Tunis, Tunisia 2010 and Tunis, Tunisia 2011

Columbia University, Expected Graduation: 2013

Completely by accident! It was the last item on international jobs listserve that I read during the fall of my freshman year.

I started studying Arabic on a whim my freshman year of college and applied for the CLS Program without knowing much about it. Since then, CLS has solidified my desire to become fluent in both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) as well as several Arabic dialects because of the people I’ve met and been able to communicate with by virtue of speaking Arabic.

I just started my junior year at Columbia University, where I am double majoring in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies. Arabic is central to my academic goals because language is key to understanding a region and the people that live there. I also plan to conduct research and write my senior thesis about post-revolutionary Tunisia.

Though I’m not exactly sure what I want to do after I graduate, I hope to live or work overseas in the Arab World in the future either as a Foreign Service Officer or in some other capacity.

I am currently enrolled in 4th year Arabic: Modern Prose, where we read short stories and essays revolving around Arab Nationalism. I also attend Columbia’s weekly “Arabic Circle,” where students and faculty practice speaking Arabic about a variety of topics.

I’ve also used my Tunisian to stay in touch with host family and Tunisian friends as well as to speak with my American friends from CLS.

In addition to continuing my Arabic studies in school, I plan on conducting research in MSA and Tunisian dialect as well as returning to Tunisia as soon as I can. I’m also signed up to work as a peer Arabic tutor at my school and am looking into internships/volunteer opportunities that require proficiency in Arabic.

YES!

As I mentioned earlier, I took Arabic because I wanted to study a widely-spoken, non-Romance language after years and years of Spanish. Before CLS, I knew almost nothing about Arab culture, the divide between MSA and dialect, Arab politics, or the differences between regions.

Now, after participated in CLS Tunisia two summers in a row, I feel a deep personal connection to Tunisia and am trying to find any way possible to go back in the near future. Speaking Arabic has also opened the door to so many academic and professional opportunities that I never would have even considered before. Finally, I’ve met some of my closest friends through CLS, both Tunisians and Americans, and know that they will be an important part of my life for a long time.

Speaking Tunisian dialect. Very few foreigners speak Modern Standard Arabic, let alone Tunsie, so most Tunisians are incredibly surprised when non-Tunisians know even a few words. When I speak to someone in dialect, I feel that they are often more honest and willing speak with me for a longer period of time because they know that I am invested in Tunisia and Tunisian culture as opposed to just the Arab World in general. I also love how Tunisia is a mix of so many different cultures, so a simple conversation will include words from Arabic, French, Berber, and even Italian in just a single sentence.

Everything.

Before last summer, I could barely find Tunisia but today, I consider it my second home. The history, the language, its relationship to the rest of North Africa and the Arab World –I can’t even begin to thank my teachers and host family for their patience and for how much they have taught me over these past 2 years.
I also had the invaluable experience of studying in Tunisia 6 months before the revolution and six months after, so I’ve been able to watch Tunisia’s transition from a dictatorship to democracy from the inside and as a microcosm of everything else that is happening in the Arab World.

I’m always so daunted by this question and feel like there are too many stories to ever pick just one. That said, I often feel that it’s the little moments that have significant changed me as opposed to one large event. For example, on my last night in Tunisia, I asked one my Tunisian friends what he considered the meaning of life as a group of us sat along the Mediterranean watching shooting stars. Taking only a second to think, he said to us, “If I can make just one person happy, even if just for a moment, then I think I’ve lived a life worth living. That, and if I learn something new everyday, I will always be happy.”

Schpik? (schee-peek?) – This can mean a thousand different things depending on the context, but it literally translates to “What’s wrong with you?” or “What’s up?” in Tunisian dialect. It can be used it a caring way, such as when someone looks upset or sick, jokingly to get a friends attention, or seriously such as yelling it at other drivers who cut you off. It’s also usually accompanied by holding your hand in the air and twisting it in a counter-clockwise direction accompanied by the appropriate sympathetic eyes and or/death stare.

I was born and raised in San Francisco and am now studying at Columbia University in New York. As of this fall, I’m double majoring in Political Science with an emphasis in International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies. In addition to Arabic and Tunisian dialect, I speak Spanish and am learning Portuguese. I enjoy running, traveling, cooking, and wandering around places that I have never been to before. I have also fainted on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, can touch my tongue to my nose, and don’t like sleeping with socks on.