General Information about ALIF
ALIF Facilities
Classes at ALIF are conducted in a large Moorish-style villa surrounded by an oasis-like setting of date palms, olive trees and rosemary shrubs. The tranquil residential neighborhood is away from the hubbub of downtown but within easy walking distance of a variety of restaurants and cafes. The ALIF Riad, located in the Batha area of the Fes medina, is a beautiful traditional courtyard house and garden. The Riad is a student study center and a setting for ALIF cultural activities.
Classes at ALIF are conducted in a large Moorish-style villa surrounded by an oasis-like setting of date palms, olive trees and rosemary shrubs. The tranquil residential neighborhood is away from the hubbub of downtown but within easy walking distance of a variety of restaurants and cafes. The ALIF Riad, located in the Batha area of the Fes medina, is a beautiful traditional courtyard house and garden. The Riad is a student study center and a setting for ALIF cultural activities.
ALIF has a specialized library focusing on Arabic, North African, and Islamic studies, as well as a large collection of DVDs in Arabic, Darija, and English. The ALIF kiosk offers inexpensive meals and various refreshments, such as traditional Moroccan mint tea.
ALIF shares its classrooms and grounds with a large, well-established English language school, the American Language Center (ALC-Fez). This provides an ideal environment for interacting with Moroccan university students. ALIF's facilities include a computer lab equipped with Arabic word-processing software, and a satellite television that receives over fifteen Arabic stations from across the Arab World. The ALIF garden, Villa student residence, and Riad have high-speed Wi-Fi internet access for students to use.
Instructors
The Moroccan faculty at ALIF teach both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Colloquial Moroccan Arabic (CMA). ALIF's MSA instructors hail from prestigious modern state universities in Morocco, like Mohammed V in Rabat, and traditional institutions such as the Qarawiyyin University, an Islamic institution of higher learning in Fez which ranks with Al-Azhar in Cairo as one of the oldest universities in the world. The rigorous grammatical training imparted at the Qarawiyyin University produces MSA instructors of exceptional calibre, whose grasp of the structure and vocabulary of the Arabic language would be hard to duplicate even in the foremost western universities.
In teaching CMA, ALIF's instructors have developed a highly interactive teaching approach designed to get students conversing almost immediately with native speakers in a variety of increasingly challenging topics of discussion. ALIF's language coordinator is also one of the few CMA experts worldwide certified by the Educational Testing Service of Princeton to administer oral examinations in Moroccan Arabic.
Cultural Activities
In addition to language courses, ALIF offers a range of optional outside activities to enhance the experience of learning Arabic in Morocco. Throughout the year, students may attend weekly showings of films in both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Colloquial Moroccan Arabic (CMA). Once or twice a month, students are invited to attend lectures on various aspects of Moroccan or Arab culture. Please see our Facebook page and blog for more information about our clubs and activities.
Students undertaking specific research projects in Morocco are also welcome to give presentations on their own work to other ALIF students and their Moroccan peers as a means of gaining response and input from others who may have similar interests. Also, throughout the year, ALIF offers a series of tours and cultural excursions (in the past these have included trips to the desert and tours of Fez and nearby sites, such as the Taza caves and the carpet souks of Khenifra). The cultural activities calendar regularly includes extracurricular courses in Oriental Dancing, Arabic calligraphy, Moroccan cooking and traditional music.
Transfer Credits
For transfer purposes, ALIF can provide credit recommendations and any other relevant information needed by the student's home institution; however, that institution determines the final allocation of credits for ALIF course-work. Whether a student applies directly to ALIF or indirectly through a university with which ALIF maintains an overseas study partnership (see Jointly-Sponsored Programs), it is the student's responsibility to negotiate with his/her home institution the appropriate number of credits to be awarded.
Visas
Residency procedures vary depending on nationality. Most students automatically obtain a three-month tourist visa upon entering Morocco. Students who plan to enroll full-time can obtain a one-year residency visa. Students wishing to apply for residency should inform the administration as soon as possible after their arrival.
One residency condition is a bank statement from a local account showing that the applicant has adequate resources; therefore, be sure you are in a position to open a "convertible dirham" account with the equivalency of at least 20,000 Dh ($1 = 9.5 Dh) in foreign currency (in cash or travelers checks), or are able to have this amount wired to you after your arrival. (This amount is in addition to funds required for tuition, immediate living expenses, and two to three months advance housing costs, as it should remain untouched in the bank for at least the first month.)
Where is ALIF?
ALIF shares its classrooms and grounds with a large, well-established English language school, the American Language Center (ALC-Fez). This provides an ideal environment for interacting with Moroccan university students. ALIF's facilities include a computer lab equipped with Arabic word-processing software, and a satellite television that receives over fifteen Arabic stations from across the Arab World. The ALIF garden, Villa student residence, and Riad have high-speed Wi-Fi internet access for students to use.
Instructors
The Moroccan faculty at ALIF teach both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Colloquial Moroccan Arabic (CMA). ALIF's MSA instructors hail from prestigious modern state universities in Morocco, like Mohammed V in Rabat, and traditional institutions such as the Qarawiyyin University, an Islamic institution of higher learning in Fez which ranks with Al-Azhar in Cairo as one of the oldest universities in the world. The rigorous grammatical training imparted at the Qarawiyyin University produces MSA instructors of exceptional calibre, whose grasp of the structure and vocabulary of the Arabic language would be hard to duplicate even in the foremost western universities.
In teaching CMA, ALIF's instructors have developed a highly interactive teaching approach designed to get students conversing almost immediately with native speakers in a variety of increasingly challenging topics of discussion. ALIF's language coordinator is also one of the few CMA experts worldwide certified by the Educational Testing Service of Princeton to administer oral examinations in Moroccan Arabic.
Cultural Activities
In addition to language courses, ALIF offers a range of optional outside activities to enhance the experience of learning Arabic in Morocco. Throughout the year, students may attend weekly showings of films in both Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Colloquial Moroccan Arabic (CMA). Once or twice a month, students are invited to attend lectures on various aspects of Moroccan or Arab culture. Please see our Facebook page and blog for more information about our clubs and activities.
Students undertaking specific research projects in Morocco are also welcome to give presentations on their own work to other ALIF students and their Moroccan peers as a means of gaining response and input from others who may have similar interests. Also, throughout the year, ALIF offers a series of tours and cultural excursions (in the past these have included trips to the desert and tours of Fez and nearby sites, such as the Taza caves and the carpet souks of Khenifra). The cultural activities calendar regularly includes extracurricular courses in Oriental Dancing, Arabic calligraphy, Moroccan cooking and traditional music.
Transfer Credits
For transfer purposes, ALIF can provide credit recommendations and any other relevant information needed by the student's home institution; however, that institution determines the final allocation of credits for ALIF course-work. Whether a student applies directly to ALIF or indirectly through a university with which ALIF maintains an overseas study partnership (see Jointly-Sponsored Programs), it is the student's responsibility to negotiate with his/her home institution the appropriate number of credits to be awarded.
Visas
Residency procedures vary depending on nationality. Most students automatically obtain a three-month tourist visa upon entering Morocco. Students who plan to enroll full-time can obtain a one-year residency visa. Students wishing to apply for residency should inform the administration as soon as possible after their arrival.
One residency condition is a bank statement from a local account showing that the applicant has adequate resources; therefore, be sure you are in a position to open a "convertible dirham" account with the equivalency of at least 20,000 Dh ($1 = 9.5 Dh) in foreign currency (in cash or travelers checks), or are able to have this amount wired to you after your arrival. (This amount is in addition to funds required for tuition, immediate living expenses, and two to three months advance housing costs, as it should remain untouched in the bank for at least the first month.)
Where is ALIF?