Blog 2: Ability or Social Status

By

 Blog 2: Ability or Social Status

In the few countries I’ve traveled to before coming to Morocco, it is evident that many people speak two or more languages. I did not expect just how much I would see this while traveling through Morocco. Throughout the trip, we were surrounded by people who could effortlessly switch between Arabic, French, English, Amazigh, and sometimes Spanish and Italian too. In many professional or business environments, French seemed especially common, while Arabic and Amazigh were more common in everyday conversations and local settings. Before coming here, I never really thought about how language itself could reflect differences in education, opportunity, and social status within a country.

According to Britannica, French influence in Morocco expanded significantly during the French protectorate from 1912 to 1956, especially within education, government, and business systems. Even after independence, French remained heavily connected to professional advancement and higher education opportunities. Today, people who speak multiple languages, especially French and English, often have access to more educational and economic opportunities, particularly in tourism, business, and international industries. At the same time, people in rural areas may have fewer opportunities to learn additional languages because of differences in access to education and resources.

I especially noticed this while interacting with tour guides, hotel workers, restaurant staff, and market sellers. Many people could switch between several languages almost instantly depending on the tourists around them. It honestly impressed me because being multilingual is treated almost like a necessity in many areas connected to tourism and business. At the same time, it also made me realize that language ability can shape someone’s opportunities in ways I had not thought about before. In the United States, speaking another language is often viewed as a useful skill, but here it sometimes feels directly connected to someone’s ability to access certain jobs or economic opportunities.

This also made me think about how many Americans, including myself, are privileged to primarily rely on English almost everywhere we go. In the United States, many people never have to learn a second language to navigate daily life or find employment. However, in Morocco, many people working in tourism or business are expected to constantly adapt to tourists by speaking multiple languages and accommodating different cultural backgrounds. Seeing how effortlessly many Moroccans switched between languages made me realize how much effort and skill that actually requires. It also made me more appreciative of the people working in tourism and hospitality throughout Morocco, because they are often the ones expected to bridge communication gaps for visitors rather than the other way around.

Overall, this experience helped me better understand how language can become connected to identity, opportunity, and social status. Before coming to Morocco, I mostly viewed language as simply a way to communicate. Now I see how language can also reflect history, education, economic access, and even power dynamics within society. This trip made me much more aware of how language can shape people’s experiences and opportunities in everyday life.

Reference

“French Protectorate in Morocco.” Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/place/Morocco/French-protectorate-1912-56

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who Am I? Think Again. Exploring Authentic Identities

By
Image
  This video is part of the  TED Talks  series.  TED  (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is a nonprofit devoted to disseminating "ideas worth spreading." I thought the idea of  creating authentic identity through failed imitation  was a great theme to begin the course as well as the blog. My hope is that you will step outside of the  status quo  and use your creative nature to complete the assignments and explore identity in a global context throughout this semester. What are your thoughts about Hetain Patel's presentation?
Read more

Motherhood & Morocco

By
Image
  Motherhood & Morocco All life comes from women. This is a fact we all know and see the evidence of daily, yet it is also a fact we choose to ignore or employ only when it is of convenience to society. Women are the backbone, the lifeblood, the prana, and the chi of all life. As we endure heartbreak, trauma, and illness, we call out for our mothers. As men die on battlefields and in army hospitals, they yearn for a touch of their mother. Across cultures, the mother figure is a respected tenet of the community, and in Morocco’s Argan Cooperative, the motherhood experience is respected and supported.  Though the history of feminism in Morocco is varied and contains times of both celebration and tension, yet the importance of family has remained a central tenet.  At the Argan oil cooperative, women bring the fruit from their argan trees into the cooperative, weigh, process and eventually, sell them for cosmetics and food oils. In this system, women own their own trees a...
Read more

Sexual Orientation or Gender Roles - Markeila Howard

By
  During my time in Morocco, I had the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the identity of Moroccan women. A  perspective very different from my own. What struck me most was the complex and evolving role of women in Moroccan society as they navigate the balance between tradition and modern change. Moroccan women live in a society deeply rooted in Islamic traditions, yet one that is also undergoing significant transformation. According to the World Bank, Morocco has made substantial progress in gender equality, particularly in education and legal rights. Throughout the trip, several people mentioned that women now have more legal protections, especially in the area of divorce. In most of the places we visited, it was predominantly women who were hard at work—doing the tedious jobs like cleaning and sorting out bad fruit—while men handled tasks involving heavy equipment. These women challenged the stereotypes I previously held about what life is like for women in a tra...
Read more