Evening star., 1961-11-23
Moroccan Absorbing
ENGLISH and American
By HARRIET GRIFFITHS
Star staff Writer

They just call me Ali" ex-
planned the dark-eyed student
from Morocco.
Benharbit Abdelali smiled in
diligently at the American diff
Guilty in pronouncing his name.
He has run into a snag or two
with English.
As a matter Of fact. he is
one Of 100 foreign students TAX
ing an intensive course in Eng
lish and Introductory American
civilization at the American
Language Institute. newly
Joined to Georgetown Univer-
sity.
Since mid-July, Mr.. Ben
harbit has been spending five
hours a day gaining familiarity
with American speech and ira
ditions. before pursuing his or
ganic chemistry studies at Okla
homa State University, Still
water.
After taking his masters de-
gree, and possibly a doctorate,
he will 60 back to Morocco to
apply his new knowledge to
laboratory oil projects.
French and English
AS do most of his fellows
coming to the institute, the %
year-old student had some
knowledge Of English. In a
year as a scholarship student
at the University of Morocco.
he studied French as his first
language and English as his
second. The son Of a women's
dress store proprietor in Ouzda,
a commerce center near the
frontier of Algeria, he grew up
speaking Arabic.
His English was still sketchy
when he got to America. He
laughs about the time he and
a Moroccan friend went to a
drugstore. The friend asked for
"the thing that is red that you
put on a hamburger, but he
didn't put it very we'll" The
waitress thought he might
mean mustard.
He didn't know what mus
tard was, so he said yes. She
put many mustards on his
hamburger, and he had to send
it back"
Now Mr.. Benharbit knows
about not only catSup but a
great many other things in
American life, including its
freedom.
What we knew about Amer
lea was from the French news
papers and books, generally
French or Arabic books" he
explained. 1T was mostly about
the problems, such as segrega-
ton, those between the United
States and Russia, and between
the United States and Cuba
There was not much about the
society and the thinking Of the
people.
Easy to Understand
Since I have been here, ]
found it was more easy to
understand the United States
and the problems. think what
impressed me is the ConStitu-
ton of the United States. II
helped me to understand the
way of thinking of the people
and the relation between the
people and their families, and
the economic situation"
He sees his growing COM
mand of English also as an
opportunity to make his own
country better known to Amer
leans.
Sometimes they ask us
about our problems and our
government and our nation,
he points out. Many students
are interested in the problems
Of the Arabic nations"
He hopes that American stu
dents will come to Morocco
and learn Arabic.
He is studying here under
sponsorship of the Institute OF
International Education.
70 Year Institute
The American Language In
stitute, although new to the
Georgetown campus, has beer
in operation nearly 20 years
1t grew from a small orienta-
tion school organized under
joint sponsorship of the Ma
tional Education Association
the District Board of Educa
ton and the State Department
The project grew over the
years, had several changes ir
location and institutional af-
filiation, and is now part oi
Georgetown's Institute of Ian.
guages and LinguisJics.
Glasses are held throughout
the year for foreign students
sponsored by the Internationa
Co = operation Administration
and the State Department
Most students come for short.
term "refresher English" in,
struction. Last years 1.5O(