Picture leaving everyone and everything behind, packing yourself and your belongings in a day and moving to the other side of the world alone. I think anyone would agree that something like that takes true courage. The poster child for such a feat of beautiful bravery is Ouachita’s own, Dalal Salah.
Dalal, a senior accounting and finance major, is from Tangier, Morocco, the second largest city in this North African country. Her city is a coastal one where the Mediterranean and the Atlantic meet, all while being only a 20-mile ferry ride from Spain.
“My favorite thing about where I come from, specifically my city, is the convergence of cultures,” Dalal said. “We are an African country, so we have African culture, but we are also Arab, so we have the Arab and Middle Eastern influence. From the outside it appears Spanish with a lot of Arabic influence.”
Tangier has a little bit of everything, according to Dalal. What she “misses the most” is living on the beach and experiencing the Mediterranean weather.
“It’s very unique…we have the ocean, the desert, mountains, snow. People don’t know that it snows in Morocco, but it’s not like Arkansas snow; it’s more like New York snow.”
“I’m really very proud to be Moroccan,” Dalal said. “It’s given such a mixture of culture.”
This culture she refers to is even more diverse when it comes to her school work. In high school, Dalal spoke no English at all, but was fluent in Spanish. Natively, she speaks Arabic and French, as well. Her family, she said, speaks what they call the Moroccan language, a vernacular comprised of French, Spanish, English and Arabic. (Yes, this is all four languages at once.) She calls this language her favorite.
“It may sound crazy, but because we are used to it and because of colonization, it works,” Dalal said. Morocco, having been officially colonized by France, still holds a large part of French culture, but due to the country’s proximity (specifically the city of Tangier) to Spain, there is also a very large Spanish influence. For example, Dalal attended a French school, even though it was nearer to Spanish lands.
According to Dalal, she began learning these languages at a young age, as early as elementary school. In a form of what we would call standardized testing, all four of the native languages–English, French, Spanish and Arabic–appear on that exam.
Her first endeavor with English came after high school, and she learned what is considered to be one of the toughest languages in the world in only three months.
“It was tough, because I had three months to pass. Watching movies, reading books, listening to music, everything in English. My 2012 summer was all in English. Also, I took a one-month trip to the U.S. The best advice I can give to a person learning a language is definitely go to a country where that language is their primary language. A lot of people think, ‘I don’t have time’; there is always time.”
Before she learned English, she was also the only one in her class to be accepted into an American university, one controlled by both the governments of the United States and of Morocco. She spent two years at Al Akhawayn University, which means “the two brothers” in English, dedicated to the latest King of Morocco and the King of Saudi Arabia. But after two years, Dalal decided she needed something different beyond her family and her country.
“I was just like, ‘Dalal, you need to leave your comfort zone. You need a change,’” she said. “It was hard at the beginning. I had a little culture shock with the way of living, the food–those are the two main things. But I thought, ‘you just have to make it.’”
Shortly after her semester as an exchange student here at Ouachita, administration soon told her that she could pursue an accounting degree, something that wasn’t possible at home. Her dream has always been to be an accountant, just as her mother is. Her father being a boat captain, she is also used to the idea of travelling. Even though it was hard to leave everything in a day, she decided to take the new experience and the opportunity to leave her comfort zone.
Since living here for the last two and a half years, Dalal has fully immersed herself in the Ouachita life, becoming a vital part of the community. Her first job ever was at Dr. Jack’s Coffeehouse here on campus, and aside from this, she volunteers through the Elrod center to do income taxes for people of the Arkadelphia community. Serving also as treasurer of the International Club, Dalal has her hands full with service to Ouachita and the surrounding community.
“Coming from Morocco to the U.S. is like a dream come true. That’s how I think about it,” she said. “It was not easy for me. English is my fourth language, and coming to the U.S. and learning accounting in English was hard. It’s not about the bubble where you live, it’s more about taking a challenge and saying, ‘Hey, I can do it.’”
Back home, she says that life is easier having access to close family support and a more familiar way of living, but here, she thinks about safety, culture, being an only child away from her family, just as we would if we had gone from here to Morocco.
“I’m very close to my dad, and that’s why he named me Dalal. In Arabic, it means ‘a spoiled child.’ So leaving him and coming here was hard, but it makes me happy to know that he’s proud.”
Dalal will soon be graduating from Ouachita with a number of ideas for her future, and that wonderful family of hers will get to join the Ouachita family on her graduation day. Dalal Salah, no doubt, will leave a great mark on this campus in her absence.
by Julie Williams, Copy editor
