As I write this, I’m three days into my year in Morocco. I’ve gotten past my jet lag, but it’s only the first of many hurdles and adventures along the way. My tap water consumption is still limited to cautious “shots,” and when it comes to getting around in my new neighborhood, L’Ocean, I’m at … Continue reading Spilling Tea about my First Days in Morocco
As I sit at my desk and type up this blog post, I'm starting to realize that this is it. Tomorrow morning, I will be stepping on a plane to DC and leaving my life as I know it for nine months. Nine months isn't a long time in the grand scheme of things, but … Continue reading Goodbye to Summer, and Hello to New Adventures
[VIDEO BELOW] Before I begin, I must say that filming this video took some courage because, in case you haven't heard this from me at at least 100 times before, Arabic is hard! And as I've realized, learning three dialects/registers of Arabic is even harder. For a quick timeline of my Arabic studies, I focused … Continue reading Video: Attempting to Speak in Three “Arabics”
It’s August 5th, 2019: my mom’s birthday. It also means that in 29 days, I’ll be in DC attending my Pre-Departure Orientation before spending nine months in Morocco. Every year, on August 5th, it’s a family tradition to celebrate my mother’s birthday with goat curry. My grandparents visit us each summer, and as much as … Continue reading A chicken curry recipe, and a realization of how much I will miss Desi food
[VIDEO BELOW] A few weeks ago, when I filmed my last Shaami video for a while, I committed to a project of recording monthly Arabic videos to gauge my progress. And so this weekend, I took the plunge and filmed a video to practice speaking in Modern Standard Arabic, or "fus7a," as it's called in … Continue reading My first video in Modern Standard Arabic!
Arabic is one of the hardest languages in the world. It doesn’t hit me every time I sit down to study. Rather, it comes at random times. The times when I realize how great the discrepancy between 3ammiye and fus7a is. The times when I listen to a Moroccan song and notice that I can … Continue reading Arabic: the Thrill and the Struggle
It’s been just over a month since I graduated from high school. In other words, temporarily liberated from the education system, I’ve spent the past month free of the compulsion to learn. I’m no longer responsible for challenging myself, absorbing new content, and proving that I know things based on a set of standards. Yet, … Continue reading Self-Exploration, Self-Education
Before I start, I'll be honest, I haven't been consistent with this blog in the past few months. My last two posts were more announcements than actual blogposts, and I neglected writing for quite a while. Do I have an excuse? Depends on how you look at it. In April and May, I was making … Continue reading Arabic Video: New Steps in My Language Learning Journey
I'm thrilled to announce that I'll be attending Harvard University starting in the fall of 2020 as a Cameron Impact Scholar! Before that, however, I will be taking a gap year studying Arabic in Rabat, Morocco with the NSLI-Y scholarship! I am so thankful for the Bryan Cameron Education Foundation and National Security Language Initiative … Continue reading My College Decision!
Shraddha Joshi 