Our host Hakim was kind enough to pick us up the at the airport in Rabat, Morocco. In AirB&B messages, he had mentioned that he doesn’t speak English (and that his wife was translating), but I had kind of assumed that he didn’t speak English in the same way that many people we’ve met during our travels “don’t speak English,” which often means that they speak it fairly competently.
However, Hakim really doesn’t speak English. He does however speak excellent French and Spanish (presumably, in addition to Arabic), both of which Brian and I speak poorly. So, our communication on the drive home consisted of us just grasping at whatever Spanish or French word would come to mind and communicating using the mangle that resulted. It worked surprisingly well.
We’ve been expecting that Morocco will make for one of our steeper language barriers and push us to practice other languages. It should be fun!
