One of the things that I love about travel is getting to know more about other languages. On my visits to China with work some years ago I attempted to learn some Chinese, both written and spoken. It was one of the most difficult languages I have encountered, as it is so different to English, in structure and in the way sounds are represented. I used to use Chinese as an example with my language and literacy students when I was teaching, as they often worked with Chinese speakers who were trying to learn English.

Since I retired I have been learning Spanish, and am really enjoying my new confidence with the language after two and half years of formal learning, and talking to Spanish friends. I was lucky enough to learn French from the age of 7 to 16, and although I haven’t used it much, I could remember enough to hold short conversations on my recent trip through France.

I am now here in Morocco, at Agadir to be exact, at the start of an exciting month in this beautiful country. I have visited before, 13 years ago, when I spent February half term with my Mum and Jake in Marrakesh and loved it. Although much of Moroccan culture is very familiar to me because of the Moorish influences in Spain, and they even have the same company running the buses, I have been excited to see signs in three languages everywhere here.

I am familiar with Arabic, as Yorkshire is very multicultural, and there were many signs written in Arabic in local towns. Many of my students spoke Arabic as well, or could read it, as it is the language of the Koran/Quran. I thought this third language must be Berber, and it is. This is Tifnagh, the Berber alphabet, and according to this website, there are over 300 Berber dialects.

I find this alphabet absolutely fascinating, it looks so different to other scripts that I have come across. It reminds me a little of the sorts of things that you see as created languages in Sci fi media, yet is thousands of years old. I have spent my couple of days in Agadir trying to relate this new language to what I know, not that I am attempting to speak it!

My French is also coming in very useful, as will my Spanish as I travel further north, as both countries had influence over Morocco at various times. Morocco is one of the most multi-lingual countries in the world, discounting others who are multilingual through migration, and I am really enjoying talking to people here in both of my other languages. I try and avoid English as much as possible when travelling if I can as I think it is nice to be able to talk to people in their languages, and it’s great practise for me!

The city is a popular tourist resort, with miles of beautiful beaches with gorgeous, and expensive looking hotels. I had a lovely wander down to the beach on the first day, it was 26 degrees that day, on the 1st February, so a paddle was very welcome.

I am staying at a hotel about 20 minutes walk from the beach, the Hotel Sindibad, which overlooks one of the city squares. There are lots of hotels and restaurants in this area, and I have a little balcony where I have been sitting watching people below, which is especially nice at night . I have a choice of two lovely comfy beds 😉

The city is mostly modern, as the result of devastating earthquake in 1960, when most of the city was destroyed, and 1/3 of the citizens killed. The area where I am staying, Talborjt, was very badly hit. It is very sobering to read about the destruction of the city, walking around it now, you would not realise that there had been this level of trauma here.

Although the city is new, there is lots of evidence of traditional architectural influences, as well as modern, especially at the mosques. If you are a regular here you will know how much I love Islamic art and decoration, and I’m sure I’m going to see so many lovely things during my time here in Morocco.

I visited this lovely cool garden today, the entrance is clearly inspired by Berber architecture, although it was only opened in 1992. The stonework is just beautiful.

I move on tomorrow, just a couple of hours up the coast, to Essouria for 5 nights, which will be my first experience of Moroccan bus travel. I flew into Agadir, which is in the south of the country, from Manchester, as I wanted to explore as much of the country as possible in my time here. In total I will be visiting 6 cities, so look forward to sharing them all with you. I am really looking forward to the train travel as well, even though I love driving, I still get so excited using trains 😉

I hope you are all enjoying your week, have fun, take care, stay safe and thanks for visiting.