前途: A Year in Morocco

So I showed up to campus on the “first” week of classes, and I saw professors are still giving exams from last quarter. Meanwhile, the students didn’t come until the second week, and we have entered the third week of the quarter, and I just got room numbers for my class sections today, but there are no students today or tomorrow because they are on strike! Luckily the teacher strikes got canceled, which were supposed to go for two days each week of the semester until their demands were met. No one seems to be able to explain exactly why things are this dysfunctional, and it certainly has an effect on the quality and consistency of instruction because it takes away from time-spent-in-class.

As far as my personal load goes, I am teaching 4 non-module sections. Modules are the set menus of courses that students are required to pass in order to get their degrees—no such thing as electives here. This means I have free reign and will not give grades for these sections, three of which are mine and one of which is a Silent Sustained Reading section. In my three sections, I want to spend some time talking about life in America, do activities which emphasize critical thinking skills, and get the students to write enough poetry that we can (insha’allah) have a poetry slam at the end of the semester.

My other task has been to assist two Moroccan professors in teaching their “Introduction to U.S. Culture” class, although the content is more political, historical, and governmental-related, rather than culture and day-to-day life. One teacher has me doing some short presentations throughout the semester, but the other teacher is going to have me be a little more involved, attending classes, making commentary to add my viewpoint on her lectures, and making time to field questions from the students.

In my quest to acquire materials for this class, I scored an appointment with the librarian inside Fortress America. This, of course, refers to the Embassy. It was an experience. They made me leave my cell phone (turned off), my keys, my passport, my mp3 player, and my nail clippers at the entrance desk, then I walked through the metal detector, and was escorted in and out of the building by my contact. Procedure aside, I was gifted with a whole box (!!) of cool publications about the Constitution, government, history, culture, etc. The box was heavy, so they’re going to send it to the university for me, and I am totally excited to (figuratively) throw books at my students.

The first thing I did this week, before presenting any content, was give the students a short survey (below). The idea was to see what they know, tease out common stereotypes and/or misconceptions that need to be dealt with, and to let them know that I’m interested in what they think. Additionally, it allowed me to get a sense of their skill level in English. The whole activity turned out to be a great way to catch their attention at the beginning of the lecture.

1. My least favorite thing about America/Americans/American culture is….
2. My favorite thing about America/Americans/American culture is….
3. One thing I don’t understand about America/Americans/American culture is….
4. One thing I want to know more about America/Americans/American culture is….

My favorite moment was when I modeled the survey by giving them my own answers for Morocco. I said, “My least favorite thing about Morocco is that everyone thinks I am a tourist and tries to speak French to me.” I then explained to them that I don’t know French, and that I spoke Arabic. They asked, “Really?” and so I responded in Arabic, “I studied Arabic…” and was interrupted by a rousing round of applause before I could add anything else.

I typed up the surveys to look for patterns, and a few of my favorite comments include:

• My least favorite thing is people are so open there and most of them aren’t Hammer Headed
• My favorite thing is that they are always inspired by an interesting person and they treat animals well
• One thing I want to know more about is: how do American people see the Islam?
• One thing I don’t understand in America is why we can speak English and study it in schools and they don’t speak Arabic and they don’t study it?
• One thing I want to know more about you: if you have any boyfriend. (This comment came with a phone number on the back of the paper)
• One thing I don’t understand is the blind dates between the Americans. Why do they accept to go out with a stranger isn’t that dangerous or what? And I hope to know more about.
• My favorite thing in America is when people work with foreign people they don’t care of their background
• My least favorite thing is the variousity of states, I mean, why can’t it be just one big state representing the United States

In addition to this, I had a lot of indignant, hurt, and genuinely confused commentary about why Americans equate Islam with terrorism, why Americans dislike Arabs, and why we don’t study Arabic or know much about the Arabs. There were also many comments about racism, but interestingly enough, that word was used only in reference to African Americans and white/European Americans. These topics make me nervous, quite frankly, mostly because they’re hard enough to explain without factoring in a fairly significant language barrier. I want to try to discuss them from the standpoint of looking at issues, all issues, in grayscale. This means trying to get them to see things as nuanced and layered and complicated and shifting, rather than seeing them in static “black and white” [pun unintended] as many of them seem to see them.

At the same time, they tell me they like democracy, “developement,” American movies and music, the “mentality” of the American people, multiculturalism and acceptance of other cultures, kindness, and the general (high) level of education. They also all seem to recognize that they actually don’t know a whole lot about the U.S., and they seem open to me sharing my viewpoint on things.

For many of them, I am probably the first American they’ve ever had prolonged exposure to, and it makes me feel responsible in ways that I was not expecting.

Cultural exchange is the name of the Fulbright game, and it’s an unbelievably huge and critically important job. Wish me luck!