Arabic Category

In 2009, Patrick Deem spent an academic year in Egypt on the NSLI-Y program. His interest in the Middle East grew from a combination of factors. Patrick’s grandfather was Egyptian, but he never had the chance to meet him as his mother was adopted. This aspect of his heritage had always intrigued him. He also saw many conflicting news stories about the region and wanted to experience it for himself. He was initially surprised both by how different and similar the U.S. and Egypt were. For example, there were shoppingRead More

Diana is from Chicago, IL and participated in the Arabic Summer program in 2017. I used walking, taxiing, and being driven as transportation throughout the summer, but taking the tram was always my favorite. Each day to school, I would walk about 40 minutes from my neighborhood of Agdal 1.8 miles to my school in Souissi. Although it seems like a long distance to walk, it was a great way to stay healthy, spend some time by myself, and collect my thoughts before each day. Occasionally, I would take aRead More

By Shraddha from Texas, NSLI-Y 2017 Jordan Summer I was packing my bag for school when I heard a knock on my door and a shy voice calling out my name. As I stepped out, I saw Osama, my little host brother standing outside the room. In his hand, he held a broken hair tie. I remember my hair tie breaking the day before, but I wasn’t sure where it had fallen. With the snapped rubber in hand, he explained to me in Arabic that he had tried to fixRead More

Salman Haji, a Foreign Service Officer (FSO) for Public Diplomacy, is passionate about intercultural exchange, especially through language learning. This passion was inspired partly by a verse from the Qur’an that addresses the importance of the nations of the earth knowing one another. It also greatly stems from his first international exchange experiences with NSLI-Y. Salman learned a lot about cultural adaptation and appreciation from NSLI-Y and built lasting relationships with host families and communities. “When I started doing … exchange programs, I realized that … when you put asideRead More

Did your study abroad program change your life? Is just joining the alumni network not enough? If so, you can give back to the program by volunteering with implementing organizations at their pre-departure orientation or using your skills and experience in any other capacity. Contact your implementing organization for information on volunteer or internship opportunities! They are always looking for alumni to help shape the way for future participants by contributing to their organizations. One such alum who did just that is Nicholas Wade. Nicholas Wade is a 2016 Arabic SummerRead More

Nicholas Wade’s future changed unexpectedly when he met a Foreign Service Officer at a career fair during his freshman year of high school. She described to him the life and work of a Foreign Service Officer; he immediately became interested in the career. When he asked what languages would be most important to learn, he was told that Arabic was in high demand. The officer also told him about the NSLI-Y scholarship to study less commonly taught languages. Because of that conversation, he began studying Arabic on his own afterRead More

“Be proud of who you are… be proud of where you’re from, but embrace your third culture.” – Tania, NSLI-Y Morocco, Summer 2015 Excerpts from an interview with alumna Tania, NSLI-Y Morocco, Summer 2015 As one of few bilingual students in her southern Indiana elementary school, Tania identified language differences from an early age. Her Salvadoran family was the source of her Latina identity, but she recalls, “I was astounded by the amount of languages in the world.” Her curiosity led her online to pick up other languages and, years laterRead More

NSLI-Y students currently studying in Rabat, Morocco traveled to Marrakech to join the 2017 iEARN International Conference and Youth Summit from July 16 to 18. On July 16, the group visited and volunteered at the Amal Women’s Training Center and Moroccan Restaurant, a non-profit organization dedicated to the empowerment of disadvantaged women through restaurant training and job placement. While there, the NSLI-Y students learned how to cook some traditional Moroccan dishes, cleaned, and gardened. On July 17, the group attended the opening plenary sessions of the iEARN conference, and then attended YouthRead More

In military communities, there is a saying that military brats (children of service men and women) are like dandelions—they can grow anywhere. I reminded myself of this as I packed eight months’ worth of modest, desert-appropriate apparel into two large suitcases. In September of 2015, my mom drove me from Fort Bragg, NC, to Washington, DC, with my luggage and a complete lack of Arabic language skills, for my NSLI-Y Pre-Departure Orientation. A few days later, with my Resident Director and eleven other students, I boarded a plane headed toRead More

During Eid, I spent the majority of the day with my host family visiting relatives. In the morning, I woke up to a leisure breakfast filled with round pancake-like bread foods everyone would spread Laughing Cow cheese, honey or a jam over them. There were also traditional Moroccan almond sweets, mint tea and croissants. . After being stuffed from breakfast, my host mom and I made lunch together. It was a traditional cooked chicken with steamed angel hair pasta, topped with sugar, cinnamon, almonds and raisins. The chicken was seasonedRead More