some [more] problems I have with the American education system and some Americans’ mentalities, in general.

Crossing the border was interesting, a little disorganized and less crazy than I thought it would be, considering we’d been told stories about women waiting in long lines to bring goods from “Spain” to Morocco. However, we passed through the gates with no hassles–we were not stopped once.

Ceuta was a stark contrast from Morocco. European architecture, a breeze from the Mediterranean Sea, pornographic material highly visible at newspaper stands, guards reminding me to say “Gracias” instead of “Shukran”…it was exciting. I don’t know much Spanish, but I tried really hard to use some of the basic phrases I do know. Even when we crossed back over to the Moroccan side, people were still speaking Spanish.

A view of Ceuta, the Spanish enclave in Morocco.

It occurred to me that given the number of native Spanish-speakers living in the U.S., I could be and should be speaking more Spanish. This goes for all Americans.

Let’s be real. It sometimes seems like the U.S. is waiting for the rest of the world to learn English. It’s like we have this mentality of “We’re number one, so why should we learn the other languages?” The U.S. may be a salad bowl of different ethnicities, but all that melting pot stuff? Psh. That would entail a rich exchange of ideas and cultures, and while we do have some of that, we could use some more.

Our population is largely made up of Latinos and Latinas, but aside from a few bilingual signs in Wal-Mart and other establishments, I’m not sure that most Americans feel compelled to learn Spanish. Sure, you may be motivated to do so in order to help you land a job, and if you live close to the Mexican border, you can probably communicate with Spanish speakers. But where I attended school in rural North Carolina, where one of the largest populations of people were Hispanic, the only people I knew who were fluent in Spanish were those who spoke it natively and those who taught it, save a few people who used it daily in their jobs. Furthermore, I had a number of Hispanic friends who told me stories of going home in tears after struggling through ESL and their regular classes when they were in preschool and kindergarten. I understand parts of the argument about people coming to the U.S. should learn to speak English, but does that become xenophobia at a certain point? Any country I have visited, I have learned at least basic parts of the language in order to fully immerse myself in the culture. I’ve also been delightfully surprised when people in these countries have responded to me in English–and even a little disappointed that they were more interested in practicing their English than they were in helping me practice their language–but it was undoubtedly an exchange of languages. It wasn’t one sided.

One thing the majority of Moroccans whom I can speak English with have in common is that I see them as friends. The conversations I have with them cover everything from girl talk to jazz music and traveling. Whether just hanging out or as part of a business transaction (i.e. buying food, clothes, etc.), people try to speak English so that I feel comfortable. If they can’t speak English, they speak French. If they can’t speak French, they help me with my Arabic, and we smile and make it work.

All that being said, why not learn a language simply for the purpose of connecting with your fellow Americans?

When I embarked on my first overseas experience to Southeast Asia, I came back with the mission of making sure that I would make those coming to the U.S. feel as welcome as the Singaporeans, Malaysians and Thais that I met made me feel. I’m coming back from Morocco with the same mission in mind. I’m going to learn to speak people’s language, whether it’s something I used to or not, because it’s how you make people feel like they are at home. Many people coming to the U.S., especially to live here, may have a hard time feeling this way, but as an American, I feel like it is my duty to help them. I encourage you to do the same.

Bisous,

Paris

Be sure to check out my personal website, parisalston.worpress.com, and our program website, Reporting Morocco!