Morocco in 6 months: Darija or French?

July 6, 2021 6:11 PM

Pandemic permitting, I may be traveling to Morocco in about six months. I’m an American so sadly I have nothing approaching fluency in a second language, though I have studied Spanish, German, French, and Ancient Greek to varying degrees. I have two years of college French so which is a better use of my time in preparation for this trip given the timeframe?

If the trip happens it will be with a tour group (Mom is paying so it’s Mom’s choice) so it’s mostly structured time but I would like to make an effort as far as speaking with people. I do have experience with Ancient Greek as far as the non-Latin alphabet goes so the idea is not entirely new, and it is basically the same age as my French knowledge. At the same time, I don’t actually have experience with languages that read right-left so I know I’m out of my depth there.

I would love some feedback from Moroccan people specifically and North African people in general. I’m also open to westerners who have traveled in the area recently.

posted by Francies to Education (13 answers total)

Response by poster: I should say, I may have inadvertently weighted this question more towards the French answer. I have watched some YouTube videos on Darija and they are intimidating but somewhat equally to French at this far remove.

The main difference for me is there are a lot more resources for French but I would be happy to make the effort to learn some basic Darija if people think it’s worth it.
posted by Francies at 7:20 PM on July 6, 2021

I have not actually traveled to Morocco myself, so definitely listen to those who have first-hand experience over what I’m going to say. But a cousin lived there for a year, and found she got a huge amount of goodwill for speaking Darija. People seemed to really appreciate that and take it as a gesture of care and respect in a way that was different from how they responded to French (or Arabic).
posted by hippugeek at 8:01 PM on July 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

Darija will probably be more difficult and less useful for future travels -- when I tried to speak darija in Egypt, I got a lot of weird looks -- but you should definitely do it! It's a fascinating language and will be greatly appreciated as hippugeek says. The Peace Corps has some useful, practical resources. Have a great trip!
posted by attentionplease at 8:37 PM on July 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

It sounds like you have never learned a non-Indo-European language before. This will make Darija hard but also exciting.

It's worth separating the language from the script (most written Arabic across the Muslim world is Fusha in any event). It looks like the Peace Corps text that attentionplease links teaches you the language with Latin transliteration, which is a great route to go when it comes to getting basic conversation down. You'll have plenty of fun with Semitic verb formation as it is!
posted by goingonit at 9:40 PM on July 6, 2021

I am from California and have not traveled to the region but learned some of its history as part of my history degree in college.

French is the colonial language. I would go with Darija.
posted by aniola at 10:04 PM on July 6, 2021

As the saying goes, pourquoi pas le deux?

I've travelled around Morocco semi-recently (who's travelled anywhere recently?). I have both rusty French and have learned some Arabic (more MSA than Maghrebi). I suspect you will have much more ability in French in six months than you would in Darija in the same time frame with whatever effort you will put in; not only do you have the basics down already to build off of, but the language is much more similar to English in terms of grammar, vocabulary, almost all the sounds existing in English and so on. Arabic dialects/languages are not only more difficult to learn because of the structural differences, but they're also not nearly as well supported for English learners; particularly if you're working on a dialect further away from MSA, so you're going to have a hard time finding useful resources.

If you were able to get to "The boy drinks milk" in Darjia, you'd be able to communicate basic needs if you learned French instead; if you were able to get to basic needs in Darjia, you'd be able to have short conversations in French. You'll just be more functional -- whatever level that is six months from now -- in French, and by a long shot.

But with all that said, I would absolutely temper that with some basic phrases and pleasantries in Darjia (as well as cultural literacy); please and thank you and yes and goodbye and where's the toilet and numbers and so on. That's super important as hippugeek says, for goodwill and respect.
posted by Superilla at 10:56 PM on July 6, 2021 [9 favorites]

Seconding Superilla.
I have been in Morocco twice, but not very recently. Last time was in 2012, I think. It is a wonderful country.
The thing is, if you venture out alone, you will need to be able to communicate fairly well in some language, because it is a country where English is not widely spoken. People working with tourism will speak from a few words (street vendor) to fluent English (tourist guide), and rich people will sometimes speak English, but for the majority of people, French is their second, or even their first language. Even people with very little education speak French. Yes, it is the language of the colonizers, but it is also a practical everyday language in a multicultural country. A bit like English is still used in India.
posted by mumimor at 12:43 AM on July 7, 2021 [5 favorites]

I travelled all around the coast in lots of tiny places. Agree that your rusty French will probably be sufficient, but that learning Darija basics is a better use of your time than perfecting your French. You will manage with French (& English will be fine in most larger towns) but they don't...like it all that much? People stare a lot in Morocco but if you're friendly and willing you can generally make yourself understood. If you're in Taghezoute be sure to buy fresh yoghurt from the shop on the beach side of the main square!
posted by london explorer girl at 1:34 AM on July 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

Okay, you're going to be in a tour group? You're not likely to be in a lot of sink-or-swim situations where you must communicate with non-English speakers.

French is everywhere in Morocco: signage, advertising, product labels. Brush up on your French a bit.

Darija/Maghrebi Arabic? Learn a bit if you like, as others have said, you'll get some nice goodwill points. You won't need it for extended communication, and if you need to do in-depth communication for some reason, as a practical matter you'll be defaulting back to French (or even English).

If in doubt, put yourself in the other person's shoes. A "good morning" in Darija would be wonderful. An insistent and unsuccessful conversation about why you need a bandage for your infected finger will be stressful and unpleasant for the other person, especially if you're insisting on using the language you know the least and putting the other person on the spot. Go with the flow, use what's practical, be flexible.

Overall, though, you'll probably be fine. Just a little French will be a big help, and it sounds like you have a headstart there.
posted by gimonca at 5:16 AM on July 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

My uncle used to live in Morocco. He speaks English and French, and was fine with those languages. You already speak some French, and I say to you as a linguist that it's going to be a lot easier to brush up a language that you're already familiar with than learn a new, unrelated language from scratch.
posted by bile and syntax at 8:34 AM on July 7, 2021

It's a long time since I was in Morocco, but when I was there the Moroccans mostly assumed that, because I look European, I could speak French fairly fluently. I can't, but do have some French and managed to function well enough. It's helpful to learn a few key phrases in Darija but if you speak some French already I would be prepared to use it. Signs are often in Arabic and French, so if you can read French that is definitely helpful. The phrases I used most from Darija were hello (which I pronounced as salaam aleykum) and no thank you (which I pronounced as la shukran).
posted by plonkee at 10:07 AM on July 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

I've never been to Morocco, but I have a friend who has lived there. I've also studied Arabic and spent time speaking it in Egypt.

For Morocco, it's my understanding that in the main cities most people speak a degree of French as a second language and people in the tourism industry (or anyone who relies on tourism dollars) will speak French fluently. Whereas in the countryside, Darija is more dominate. I agree with Superilla that I'd mainly work on your French, while also learning a few key phrases in Darija to earn some good will.

I'll also just note that because Darija is perhaps the dialect furtherest from Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), people in Morocco tend to speak some of the best MSA compared to other countries. When I was in Egypt, while I was also studying Misri (Egyptian Arabic) I often slipped between MSA/Misri when speaking to people, and it's generally not a problem. Pretty much everyone studies MSA in school (and it's what's spoken on the news, by politicians, imams, etc.), and it's not that radically different from the dialects.
posted by coffeecat at 10:39 AM on July 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

Echoing most other people: French was useful but my mother and I, traveling alone and making all our own bookings in, er, 2018? 2017?, rarely needed it to speak to people -- more to read menus, signs, museum texts, etc. Many, many people knew enough English for us to get by without our (very American- and British-sounding, which didn't help) French. We used sign language and pointing when, maybe twice in three weeks, we were unable to communicate in either English or French.

People who work in and adjacent to tourism understand who the tourists are mostly going to be. As white British women tourists we were aware of the broad impression that our privilege and colonial history brought with us, and yes, some people made it clear that the language-switching was a burden they should not have had to bear, but did. Having said that, however, people in general, including the ones who rolled their eyes when we couldn't speak properly, were unfailingly patient, and were even more kind when we demonstrated that we had learned to say (approximately, anyway) words of function and politeness (yes/no, please/thank you) in Darija.

To answer the question: I suspect your pidgin Franglais will get you through regardless, so I would lean toward Darija. Part of the fun of languages, for me, is seeing the pleasure on other people's faces when I succeed in communicating with them in a language they didn't expect me to know -- even if it's just "yes, thank you."
posted by obliquicity at 8:42 AM on July 8, 2021