Learn Arabic, Any Arabic and other Morocco Local Custom Tips

Learn some arabic, any arabic. The arabic you will find available on cassette, cd, etc. is most likely the classical arabic or Modern Standard Arabic. There are some major differences from Moroccan Arabic, but we are not going for fluency here. The basics of everyday life (bread, house, hotel, numbers) are the same.

Learn what you can - for making real and lasting friends, my advice can't be beat. Nobody really thinks you will have spent the time to learn Arabic. So, the doors to the hearts of the people around you will open easier than if you are merely speaking Morocco's other colonial tongue - French.

Don't let the differences between the languages stop you from teaching yourself what you have available. Perfection really is the lowest standard.

If you only speak English and you really want to interact conversationally with people - I can recommend getting a good LICENSED English speaking guide through your hotel or meet someone at the American Language Center. It will give you the ability to interact with your environment alot deeper.

Moroccan Arabic Podcast 'Stealing Moroccan Reality':

For a free, notoriously lazy, playful and almost-helpful intro to Moroccan Arabic -

1) Go to the Moroccan Arabic Podcast by clicking HERE

2) You may need the free iTunes plug...it will guide you...Got it? Run it.

3) Subscribe! (also free) This means each time I add a word, it comes into your iTunes and on your iPod.

Yulla tHdr ma3a daba...

Leave a Comment

Website: http://jamalmorelli.co.nr/
Other Contact: iTunes - Jamal Morelli

My friends from Egypt speak English have everybody here speaking Egyptian Arabic because of it's popular use in film and music. But it's a one -way street - as my Egyptian friends often can't understand anything my Moroccan friends (including me) are saying.

Without plugging LP, they are about the only people who put a book out of Morrocan arabic that I know of. (My family uses it to communicate with my Moroccan friends online!)

There are some awesome books from the mid-60's by Georgetown Press on the Moroccan Arabic and if you can find them I can't recommend them enough.

Simple answer - MSA is understood by enough people to make your trip easier, but learning the Moroccan Arabic will make it easier still and win you a few culture points.

and again: the Moroccan Arabic Podcast

Leave a Comment

Unlike New Orleans, where I have seen old beggars get pushed off of curbs by well heeled tourists (before I found a quiet place to straighten the traveler out) Fes has a real, though unostentatious, concern for the poor.

Now you can say it's Islam - that is a good start. The Quran's injunction to care for the downtrodden couldn't be avoided even by the willful of obscurers and defamers.
Someone more cynical will say it's Bedouin culture - we feed so we are fed. As well as the potlatch aspect of gift giving.
Finally some will say they are too scared to say no.

Stop thinking about it for a second, will you? Take that 10 dirhams out of your pocket and give it to the poor chap near you right now.

Good job, kid. You really are making me proud. Go on ahead back to thinking or discuss with your new Moroccan friends.

Bayti: Care for the Street Kids of Morocco
Morocco
Learn Arabic
Bargaining pt 1

Photos by Jamal Morelli, uploaded at Studio Shamharush

Leave a Comment

You MUST bargain. Do it, baby. Make me proud.

>So, here's Jamjam's strategy. (Warning: It's just mine...)
1) I put on a "I smell donkey" face before I enter, possibly looking a little tired.
2) When I pick something up (spec. what I want) I ask "What is this?" (my tone says "Who would want this?") I listen while turning my attention to something else.
3) Turn back to the desired object - how much is it?

>Now, one way to find out what the real price might be is this - ask how much it would be to buy about ten of them. Now watch what happens to the price. Pull your packed wallet and ask for a business card. Did he see your money? Put the card away. Let him know you will be in touch. And how much is it for twenty? The same as for ten? It doesn't change? It does.

By now, you will be asked a price. Don't answer. Say something like "I don't even know what it is. Just wanted to get something stupid for my friends."

Oh, now I am being rude. Baby, this ain't Barney. You're bargaining, now. And remember how the price magically changed when you were ready to buy more? So hold tight to this truth - you are also being played.

Walk away. You got his business card. If there is another dealer (which there almost surely will be) go to him. Do everything as above with a little variation. Walk from there, too.

Go back at the end of the day. Call him. Give him your price. He will change it (however slightly) one more time. You have had time to think about how much you will spend - so go back and get your item. Spend only what you want.

And don't worry about the seller - you guys will be friends tomorrow.

HEAR MOROCCAN ARABIC: Bishal Haddak? - How much?

HEAR MOROCCAN ARABIC: Bzaaf!

Leave a Comment

Phone: Bargaining in Morocco
Other Contact: Ok. Are you feeling me here...?

Winning a bargaining battle means you don't get mad.
So, to lessen frustration and increase happy bargaining

1)Know the price before you get there
2)Pay only what you want to pay
3)Don't allow emotions to sway you
4)Learn arabic or french

You are here to have a beautiful journey - don't get lost raging in the sooq. Rage in any language translates to some sort of incompetence. Prepare for your trip.

For those who feel that preparing in advance should be done by the seller - well, as we helpfully say on the Riverwalk of New Orleans after you lose your first guessing bet, "Never play another man's game. You can never win at another man's game."

Things you will say in this situation:

HEAR MOROCCAN ARABIC: Salaam alikoom

HEAR MOROCCAN ARABIC: SHUKRAN!

HEAR MOROCCAN ARABIC: Smeheliya - excuse me

HEAR MOROCCAN ARABIC: la bas?

HEAR MOROCCAN ARABIC: Bishal Haddak? - How much?

HEAR MOROCCAN ARABIC: Bzaaf!

Bayti: Care for the Street Kids of Morocco
Morocco
Learn Arabic
Bargaining pt 1

Photos by Jamal Morelli, uploaded at Studio Shamharush

Leave a Comment

Website: hot

This one requires you to be tough, but I'm starting to think you may not be the hopeless wuss everyone makes you to be.

1) Fix the price in your head and get the money ready
2) Take the item and Hand the amount of money without talking

Now, he doesn't know what you know. He is most likely going to either take all of it or give you change. If he asks for more, take your money back and go.

Chances are, it won't come to that and you will have your item.

I totally recommend this tip for you regarding buying street food like fruits or nuts - works better than asking which only proves your greeness to them.

Leave a Comment

Website: blow

What shall you wear?
What shall you wear? I will build here - LOOK THROUGH THE FOUR photos below to get an idea of how people dress.

That's as good as the advice will get here. Stop reading.

Dress tips are all with the idea of being non-offensive. If you don't care about the over a thousand years of culture which asks modesty of those who live within it - you da one wit' all the BIG money, you colonial mac, you. Show 'im where to stuff their ways with a hitched up mini and then call them animals when they respond with wolf whistles.

Now - Wait. That was really bad advice that I don't subscribe to.

Actually, if the cootch revealing miniskirt IS you... well...um...if you could... maybe stay in anyone of the biggies: such as (but not only) Marrakesh, Casa, Agadir and Essaouria.

BUT THERE IS HOPE for the Tourist for whom there's no place like home:

If the current waves of global change and a national tourist goal at 10 mil+ by 2010 stays on track, they will have soon have Epcot-Styled-User-Friendly-Moroccan-Gnawa playing a happy step-n-fetch-it for some chump change in those giant, secure cosmopolitian Moroccan cities - and then, nsha'allah, you will comfortably and unreservedly be able to do a good American dance - some drunken (or stoned) pelvic thrust and half-dressed macarena to YOUR favorite songs (not their 'weird clacking' religious songs)....dancing with the willing locals without offending anyone except the God of Dance. And me, now that I've had to think about you doing it. Back dat ass up, whitey.

Sorry, that was crazy. And again, that was more bad advice. Worse, actually.

Before I finish, I do want to say this: Your capacity to tune in, turn on and respect what you can of the obvious mainstreams of Moroccan culture is precisely the degree to which you will be warmed up to and respected. Understanding that sentence will be your steadfast and true guide to feeling accepted and comfortable.

And that was something like actual advice.

To be Continued....

Leave a Comment

Other Contact: Look at all the photos

Really - Wear the kind of clothes you want - you will attract people who wear clothes just like you.
Caveat: Remember the last time you wore tight trousers and an Amish person came up to dance with you? No? Wouldn't happen.
Wear sexy clothes (Casa, Agadir, Marrakeshi girls do!) and that's the signal in Marrakesh and New Orleans that you want sexy attention.
Wear a t-shirt and shorts and you will attract a easy going crowd.

If you don't really want to wear conservative clothes but do, you may set it into someone's head you really respect the idea of modesty and then surprise them when you talk loosely about religion, sexual freedom, etc.

You can do it: Be yourself and let the world experience you. Just try to do it without being an a**hole.

A cat loving friend of mine who also lives in Morocco pointed out that women and girls she has seen wearing miniskirts and high-heels feel quite at home. Amen. As they should - I am also a champion for women doing whatever the hell passes through their heads. My advice to travelers is only that of playing your cards a little closer to your breasts so as to get the most out of your adventure, without the distraction of unwanted attention.
And as I also had pointed out to my friend, in her particular city, it sounds like things are opening up a bit. But, I would have more luck waiting for Ariel Sharon coming out of his coma to start a breakdance fight at the Karouine Mosque than find ten women of any age wearing high heels and miniskirts over the course of a week here in Fes, even in the Ville Nouvelle. And Fes ain't Colonial Williamsburg.

Peace

Bayti: Care for the Street Kids of Morocco
Morocco
Learn Arabic
Bargaining pt 1

Photos by Jamal Morelli, uploaded at Studio Shamharush

Leave a Comment

Graciousness is expected of you and a foul mouth which brings a bit more laughter in the West can just be awkward and upsetting for your host. For that matter, small things like calling someone 'crazy' in an affectionate way, naming their behavior after an animals (even if you LOVE that animal and would take it as a complement yourself) ....even calling YOURSELF stupid may bring in a volley of disappointed looks and comments.

Never, ever play with bread or mishandle it, discarding it in a way that would appear disrespectful. Old men circle the streets in the mornings taken bags of uneaten dried bread to sell it as food for animals.

One of the more important things to remember is to NOT directly compliment people or their possessions alot - it is considered widely to be a sort of curse "evil eye" unless the complement is immediately followed with "t'barak allah alik" as in "you look healthy, t'barak allah alik"

Moroccans, in general, have their own ideas on what good manners are. The little list above is a start to figuring them out...

There are others throughout this section...

Bayti: Care for the Street Kids of Morocco
Morocco
Learn Arabic
Bargaining pt 1

Photos by Jamal Morelli, uploaded at Studio Shamharush

Leave a Comment

You can do it! Pick the child who is standing in front of you up and kiss their cheeks! Let them kiss yours, too. If you come from a non-physical country like England (and most of America) this might feel awkward. Get over it and into a treasure of Moroccan culture - adoration of children.

Bayti: Care for the Street Kids of Morocco
Morocco
Learn Arabic
Bargaining pt 1

Photos by Jamal Morelli, uploaded at Studio Shamharush

Leave a Comment

Other Contact: The kid in front of you