Ibn Ibn Battuta

Amharic: A Language Apart from a Land Apart

One of a few final posts looking back on last month's visit to Ethiopia.

Though geographically landlocked, culturally speaking Ethiopia is an island, distinguished from its neighbors by its unique history, ethnicities, cuisine, calendar, and most of all by its language.

Amharic, the mother tongue of the Amhara (Ethiopia's dominant ethnic group) and official language of the country, is central Ethiopia's uniqueness. Though technically a Semitic language (and thus distantly related to Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew), Amharic seemed to me to share few roots or words in common with those languages.

How To: Study Arabic (and More) in Morocco

I spent my first three months in Morocco studying Arabic in Fes. Before leaving the country, I thought it might be useful to share what I learned through that process, as well as what I learned from other students during the year since then. Hopefully prospective study abroad students or anyone else looking to brush up on their Classical or Moroccan Arabic will find this information helpful.

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First, a note on Moroccan Arabic: no, it's not easy. Arabic students who know only Modern Standard Arabic (العربية الفصحى) will at first find very little that is recognizable in the Moroccan dialect, known locally as darija (الدارجة المغربية). Darija incorporates many words and grammatical constructions from French, Spanish, and multiple Berber dialects. However, having heard

On the Algarve Coast, Discovering Portugal's Charms

Portugal map

Saturday morning we accompanied Jacqueline’s family to the Málaga airport to say our goodbyes. Afterward, there was no master plan; we just needed to be back eight days later for our flight back to Morocco.

In a snap decision, we scrapped our plans of public transport and rented a small Opel four-seater. At a gas station on the road to Sevilla, we picked up a road map of the Iberian peninsula, adding to our minimal library of knowledge on Spain and Portugal (which until this point consisted only of our as-yet-untouched Let's Go! Spain and Portugal guidebook). 

Our Iberian road trip had begun.

After Cairo, a New Era Begins?

The speech came, the speech went. Here in Morocco, some watched, but many didn’t (it was 10:00am on a work day here when Obama began his address at Cairo University). The few Moroccans I’ve asked about it haven’t had much to say, and none have raised the topic on their own. Even in Egypt, (likely inflated) government figures indicate that only 55 percent of Egyptians watched or read about the speech.

Were it not for Obama’s mention of Morocco, press coverage here might have been non-existent. Even after the President’s reference, two of the three local newspapers I picked up the following morning made no mention of the speech. Those local press outlets that swooned at Obama’s

Nor Common Sense, Nor Crowd Control Shall Stay Them

My full-speed-ahead east coast tour last week left me wholly drained, but was well worth the effort. After eight months here in Morocco, it was a treat to spend a week with family and friends.

Only two factors made my brief reintegration to American life difficult. The first was light switches being just inside, not outside, of each room. All week long I consistently found myself walking into dark rooms after having just turned on the light in the hallway behind me. The second, less mundane factor was English – specifically, the fact that everyone was speaking it. Here in Morocco, I have become very accustomed to hearing

From Morocco to Melilla: A Reeducation in Normalcy

Melilla map

The Moroccan in me could tell right away that Melilla was not normal.

With the border just a few hundred feet behind us, Jacqueline and I boarded a local bus to take us into the center of town. We were not shoved, we received a printed receipt for our bus ticket, and we actually found a seat. This being Europe, of sorts, I was not surprised to see Euros exchange hands or to hear Spanish, but the rest of this was highly unusual.

Melilla is itself an abnormality. One of Spain’s two remaining colonial outposts on the Moroccan mainland, this diverse enclave

Summary: A Summer of Studies in Tanzania

Georgetown's Office of International Programs asked students who studied abroad this past summer to write about their experiences, for use in some of the university's publications. I have submitted the following piece on my two months in Tanzania:

On a Saturday afternoon when I was in Middle School, I returned home after taking the SAT’s as part of an academic admissions process. "How did it go, son?" my mom eagerly inquired as I walked in the door, dazed. "Ugh, it was impossible – the test was in, like, SWAHILI or something!" I exclaimed. At that moment, the East African language was the most foreign, unintelligible gibberish I could imagine.

Today, after recently completing Georgetown’s Tanzania Summer Program, I can actually speak and understand a reasonable amount of Swahili, and no longer consider the language’s name a synonym for "indecipherable." On our first day of classes at the University of Dar es Salaam, when our professor

Swahili Trials and Tribulations

Tanzania map

"The biggest difference between English and Swahili is the existence of 'noun classes.' Volunteers who have experience with Romance languages will already be familiar with masculine and feminine nouns. Swahili is similar, but instead of having two noun classes, Swahili has fifteen: ..."

Yep, fifteen - what a mess. This quote comes from the introduction to our Swahili textbook, originally written for use by Peace Corps volunteers in East Africa. So cheery. We've had three days of class so far, and I've learned quite a lot, but at this stage putting a sentence together is still a trying ordeal. With three more weeks of intensive Swahili class (4 hours per day) plus

How to Live and Study Arabic Abroad in Damascus: the Scoop on Syria, plus Practical Info for Students

Syria map / Damascus map

Interest in Syria as a destination for tourists and Arabic students continues to grow - for good reason. Having just finished a summer in Syria, I thought it might be useful to share some of what I have learned, to help others visit the country too.

Despite the bad press it gets in the US, Syria is an amazing place – both as a travel destination, a place to really delve into the full diversity of Middle Eastern culture, and of course as a site for Arabic study. If you have the chance, do not hesitate to go.

I have just recently finished the two-month Summer Arabic Program at Damascus University, and learned a tremendous amount of Arabic in the process. The University stresses teaching Arabic without recourse to English – everything in the classroom is explained in Arabic, from the earliest levels onward. While this was certainly a difficult adjustment at first (and doubtless

Progress in Arabic, Despite Occasional 'Stolen Camels'

Since my last update on the subject of Arabic, things have really picked up here.

My class is going well now, and I really feel like I'm learning quickly. When I arrived two months ago, I could barely stutter out a sentence, but a week ago I wrote a small essay on possible solutions for global terrorism, and give a forty-five minute presentation on the Crusades in Syria. Compared to the other students in my class, I seem to have a much more solid foundation in Arabic grammar and word construction. (Thanks yet again to Professor Nydell; Georgetown's Arabic department was definitely right to spend so much time drilling the basics of the tri-consonant roots into our heads.)

To Ma'aloula and Deir Mar Musa, in Search of Spiritual Roots

Syria map

Life hasn't slowed down much lately. This weekend I went with my Australian housemate Julian, and two German friends named Marion and Christina, to two fascinating sites just a short drive north of Damascus.

The tiny village of Ma'aloula (معلولا) is famously known as one of the last places in the Middle East where people still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus and most everyone else in his day. We didn't notice anyone speaking Aramaic, but we were there!

The Frustrations of Arabic

Syria map

Here in Damascus, I am struggling quite a lot with my Arabic, much of which I forgot since classes ended at Georgetown back in early May. My professor there, Dr. Margaret Nydell, offered me a very brief list of basic Syrian colloquial Arabic phrases that has proven invaluable in communicating here.

My third day of Arabic classes at Damascus University has just ended. I'm in Level 2 of the university's system (in a program organized by Ohio State University) and think it's a decent fit, though challenging. Our teacher, Boshra, hasn't said more than four or five English words in the past three hours. Back at