前途: A Year in Morocco

In terms of teaching, things have been normal. I have more students showing up this semester than last semester. We talk. I talk. I listen. I give them stickers, which they attach to their notebooks. We joke around and laugh.

My method has been to start with a subject. Sometimes I bring it up, sometimes I respond to a question that someone asks. I explain things. I write important words on the board. I ask them questions, and they respond in various ways. I let things develop naturally, like a normal conversation, but I try to get them to think while we’re doing it. I ask why a lot. I give them crazy and colorful examples to illustrate more ideological points.

In fact, let’s have an example.

I wanted to talk about cultural relativism. Thinking about how to introduce this idea, I thought to myself, “I need to be concrete, rather than abstract.” My goal was to get them to relate cultural relativism to life in America. I wanted them to see how the idea was applied in terms of government—how the government decides which laws to make—and how people can get along, even when they have very different lifestyles and beliefs.

So we talked about alcohol, which naturally turned into a conversation about alcohol and religion. Although “warned” otherwise by various sources, I firmly believe religion is a great discussion topic for Muslim students, as long as you stick to monotheistic faiths. The students desperately seek understanding from non-Muslims, especially Americans, because politics and media demonstrate an embarrassing lack of knowledge about Islam. But it goes both ways; the students are also naturally curious and open to learning about different faiths. They want to know about how other people relate to God, even if they may not agree with it.

(Somewhat egotistical side note here: they are frequently impressed by how much I know about Islam, and I am SO thankful for my Scripture and Law in Islam class sophomore year of college. Shout out to Professor Brown and the UW NELC department).

Anyway, back to cultural relativism, the example was basic—Islam forbids alcohol. Christianity doesn’t. Other faiths have their rules. The American government doesn’t make a law that favors anyone’s point of view—it just makes laws that deal with the publicly harmful consequences of alcohol, like drunk driving, so that people are free to choose and practice their own version of morality.

But then a student asked me: Teacher, one American person told me that Christianity is against alcohol. A Scottish woman once told me that they drink in church. Which one is it?

So I responded with Mormons and Catholics as examples. Mormons forbid it. What are Mormons? So I explained that. They were interested. Then we talked about the ritual of Communion. What it means. Why they drink wine. That sometimes there is grape juice instead of wine. And at no point did anyone seem offended or hostile.

Then Tracy showed up! I met her in Rabat on Tuesday evening, had a fabulous dinner with her and her visiting in-laws. She stayed with me and came to class and we sort of the discussion, and I was glad for her contributions and for my students to be exposed to another native speaker.

We returned to Rabat after class, accompanied by one of my students on his way home. We had a nice discussion—his English is practically flawless, and is peppered with accurately used colloquial expressions and lots of big words. Come to find out, he’s into media and film, and I can only assume his fluency is due to his extensive exposure to everything from NPR to South Park to indie films. I sympathized with his situation—he’s in the awkward position of being completely qualified for an English degree, but still has to complete all the classes, which are designed for students at a much lower level of fluency than his.

Tracy and I had sushi, perused the Marjane (I FOUND RAZOR BLADES, I had been using cheapie, crappy disposable razors for a few weeks since my last blade to my Venus dulled, and I thought I wasn’t going to ever find the right blades but then I did!!! I also purchased a totally zween beach towel, beer, peaches, and envelopes for postcards). We got ice cream, said goodbye. I made my way through a manifestation at the train station (that’s demonstration for all you non-Francophone English speakers), it looked like a political rally somehow, and then train-ed home.

Walking from the station to my apartment, I met two students, exchanged greetings and news, and heard their feelings about the student strikes (they are not too happy). Then I got back and joked around with my concierge a bit in Arabic. He asked if I cook and what I cook; one of the biggest stereotypes about American women is that we don’t know how to cook.

I got upstairs and realized how much fun it is to walk down the street and meet students and feel like I have made a direct impact on then, and then be able to switch to Arabic and joke with the concierge, and just come home feeling much more integrated than ever.

In many ways, I feel like I’ve just finally figured out what I need to be doing and how to do it effectively, but my grant ends in three months and I will go home. On the other hand, I feel that I could accept a position in TEFL anywhere in the world, walk in, and already have a decent sense for what is needed by students.

Additionally, I got a recommendation for a band called Pretty Lights, which is laudably freely downloadable on their website, and is a very chill-type electronic music that is some parts downtempo some parts hip hop some parts jazz some parts soul some parts funk and all parts awesome. It has been dominating my speakers for several days now, and probably will continue to for a while.