English speakers in Morocco

English is the futur language in the world. English has connected all active vital sectors throughout the world and it is the language of future world globalization. I encourage Moroccans to learn more English. It's better than French in terms of getting conneted to the world. French Poeple, in recent decades gave interestto English. Spain also is getting out of the traditional and encouraging new generation to embrace English. Some countries are still away from making that happened, like Turkey, Eastern Europe, Russia etc..... Asia is dominant English speaking, like China, India, Pakistan, Phillipines etc.... Learn English , you will not regret it, it is an important language.

tottaly agree with u WalkerMoon, makes perfect sense. I really hope decision makers and politicians will read ur post and react accordingly

T

Politicians or decision makers are always ignorants all over the world. nowadays you can learn for free using the gift of technology called the INTERNET. Learning English has nothing to do with politicians at all. Politics is proven the stinky idiotic industry all over the universe.

They control and direct the education system though

I am aware of, this doesn't mean you cannot learn English on your own. Get out of the box and make efforts on your own. Everything is on your own nowadays. Don't blame everything on Poloticians, You are given a life and it is you that you have to control it noone else. The only thing they cannot control is being ambitious and motivated.

makes perfect sense and i really wish our young generations are strong enough to hold on, they kinda force the youth to learn French at school

If you learn french, english becomes a piece of cake.

Well said, good luck to you guys with English!

Hey guys,

[moderated: advertisement]

Hope to meet you soon,

Olivier

welcome to morocco

I took refuge watching movies in a dark period of my life, especially American movies, and this how my love for movies started (i hope i will get into a film school next year) and along with that came my love for English, i feel guilty because sometimes i feel like i love it more than my native language, is there something wrong with me ?!

nothing wrong with you Jasmine, I myself love Spanish more than any other language, my native included

Jasmine learning English through watching movies is the best and the easiest way. However, make sure you have the closed caption on. I am not sure if that is applicable in Moroccan TV Systems. when watching a TV show or a movie , that 's when you hear English rolling. Be careful on grammar, depending on what type of Rated movies are, English varies. Lots of movies contain also slang and violent or aggressive language like the F word or the S word. But all Americans understand the F word,lol. Or you can order a book, if you have a credit card, from Amazon called, speak English like an American, it comes with CDs to follow when the auditor is projecting the lesson from the book.

I really hope someday to see English as our 2nd language!

My Moroccan husband learned English simply by chatting on the internet with other English speakers. Of course he saw American movies, and looked up translations to song lyrics to American music. But he didn't really know the language until he found some e-friends willing to skype and voice chat online with him on Yahoo Messenger. He never once took a class and he speaks better English than many Americans I know. He may at some point need a class to learn to spell properly, but with spell checker on most computers he does fine. If he has to write something really important in English I check it over for him, but he usually has it written fine. If you really want to learn, God give you the way.

english is easier than french

what is this agitation for? sounds like learning english should be the only goal of the entire life. it's not that difficult though... yes, in fact french is more complicated, thus gives more development to the brains.
i hope english will not become the sole compulsory lenguage for all nations.

This is just a forum of friendship. I do agree that French is more difficult to learn than English. I now live in Morocco, so I feel it is important for me to learn to speak to local Moroccans. I am very happy when I find anyone who feels that I am worthy enough for him to learn to speak to me. I will always enjoy speaking English.

I don't think you have to worry about English becoming the dominate language in Morocco (or any other non-English speaking place). I am not sure exactly why, but English has become the current Universal language of business. It is just one of many languages that has held this status throughout world history. Latin (Roman), Greek, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Chinese have also held this niche over the last 3000 years. I suppose right now English is so sought after Universally because for about 250 to 300 years English speaking countries have held top economic positions in the world. So, for now, if you want to benefit form the money of English speaking countries,it is wise to learn to speak to them.

The largest industry in Morocco is tourism. But because Morocco is predominately a non-English speaking country, it is not as attractive to the wealthiest travelers as ones that are English speaking. Not all wealthy people come from English speaking places, but often they speak basic English and expects even if a destination does not speak their native language it will accommodate them in English. Morocco is loosing out on considerable amounts of this money because often it cannot. It does not take a genius to figure out teaching yourself and children to speak to the people with the money will correspond to wealth.

It may seem like everyone is in "Love" with the European/American way of life, and are setting aside their own customs and traditions to emulate it, but I don't believe that is true. The majority of people I have met in Morocco have a strong core belief in themselves and will never forsake their own 1000-3000 year old languages and customs for the one of a current economic trend. Look at French and Arabic. People in Morocco learned French to work with them when they were occupied, and Arabic is still the language of religion and the educated; but almost everyone in Morocco who speaks either language also speaks Darjia, or one of the Berber languages.

Don't begrudge people who wish to learn a new language or explore a different culture. Learning different languages and subsequently about their places of origin is good knowledge often making indigenous people appreciate what is great about their home. Oppression of these ideas creates a shroud of mystery about them, and that makes learning about it a secret and coveted knowledge.

wow ))) so many letters ))
i did not mean to offend your feelings surely english is your native lenguage. i may also say a lot abt russian lenguage ,.... but who cares?
what is your personal benefit in promoting english all over the world? (by the way i'm with you already )) )

and also turism is not the largest industry in morocco...why? agriculture, fishing, phosfates .. construction also maybe. in turist aspect it's a one visit country. average turist coming once to morocco will hardly ever spend so much money to come back for nothing. comparing to the red sea or mediterranean area the transport costs, accomodation are much more expensive but what is the outcome? outcome is questionable. this county is to live and work... business turism is more reasonable here.my friends are in turism, so i heard enough complains )))

I have no agenda to spread the English Language anywhere. I would just like to speak to some others who speak it. I am NOT an English teacher. I am just a middle-aged woman who is married to a Moroccan man, and we live in his home of Marrakech. I have met some great people on this site. I applaud people who want to learn English, but the fact is, I am only on this site because I enjoy meeting people, and sharing different thoughts and ideas. I maybe outspoken and opinionated to a fault, but I don't try to judge the individual reasons someone may have chosen to learn to speak English or any other language. I am just saying I can understand why many people do feel it is important to be multilingual. If talking to me helps them to learn, I am fine with that. 

I am sure you do have opinions about Russian, but I have no desire to learn Russian. I am able to understand why people working in business or with travelers might want to learn Russian. I can understand why people who are native Russian, French, Italian, Japanese speakers might like to do business with people and have them speak back in their language or another common language.

I do not negate there are other industries in Morocco, but if you get outside of Casablanca much and look around, you will see that even in the small agricultural communities these other industries you spoke of cater to tourist. Even some farmers/fishermen pull a significant portion of their profit margins from tourism.

Also, it has been my experience with meeting people here in Morocco that nearly every Moroccan family in Marrakech has at least one relative who directly earns their income from tourism. That income is not trivial to those families or Moroccan economy. They depend on the fact that most wealthy tourist do return to favorite destinations more than once (even if they spent allot of money here already). Those return tourist will often hire the same drivers and guides and book the same services and amenities they enjoyed previously.   

Clearly you felt the need at some point in your life to learn English....

Nebraska Girl, do you speak french or darija ?

Unfortunately I do not speak either well yet. I can go to a store and ask for a few basic things, and I can give a taxi directions. But for conversations I am like a very small child in both French and Darija. I am struggling to gain a basic understanding of both languages. I have non-English speaking family members, and I am eager to effectively talk to them. Plus I would love to get a job. Employers really prefer to hire people with whom they can talk.

me too, same situation (( no excuses to me.
but what job do you expect to get here? however many americans are having companies here. do they assist?

i know few examples when foreign wifes became more successful here rather than their moroccan husbands. but this is rare.

To Zaphod Beeblebrox,

As to your question of what type of job I expect to get here. All I can say is I did not come to Morocco from the USA for any type of a career opportunity. I came here because this is my husband's home. I am not expecting to become "more successful" than my "Moroccan" husband. My HUSBAND is an incredible family orientated person and a very career driven man. He has a good job here. I know he can and will succeed (or die trying) at anything he has chosen. As his wife, I do not need to work. As I do not have any small children any more, I would prefer to work outside the home. It is what I have always done. But, I am not picky about work. I would love to apply the knowledge I have amassed, but I am open to new challenges.

I have many years experience in social work teaching life skills to psychiatric patients and mentally disabled people, I also worked as an administrative government clerk in the USA. In college I held several part-time and temporary jobs. I was a nanny for small children, I was a personal assistant to an elderly disabled couple, I was a restaurant cook, I did retail sales, a was hotel reservation clerk, and I have worked in tour and travel agency. Then as a side line to it all (and to help out my ex-husband's family), I repaired home appliances, dispatched drivers, and kept inventory and accounting books in his family business. Also I have operated farm machinery and even driven a truck.  I am even a fine Artist in my spare time. So as you can see, I am versatile in many potential careers.....if something comes my way I am willing to try it.

The only thing holding me back in Morocco is my level of spoken French and Darija (Moroccan Arabic). When I was young, I never expected to live in a French or Arab speaking country, nor did I expect to marry a man who came from one. We never know where life will take us. These languages were simply not apart of my childhood academic studies, so now that I am an old woman, it is a bit of a struggle for me to grasp them. Being surrounded by people speaking these languages helps me learn them, but I still enjoy speaking English whenever I can.

I am American and I am proud of it, but I have no idea what kind of American businesses are here or if any of them would help me or anyone else just because of being American. I just happen to be an American living in Morocco. So forgive me for not being much help. I am just wanting to make a few English speaking friends so I can use my native language.

Hi,everybody.

To well improve my English language skills,i need some people to talk to