I would go back in an instant Past Review
By Rose Adams (Middlebury College) - abroad from 01/30/2017 to 05/17/2017 with
Middlebury Schools Abroad: Middlebury In Rabat, Morocco
Language, cultural perspective, friends
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 1 month - 6 months |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
Overall, I had accessible, knowledgeable teachers and courses that forced me to expand my vocabulary. Some professors had trouble simplifying the language of their lectures/readings while still teaching us new and interesting content, but over the course of the semester, many found a happy medium. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
Samir and Achraf make a perfect team. They're serious about what they do, but they're fun and approachable. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
I love my host family. The were welcoming, loving, and traditional. They completely took me in. |
| * Food: |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
I felt as integrated as I could have felt without knowing the dialect or French. The program made an effort to connect us to Moroccan college students. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
It was easily accessible, and the directors were more than willing to give advice or accompany me to the doctor. |
| * Safety: |
Rabat is very safe; I never felt in danger. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
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Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
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| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | Around $30 |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
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How much did the program encourage you to use the language?
0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language |
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| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | Intermediate |
| How would you rate your language skills at the end of the program? | Advanced |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | Arabic 301 (third year Arabic) |
| How many hours per day did you use the language? |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
Select all that apply |
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
Select all that apply |
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| About how many local friends did you make that you will likely keep in touch with? |
A Look Back
| * What did you like most about the program? |
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| * What could be improved? |
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| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | I wish I had learned the basic greetings and pleasantries in Moroccan dialect before going. I would have immediately felt less awkward knowing them from the get-go. |
Individual Course Reviews
| Course Name/Rating: |
Contemporary Political Issues in Morocco & North Africa |
| Course Department: | |
| Instructor: | El Abdi Abdelilah |
| Instruction Language: | |
| Comments: | The instructor had trouble using slightly simpler language that we would understand (and spoke in a heavy accent), and then mistook our misunderstanding his language for misunderstanding the content. We spent weeks learning very basic political concepts. I did love the research papers we all wrote, and I got a lot out of mine. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: |
| Course Name/Rating: |
Berber Communities in Morocco |
| Course Department: | |
| Instructor: | Boulhiah Hassan, PhD |
| Instruction Language: | Arabic |
| Comments: | This class was fabulous. The lectures were organized and just hard enough so that while I understood the main ideas, I learned new words. The professor was professional but accessible; we could interrupt him at any time for clarification or a word definition. He made his expectations very clear and I learned a lot from every assignment, both in terms of language and content. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: |
| Course Name/Rating: |
Moroccan Colloquial Arabic |
| Course Department: | |
| Instructor: | Jawad El Bakili |
| Instruction Language: | Moroccan dialect |
| Comments: | The class focused on basic vocabulary and suffered from a lack of structure. We often didn't review the homework or do drills to absorb the information. I didn't feel as if anyone took the class very seriously. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: |
| Course Name/Rating: |
Modern Standard Arabic |
| Course Department: | |
| Instructor: | Najat Kribaa |
| Instruction Language: | Arabic |
| Comments: | The class was challenging, but had trouble meeting the level of every student. It was a little easy for me, since a large portion of it was review, but hard for other students who came from different programs. The professor made an effort to make the work interesting and personable, but we spent little time on grammar. |
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