"And what languages do you speak?"
"We're speaking it."
The only person in Morocco with such an answer: The US ambassador.
It was a snotty question, as I knew he didn't speak French or Arabic. An American friend had mentioned it in dismay a couple months ago. I had to do it, though. Especially because of the irony--he was standing in a classroom of Moroccan students, busy crowded around a table where they were producing a set of flash cards with the 100 most common expressions in not just two languages, but five! Houria wrote the expression in English; Aya wrote the French; Farouk wrote the Spanish; Ayman wrote the Darija; Zakaria wrote the transliteration version of Darija; and Mohamed wrote the standard Arabic. Sarah and Assia were on quality control.
I told the ambassador that when we finished our flash card product, I would be sure to send him a set.
Good for you, Mary. As a US citizen I find it emabarrassing, but if people like you don't ask questions like that, and if we don't do a lot more to promote the importance of learning languages and multilingualism, situations like this will not change. Language is such a huge component of culture and world view. We need to understand each other better...all over the world.
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