By Jessica Bies
West graduate learns Arabic during Moroccan summer course Karin Davey stands with her back to the Moroccan capital, Rabat. Davey recently returned from intensive summer immersion course in Rabat, where she learned how to speak basic Arabic. Courtesy of Karin Davey
MANKATO — Karin Davey tilted her head back and looked up at the stars, smattered across the sky in a swath of flickering, glittering lights just bright enough to faintly illuminate the sand beneath her feet.
She stood near the edge of the Moroccan Sahara, on a large dune she climbed earlier that night to watch the sun sink below the western edge of the largest desert in the world. The view was stunning, she said, but made her feel incredibly small. The stars, hundreds of miles away, were breathtaking as well.
“It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” she said.
One of just 3,600 high school students and recent high school graduates to take part in a competitive U.S. Department of State program, Davey spent the summer in Morocco learning Arabic. Called the National Security Language Initiative for Youth, it provides merit-based scholarships for students to learn one of several foreign languages during summer and academic-year immersion courses.
Languages covered by the program are considered “less commonly taught.” The designation is applied to foreign languages other than the three languages most commonly offered by U.S. public schools: Spanish, French and German.
According to the most recent U.S. census results, in 2009 fewer than 36,000 students enrolled in Arabic language programs. In comparison, about 865,000 studied Spanish, more than 216,00 studied French and about 96,000 studied German.
The scholarships give students a chance to learn languages few students ever attempt. It also gives them the chance to experience different cultures and take in the sights, Davey said. That’s one of the reasons she applied for the program during her senior year.
All Davey could say in Arabic when she arrived in Morocco this June was, “Hello, my name is Karin and I live in Minnesota.” Learning to converse with residents in the country’s capital Rabat took several weeks.
“I tried not to speak English at all,” Davey said. “I was there to learn.”
Davey’s Moroccan host family helped her adjust. While her host mother, Lamia, does not speak any English, her host father, Abderham, did. When she couldn’t get things across to him, she used hand gestures or deployed her limited supply of Arabic.
She quickly bonded with not only the couple, but their three children, 5-year-old Saha, 6-year-old Eyam and 10-year-old Yesmine. Though she took several day trips and weekend excursions with the other students in the immersion program, she also spent time learning how the family lived.
“I cooked a lot with my (host) mom,” Davey said. “She stays at home and cooks most of the day, and when I came home, I would cook with her. It was just everyday life.”
She hopes to visit the family again soon and return to Morocco after college as a part of the Peace Corps, she said. Set to attend St. Paul’s Macalester College this fall, she plans on majoring in international studies and continuing to learn Arabic.
Davey said her trip to Morocco has had an impact on her plans for the future, though she has always wanted to study international relations. Davey met students from all over the country while on her trip, with whom she hopes to one day reconnect. Together, they visited the Sahara, Casablanca and Fes and toured Rabat, bonding over the shared experience.
“We all plan on keeping in touch for quite a while,” Davey said, talking about the other students in the program. “We all went to the same place and had this cultural experience and no one else in our families or homes experienced that. We have this special friendship … When you go to different country and experience a different culture, it changes you.”
