Arabic Category
Check out these highlights from the 2019 NSLI-Y Arabic Summer program in Jordan administered by American Councils. Arriving in Amman After a long day of travel, the NSLI-Y students arrived in Jordan very early in the morning on June 17th. After getting some rest, the group began their arrival orientation. After the orientation, NSLI-Y students gathered with their local coordinators at Hamada Restaurant to try Jordanian food for the first time. The group enjoyed falafel, hummus, and other regional snacks. Taking in the Surroundings On June 18th, the groupRead More
On March 27th, NSLI-Y Interactive hosted the virtual event “Arabic Classroom Connections.” Four current NSLI-Y Academic Year students in Morocco gave presentations to two Arabic language classrooms in the U.S. (Bell Magnet High School and Eagle Rock High School in Los Angeles, CA) The NSLI-Y students shared about the NSLI-Y program, learning Arabic, and Moroccan food, among other topics. After the presentations, the students in the U.S. asked the NSLI-Y students questions about their time in Morocco so far. Please support these impressive young scholars by watching their presentations and by sharing thisRead More
Meliha is from Boise, ID and participated in the Arabic Academic Year 2017-2018 program in Morocco. While participating on NSLI-Y in Morocco, Meliha quickly learned that food brings people together! To bond with her host mom, Meliha spent many hours by her side, learning how to make Moroccan bread. During the holidays, she and her friends cooked a Christmas dinner for their local peers. And just for fun, she and her fellow NSLI-Y participant, Isaac, whipped up bagels for their Moroccan friends so they could experience a taste of AmericanRead More
Amy is from Shoreview, MN and participated in the Arabic Summer 2018 program in Morocco. During my first week in Morocco, I was overwhelmed by the stark contrast between Rabat, my host city, and Minnesota. Everything was so different: the food, clothing, streets, and above all, the language. Shwiya b shwiya (little by little), however, I discovered connections between Morocco and my life in the United States through the people I met. I left Rabat at the end of the summer with the realization that no matter how different peopleRead More
Kate is from Norfolk, VA and participated in the Jordan Summer 2017 program. Looking back, the application process for NSLI-Y went by in a flash; before I knew it, I was being rocked by the turbulence of a plane descending over the deserts of the Middle East. I remember my first few days in Jordan vividly. From the moment I stepped off the plane with my cohort of scholarship recipients (with whom some of my best memories have been made), I was drawn to the unfamiliar world around me withRead More
Lillian is from Fargo, ND and participated in the Morocco Academic Year 2017-2018 program. In late November of 2017, I found myself huddled with two of my friends in a cold house in rural Morocco. During my gap year abroad, I had to get used to a lot of new things. I learned a new language, learned about a new religion, and learned how to navigate in an entirely unfamiliar environment. After two months of living in Rabat, my group took a cultural excursion. We stayed with host families inRead More
Aidan is from Drexel Hill, PA and participated in the Morocco Summer 2018 program. Traveling to another country for an extended period of time is hard in any situation, but traveling to Morocco with no prior experience in Arabic really proved to be a challenge at first! When I arrived in Morocco, my NSLI-Y roommate Talat and I were greeted by our host mom, aunt, and sister, and were taken through the winding streets of Rabat, and through the مدينة قديمة, or old city, to our host family’s home. We were immediately takenRead More
Tanya is from Irving, TX and participated in the 2018 Arabic summer program in Jordan. I was always fascinated by Ancient Egypt since childhood and in 2013 when I visited Egypt with my family, the images from the countless books and History Channel became a breathtaking reality. This trip inspired me to apply to the NSLI-Y Arabic program and when I was accepted, I imagined having a similar experience to Egypt in Jordan. However, what I envisioned, quickly proved to be wrong. The experience of living with, studying, and eatingRead More
Wafae Baghnaoui, an NSLI-Y language partner and journalism student in Rabat, Morocco created a video on the 2017-2018 NSLI-Y Academic Year program in Rabat. Students share their language learning journies and their cultural discoveries as well. We encourage you to watch these impressive scholars use their Arabic to discuss these topics and more.Read More
Allan is from Burke, VA and participated in the Arabic program in Morocco. At school, Allan sat next to a girl from Morocco and learned about the diversity and beauty of her country. Yet every day when he got home to watch the news, he noticed that any mention of countries like Morocco was passed up for images of war, violence, and extremism in other parts of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This desire to hear about Middle Eastern politics from a local perspective and to delveRead More
