Study abroad experiences shape student’s views of languages and culture

Kiki Giles ‘24, an anthropology and French and Francophone studies double major at The College of Wooster, harnessed the power of study abroad experiences in Jordan and Morocco to discover an interest in the intersection of languages and culture. 

Languages intrigued Giles as early as middle school when she first learned French during immersive summer camps and continued in high school. By the time she was a junior, Giles finished the program, became state-certified in French, and set her sights on studying French in college. Wooster’s overt support of study abroad and the diverse opportunities available swayed her to enroll at the College where she found a community of helpful faculty and staff and plenty of study abroad programs to satisfy her desire to travel. 

Curiosity about the Middle East and the predominantly Francophone countries of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia in Northern Africa, spurred Giles to take a first-year seminar with Sarah Mirza, associate professor of Middle Eastern and North African studies, South Asian studies, religious studies, and women’s, gender, & sexuality studies, and a second semester course with Harry Gamble, Inez K. Gaylord Professor of French and Francophone Studies. 

Thanks to Gamble’s class focusing on France and Northern Africa, Giles said, “I wanted to know more about how those cultures have worked together to shape new languages and new ways of living in one space with all of these different influences that continue into the present day.” When she added Middle Eastern and North African studies as a minor, Mirza suggested Giles learn Arabic to better connect with the countries, cultures, and people of the Middle East. 

While Wooster didn’t have an Arabic program, with support from the Global Engagement Office, Giles researched her options and was accepted into the University of Chicago’s Summer Language Institute, an intensive language course that covered a year of language study in eight weeks. She then applied for and was awarded a Critical Language Scholarship, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State to encourage the study of languages and cultures essential to America’s engagement with the world. “The Middle East and North African region is key to understanding so many different aspects of our world and the people within it,” said Giles. “Home to one of the largest world religions, millennia of history, one of the most regionally diverse modern world languages, and a vibrant variety of cultures and traditions, our engagement with this region would only enrich us as individuals.” The scholarship enabled her first study abroad trip to Amman, Jordan, for eight weeks in summer 2022. 

Giles thrived in the environment with approximately 20 other students learning Arabic. The days were filled with lessons, homework, and partner conversations. They also traveled to locations such as the Treasury of Petra, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and they engaged with Bedouin culture through teatime with Bedouin people. The exposure to the language and the culture led to deeper understanding of the language and prepared her to study abroad in 2022-23 in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, through IES (International Education of Students) Abroad. 

She opted to study in Morocco for a year to give herself enough time to learn the language, which is different from Jordanian Arabic, and to get to know the people and the culture. “We tend to create monoliths of what a particular region or people are like, but when we get there, we realize it’s completely different than we thought,” she said. 

Giles accepted an internship with IES Abroad for spring semester 2023 through July in Rabat, as an APEX Fellowship, allowing it to function as a paid internship. She helped with the company’s shorter, summer, customized programs that are run independently with universities, as opposed to semester- or summer-long programs. She transitioned the IES Abroad internship to the Chicago headquarters, where she worked on the domestic side to get a wider perspective of the study abroad industry. With her firsthand knowledge of the study abroad experience, she helped inform college relations advisors and study abroad advisors about the program. Her work led to IES setting up programs for study abroad in Morocco for other students. 

Throughout her study abroad experiences, which included the internships, Giles felt completely at home. “Jordan and Morocco are both incredibly hospitable countries. I never felt alienated. My host mom to this day texts me regularly,” Giles said. She also gained a topic for her Independent Study based on the Morocco experience. She decided to investigate how languages and perceptions of languages have impacted the construction of Moroccan University students’ identities, studying Modern Standard Arabic, Moroccan Colloquial Arabic, French, English, and Moroccan Indigenous languages, known as the Amazigh languages. Giles completed her field work, including surveys and interviews in three different languages, when she was in Morocco. Once she returned to Wooster, she looked at the complex relationships between language, culture, and identity. 

“Through the words of my contributors and others I met in Morocco, it is easy to see the historic issue of linguistic and cultural suppression in Morocco, especially when it comes to indigenous languages and identities,” she said. “A movement for change and efforts for Amazigh revitalization continue to shape these intercultural and interlinguistic relationships toward equal rights and recognition of the diverse languages and identities that coexist in Morocco as one nation.” 

Post-graduation this spring, Giles hopes to support international education between the United States and the Middle East and North African region. “There isn’t enough in terms of people understanding this region and connecting with it and vice versa. I’m especially concerned with cultural heritage because as more groups are marginalized, there has been a decline in people learning their language, heritage, and culture.” 

This article originally appeared in the Spring 2024 edition of Wooster Magazine.

Posted in Magazine on March 25, 2024.