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!
As I sit down to write this post on a warm Austin afternoon, the waves of nostalgia surrounding the past weekend feel bittersweet. A few days spent in my favorite US city, Washington DC, for the 2019 NSLI-Y Alumni Representative Workshop passed far too quickly. I could dedicate this post to the various things I … Continue reading A New Year and New Friends: 2019 NSLI-Y Alumni Representative Workshop
Happy International Education Week!! For the NSLI-Y International Education Week 2018 challenge, alumni are asked to respond to the question: What have you learned about the world from language study? Rather writing a blogpost like I did last time, this year I did something different: a video! In six different languages! So, without further ado, … Continue reading Language Learning: A Window to the World (Six-Language Video!)
It’s June 29th, 2018. To some, it’s just another day. To me, June 29th is incredibly special. On this day, exactly a year ago, I landed in the Queen Alia Airport in Amman, Jordan, marking the first day of a life-changing stay in Jordan. On June 29th I gained my first glimpses of a new … Continue reading Another nostalgic reflection about Jordan… except this time it’s been published!
[VIDEO BELOW] It’s hard to believe that I started my real Arabic studies a little over a year ago. One year ago, I was counting days until my summer in Jordan. One year ago, I was feverishly reviewing conjugations and basic phrases. One year ago, I was trying hard to perfect my Arabic self-introduction. When I came back … Continue reading Video: One Year of Learning Arabic
Shraddha Joshi 