Student Profile - Leonardo F. Alaghband

Programs for this blog post

Arabic Language & Moroccan Culture

Authored By:

Andreina Santamaria

Hi, I’m Leo, I live in Syracuse, New York, and I’m in the Arabic Language & Moroccan Culture Program in Rabat. Currently, I’m in my second week of the program, and I’m having a great experience. While being so far from home in a country where I have very little language ability and knowledge of the culture may seem daunting, I feel fairly comfortable while challenged at the same time to utilize skills I have mostly observed rather than practiced while traveling.

The past couple weeks have been interesting to say the least. Staying in my host family’s beautiful apartment in al-Madina al-Qadima, or the Old City, has been a great experience. The traditional homes remind me a bit of houses in old Spanish colonial cities in Mexico, such as Mérida, through their reflection of Islamic architectural design. While the homes look modest from the outside, well preserved traditional homes open to beautiful courtyards (or patios in Spanish) in the center, around which the rooms are organized. This similarity in design shouldn’t be too surprising considering the ties between Morocco and Spain’s colonization of Latin America. But enough about architectural designs, the real reason why the old city is great is that it gives you a sense of, as one local put it, “The real Morocco” [my italics for emphasis]. Vendors selling everything from fake Gucci to food and beautiful Moroccan rugs line the streets of the souks, or markets, and here you can engage in the traditional Moroccan sport of negotiation for the more expensive items.

So far, I’ve enjoyed the program’s trip to the different landmarks here in Rabat, amazing Moroccan food, coffee, and tea, the warmth of the culture, and traditional Moroccan Music concerts. I particularly liked the Qasbah al-Udaya, or Fortress of the Udaya, the Chellah, and the Andalusian Gardens. Between the Old City and the newer parts of Rabat, there are no shortage of good options for meals, and you really can never go wrong with Moroccan food. One interesting cultural note is that when anyone enters a house, they should greet every person there—even if they’re just stopping in for a minute. I find the culture to be comforting, not only because it reminds me of my own family’s Iranian culture, but because the culture is warm and highly relational, unlike our hegemonic American culture back home, which tends to be much more individualistic and cold.

A great example of the warmth I’ve experienced thus far happened just the other night. My host family took my roommate and me to a traditional music concert where some of the other kids in the audience began to dance. So my roommate and I began to join in, and were immediately embraced. Kids came over and showed us how to dance the Moroccan way—we had a blast. When the concert ended, a woman approached my roommate and told him: “Thank you so much, you gave us life” (I suspect that through my few Iranian moves, I may have passed as Moroccan, as the style of dance is similar).

In any case, I’m excited to see what the next couple of weeks will bring!

-Leo