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!
My family just returned from 17 days in Morocco (generally in a line from Essouira to Dodra Gorge/Alnif) and found that my partner’s Canadian High School level French was enough to get us by even in the more rural area.
Our favourite thing about Morocco was how intensely child friendly the culture is. Have a great time and looking forward to hearing more about your travels.
That sounds great! Is there anything in particularly that you recommend from your time in Morocco?
Yes, French does seem to be very commonly spoken. There seems to be a decent amount of Spanish as well, here in Rabat at least (and probably further north as well.) This month, I’m wishing I hadn’t chosen German as my foreign language in high school, though, it’ll probably come in handy when we reach Berlin later.
Based on our limited time here thus far, we definitely agree about the child friendliness of the culture. Theo has befriended several people in the neighborhood, including an employee at the supermarket who yesterday gave him a kiss on the cheek and declared that he was “un bon garçon.”