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Hello everybody and welcome to this video which is a last my Q&A video
something that I promised to do months ago but just never found the time to do it
and this video is to mark my 10 years of living in Morocco.
I asked you guys to send me your questions about my experience and I'm going to give you absolutely honest answers I promise you that.
Some of the answers you might not like but you are more than welcome to leave your comments and your thoughts in the comment section below this video
so let's get straight into it.
First question comes from Jad who is actually an exstudent of mine and he says:
"How much would you rate your 10 years living here out of 20 and why?"
If this is about me having to compare the last 10 years in Morocco with an imaginary 10 years in the United Kingdom,
absolutely Morocco gets 20 out of 20.
I'm actually quite surprised and scared about what is happening in the UK the way that it is just deteriorating rapidly
and compare that with the lifestyle that I have here in Morocco.
I'm very wealthy in comparison to what I would be if I lived in the UK.
I have great social value, here. The fact that I can speak English quite well is a great asset to Moroccans
and as a result I have greater access to some of the higher levels of public figures here in Morocco;
something I would never have in the United Kingdom
so I have a greater sense of social mobility which would be impossible for me in the UK
and on top of that there's always the things that everybody talks about which is the food. Food is very cheap, here
It's very fresh
and the weather of course and the people. Moroccans are great people
and his second question is "What cultural shocks have you had?"
The cultural shock is not really about the country that you go to, but the country that you've left
and for me every time I go back to the UK I notice something more shocking.
How fat everybody is. I've mentioned this in other videos
and it really disturbs me when I I think about how many fat people I see in the United Kingdom
and also how many mobility scooters are being used in the United Kingdom. You see them all over the place
and it is because people are unhealthy
and the other cultural shock that I have every time I go to the UK is realising how much the British people need alcohol in order to enjoy themselves.
Alcohol is such a fundamental part of UK culture and UK society
and that's really quite obvious almost immediately
but it's not until you dig a bit deeper that you realise why that is the case
and it's because British people are really unhappy.
okay Next question from Sagasaga 64.
Did you have any difficulties as someone who doesn't speak Arabic or Darija; especially when getting a job as a teacher
If yes, how did you get through.
Actually the answer is: "No I've had very little difficulty. In fact very little to the point of almost none at all
and I would say in in terms of getting a job as a teacher being a native speaker is actually an asset
A school or an organisation will try to find a way way of getting round the problems of you not speaking the native language
rather than say you don't speak darija, you don't speak Arabic, you don't speak French, so we can't employ you. They just don't do that
The other thing I would say is that when I go into schools, I'm very honest with my students and I tell them from day one that I don't speak Arabic nor French
The initial reaction I get from the kids is often an "OH!"
but they very quickly adapt to it and it actually becomes a benefit to them in their learning
because they have to speak English and just that the whole mindset is focused on English when they speak to me.
The the other thing I would say is that you obviously pick up words phrases, so that obviously helps
you find people who speak your language and so you know that helps
so the longer you stay in a country the easier it actually gets
but in terms of employment being a native speaker who does not speak Arabic or French it's been far from a problem. Not a problem at all
okay next question from Mamone also an ex student of mine
"What were the hardest things to adapt to?"
For me, the biggest difficulty I guess I've had is
trying to adapt to the idea that I'm not as free to speak my mind as I would be if I were in the United Kingdom
and maybe there is a level of paranoia to that maybe I'm just being a bit over cautious
but I do get the feeling that I need to be more aware of what I say and how I say it
I've had a few ideas for videos, for example, that I've shown to friends or I've discussed with my Moroccan friends
and they've said well you know maybe you shouldn't do that or you know find a different way of saying that
On the whole, it's actually not very difficult really. It's something you have to be aware of
and I wouldn't have had to be aware of if I lived in the UK
I'll give you some examples of some videos that I have done that people have said to me you know maybe you need to be a bit careful about this
but I've gone ahead and done it anyway
perhaps the biggest one was the the video that I did where I swapped the image of the king of Morocco on the currency
with the queen of the United Kingdom on the currency of the pound
a lot of people said to me you know that's very dangerous you know it's the image of the king you need to be careful
but I thought you know I'm not being insulting to the king and it's you know artistic interpretation
and that video has had well over 100,000 views and I've had no problem with it
another video that I felt I had to be careful about and people advised me actually not to do
was a video where I examined the difference between religious education and sex education in Morocco and in the United Kingdom
so sometimes I think it's a balance between being daring and just doing it and also the other side being a little bit more respectful and careful
and it's a balance and sometimes it's difficult but you have to think about that
and perhaps you wouldn't have to do that in the United Kingdom
Kaouter asks me "what are the things you like in Morocco and in the people also?"
okay so for me the big thing about Morocco why I am here is that Morocco feels to me like Spain in the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s
so in Spain they had a dictator who died in the mid-70s
and by the time we get to the mid 80s you get a generation of young people who literally never experience life under the the dictatorship
and that was the first generation to explore creativities and freedoms and to be a bit more daring
and I thnk that's what's happening here in Morocco
Young people are starting to do things that previous generations would think to be impossible or not acceptable
and I think this has been driven by the fact that younger people are exposed a lot more to Western culture, social media, but also Netflix music
They are experience a much more liberal, open-minded culture
Being right in the middle of a change in attitude is something really fascinating to me
The way that the older generations and the younger generations are thinking and acting
The other thing I love about being in Morocco is the fact that there is very few CCTV cameras here
You can walk for hours and hours and never be recorded on CCTV. That is an impossibility in the United Kingdom
Most places in the United Kingdom, there just CCTV everywhere
and it's not just one. It's like three or four different cameras down the street
some of them are owned by the government some of them are owned by local businesses.
It's like you are constantly on camera and I find that something very uncomfortable
Here in Morocco, not a problem
Of course the other thing is here in Morocco cash is still king people still pay things with money
and that makes it a lot more difficult for the government for businesses to track you
I get laughed at by Moroccans for saying this, but Moroccans have a level of freedom that people in the United Kingdom lost years ago
It is a level of Freedom that you don't appreciate that you have until you lose it and when you lose it, you can't get it back
Okay. Supthou7: "What aspects of Moroccan culture have you grown to dislike over the years.
Don't worry about offending anyone
People who watch my videos probably know that I love dogs
I do have a problem with the the general Moroccan opinion of dogs.
I don't think Moroccans, yet, really appreciate how fantastic dogs are to humans
Dogs are the the bridge. They are the connector between the human world and the animal world
Dogs can do so much for human beings. Morocco is just not really beginning to understand that
For example: Guide dogs. Morocco has no guide dogs. All the blind people in Morocco just use sticks
In the United Kingdom, all over the world in fact, we have dogs that help people get across the road
and we have dogs help people in emergency situations
People have dogs that will actually go and get the medicine for you, open the fridge, get you some water
you know if you've collapsed or.... In fact, not even that.
If you are about to collapse, because dogs can smell human illness
and they can react to a human well before the human being even knows there's something wrong with them
Dogs are fantastic and I would really love to see Morocco develop a good relationship with dogs, because it will help Moroccan society greatly.
Second thing: Dropping litter in the street. I think this is something that all ex-pats complain about
Okay here's the thing: I don't believe you love or respect your country if you drop rubbish in the street
I've said it!
Another thing that I find very strange and something that makes me feel quite uncomfortable
Adults who wear safety helmets on motorbikes but they don't put a helmet on their kid
You see them: these little kids going 60-70 kilometers down the road and their dad has a helmet
so if they crash, the dad's going to be fine. The little kid is going to be dead, but the dad's going to be fine.
I don't know! What message that sends to me is: you value your own life more than you value your child
and and I'm sure that it's not. I'm obviously looking at this from a western point of view
but it does seem very strange to me that you would protect yourself before you would protect your child
and actually put your child in danger
Okay everybody this is video has turned out to be a lot longer than I expected it to be
so I've decided to cut it into two halves and what you have just watched is the first part
Don't forget to leave any comments or ideas or your thoughts in the comment section below
particularly if you found something in the video that you didn't agree with
Hopefully, you will join me again for part two, which should be on your screens now
If it is not then it's because it hasn't been edited and uploaded yet
Thanks very much for watching. Don't forget to buy my books. See you in the next one.
Bye-bye now