American University of Cairo (AUC)

My roommate didn't speak english so this was the best factor in helping me learn Arabic. We watched Soap opera and cartoons in Arabic and she would try to explain. I helped her with her english and she with my arabic. Also as a girl you tend to pick up little things automatically when you date some one from the area. And as a girl its not hard to get involved with the male population in the area. So 3 days after I arrived I found myself dating one of the guys in the club I had joined. were still great friends.

Arabic is great language but the school though should be taught in english was not and tended to be in arabic and the international students would be lost. as for the locals. it was sometime difficult to find soemoen randonly offf the street that sopke english.

Lots of people speak some level of English, but learning Arabic is much more fun. Take your time and enjoy and use it to the best of your advantage. I MUST warn you- there will be times when you will need an Arabic speaker. If you need to talk to the cops, the hospital, or a bawab. Make FRIENDS with Egyptian students and have them help you. They are all really nice and willing to help!

Arabic rocks. That's why I was there. Egyptian arabic is very useful. Maybe less charming than others dialects. But useful

Because it was such a difficult language you should not have too high expectations if you are only staying one year.

The courses at the university are taught in English, however, when students interact with each other it is mostly done in Arabic or a mixture of both languages. Personally, it wasn't hard for me to interact with students in terms of language as there weren't any barriers.