MARRAKESHI’m still on the subject of Sasha. She is a very accomplished linguist. When she arrived to live with us in Charleston, she could speak Russian and German, and her English was already quite good. In school she studied French and began Hebrew. When she returned to Germany she even studied a little Chinese. While we visited her family in Dusseldorf, Sasha switched seemingly effortlessly among English, German, Russian and French, translating for her parents, and her French boyfriend Sebastien (who speaks very good English, actually) and for us. Wow!
But Sasha is not unusual for a European. Most people we meet in Europe can speak multiple languages, and not only the educated elite. The tourist industry relies on multi-lingual guides; the market vendors are incredibly adept at learning languages.
Rarely have we had to rely on Peter’s German or my French. Yesterday the guide who took us out to the mountains beyond Marrakesh told us he speaks two different Berber dialects plus Arabic, French, and English. Lily pointed out that in developing countries, most people have to learn several languages just to survive in their society. First they learn their native language or dialects, then at school they learn the national language or languages, which usually includes the language of the colonizer—in this case in Morocco it is French, and finally they learn another language or languages to communicate with tourists. For now we are fortunate in a way that English is the universal language—but I suppose one reason Americans aren’t so adept at languages is that we haven’t had to be. Beth
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