Perspectives from a Libyan Fulbright FLTA

by Milood S. Al-Omrani

As a language teacher in my own country of Libya, I applied for the Fulbright Program knowing that it was somehow language related but was otherwise a little hazy on the details.

Having been accepted, my first step was to attend the Department of State-sponsored, IIE-administered Cairo conference in July 2006 where I had a chance to meet with IIE staff and other FLTAs (Foreign Language Teaching Assistants) from Africa and the Arab World. It was a really great opportunity for me to remove the haze, clarify my ideas, and have some questions answered.

As a language teacher in my own country of Libya, I applied for the Fulbright Program knowing that it was somehow language related but was otherwise a little hazy on the details.Having been accepted, my first step was to attend the Department of State-sponsored, IIE-administered Cairo conference in July 2006 where I had a chance to meet with IIE staff and other FLTAs (Foreign Language Teaching Assistants) from Africa and the Arab World. It was a really great opportunity for me to remove the haze, clarify my ideas, and have some questions answered.

By the time I left Egypt, I knew that I was embarking on the mission of my lifetime; I was going to teach Arabic, my mother tongue, through the context of culture and show culture through the means of language. I was so excited! I threw myself into activities related to preparing for my program, chief of which was the acquisition of all the materials I would need to promote my culture and achieve the program goals. I made tapes of street Arabic, collected snippets from the press, took hundreds of pictures of everyday life -- anything that might interest and stimulate my future students. With my mother's advice, I bought dozens of small, souvenir-type gifts and clothing items from my home country.

The trip to Cairo in July had been my first outside Libya. In August, I flew across Europe to the New World and on over the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. Unfortunately, my luggage did not fly with me. Not just my clothes, but my entire collection of teaching materials and reference books vanished. I arrived with no more than the jeans and the tee-shirt I stood in.

I can’t deny that the loss of my luggage didn’t affect me negatively at first, but the enduring support and patience that I was given by my supervisors, Irene Gordon and Dr. Carlos Juarez, and IIE staff gave me a tremendous push forward; they made me feel so much at home here, so far round the world.

From the first moment, the warmth, care, and respect I was given made me realize how great a program this was and how kind, broad-minded, and thoughtful my supervisors were, truly reflecting the human and friendly atmosphere of Hawaii Pacific University as well as the genuine spirit of 'Aloha' of the Hawaiian people.

With all that support, I remembered that I was there on a mission and that there was a job to be done and that I couldn’t let all the people who had supported me down. Nor could I arrive empty handed in front of my students. I had to record my own materials with the help of some native Arabic language speakers in Hawaii to make it sound authentic in class. With the support of my supervisors, IIE, the American Embassy in Libya as well as my family, I managed to receive a parcel full of cultural items and teaching materials from home. Even before starting to teach Arabic, I was determined to set my students on the path of what I call 'enjoyable learning.' I had to deal with stereotypes such as the perceived difficulty of Arabic as a language and to explain to my students that learning it would depend on the time and effort and imagination they were prepared to put in. I realized that this, in turn, would depend very much on the quality of my lessons and that I had somehow to inspire and enthuse, as well as instruct.

I had to work hard and to try to facilitate language learning through role playing, listening, songs, food, and acting. I was keen to present the language as much as possible within its cultural milieu. My philosophy as a teacher is that listening is one of the most important parts of a language lesson, and since here in Hawaii the teacher is the only source of naturally spoken Arabic (as opposed to scripted sound materials), I was soon speaking, miming, and acting out as much as I could in class, quickly discovering how much one can do by using the power of charades.

I usually start my lesson with a warm-up in the form of a listening activity or a speaking one. I truly was amazed how much facilitating language through human communication is possible. My students are really doing well with learning Arabic because I, along with their enthusiasm, have managed to break the barrier of the difficulty of Arabic. I am happy that I have helped them to learn my language and become interested to know more about my culture. Nothing equals the immediate contact with people in an everyday life context such as a classroom. Now my students have gotten rid of the stereotyped picture of someone from the Muslim World or North Africa.

My experience as a student was not far from that; I took two classes and I had a real opportunity to see the whole world in one small classroom. The traditional American citizen is not really more different than what an ordinary human being is in any part of the world except the fact that they are isolated. But once you get in touch with them, they are totally different than what you might have picked from any artificial source. I had a chance to meet Americans, communicate and share my perspective with them about what’s happening around the world. I also had a chance to make friends from other parts of the world -- through the universal language called communication. I was also amazed at the flexibility that the American educational system has even compared to some European countries. Another big surprise for me has been the cosmopolitan lifestyle here at Hawaii Pacific University. I have made friends with Americans from all over the United States and people from all over the world: Norway, Sweden, Germany, Georgia, Japan, New Zealand, Fiji, Iran and Haiti.

I live with roommates from Ohio and Minnesota, and they have really given me the human dimension of their culture and country. One of the many things that touched my heart was that my roommate, Kyle, nursed me when I was sick without even asking him to do it. I got a bad fever and couldn’t go out to get medication. He gave me the medication and checked on me, which has really shown me that universal brotherhood really exists. Americans have really shown me that they are different than the distorted image that Hollywood has made of them and exported to the rest of the world. I got invited to Thanksgiving by an American family in Hawaii and also had friends in New York who invited me to Christmas celebrations while I was on a trip to the East Coast.

On that trip I visited four states: Washington DC, New York, Michigan, and Illinois. When I went to DC, I felt a sense of history, how this country was made; that was really awe-inspiring. When I went to New York, I visited many places: I went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and I felt how early immigrants worked hard in order to be citizens of this country. They were emerging of photos and showing me their luggage, what they did and had been through before they left their countries. I didn’t stop there, but I followed their ghosts to the Empire State Building and Brooklyn Bridge and saw how they worked hard to build this overwhelming city and make it the face of America. I also had a chance to visit Ground Zero and share my empathy with the families and the people who lost loved ones.

My experiences at Thanksgiving and Christmas brought home how important a program like Fulbright is. For over the past months, I have really come to understand that it doesn't matter what religion you believe in or what language you speak as long as the content of your character reflects the true, good side of your humanity. I realized that getting along with people on a day-to-day basis is really enough to show us the divine in all of us. All of us make mistakes and are full of flaws, but my Fulbright experience has taught me that there’s black and white and a hundred or more shades of gray. I have learned that we have good, bad and different things, that it’s necessary to respect our differences and being different is not a sin.

I wish I could be a Fulbrighter forever but unfortunately, that’s not possible. When I think about my students, the faculty I’m working with, my friends and classmates and all the people who have become part of my everyday life, I feel a strong desire to stay here and not leave. However, I thought it over and I found out that the program was brilliantly devised; we will all realize how different we have become when we go home. We will also realize how much we have changed those who had preconceived notions about us. By going back home, we have a chance to see ourselves in a different context. We will share our experiences with our friends, colleagues and inspire them to promote the noble ideas that we will have learned from our Fulbright experiences. Otherwise, the whole experience will not be fully meaningful.

Many will think that this is just a small step and it’s not worth of looking at. But I say my step and others’ steps are really worth looking at if they are in the right direction. We have walked miles and miles in the wrong direction, so why not try take one, two, and three steps in the right direction to make our lives and futures full and bright (Fulbright) with hope?