Maangi ci jamm ci Dakar Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Speaking from the perspective of those who took all their classes in French, I think we struggled a little bit with the fact that sometimes people in a same classroom were in different levels of language proficiency. Overall, the professors were great and highly prepared but it felt like they were limited at times because some students had trouble following the content.

On-site administration of your program

I cannot express how impressed I am by the professionalism and preparedness of all the staff at CIEE Study Center Dakar. In all hierarchy levels, all the people who worked with us were incredibly helpful and dedicated to helping the students have the best experience possible.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I think I had personal problems with my host family in the sense that I had expected a more profound connection with the people I was going to live with for all those months. Each student had a different host family and their own room. My family was excellent when it comes to the "logistics"-- they offered me everything they were required to, a clean room, all meals, a safe environment. But I was disappointed to find out that the human connection didn't happen. I believe my family had previously hosted so many foreign students in this program that they became "jaded". At times I felt like I was just "this semester's guy", and not an individual. I believe the program would benefit from investing in expanding their relationship with the community and finding new families to host their students.

We had all our meals at our host family's house. The food was great, but not very diversified. CIEE also provided a bi-weekly stipend to supplement the student's diets, so we were able to occasionally go to local restaurants and buy fruits and vegetables.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Dakar is an unbelievably safe city! I was so surprised to find out that we could easily stay out for as long as we wanted and walk around freely without worrying about our safety. Of course you need to take basic precautions, as you would in any American city. I guess I would also advise LGBT students to be a little more cautious and aware of their surroundings, as Senegal is sadly a very homophobic countries and there have been several reports of violence targeted at people perceived as LGBT in the past years.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

Very easily! Dakar is an expensive city compared to the rest of the country, but it's still incredibly accessible because of currency rate differences.

0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language

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• Host Family

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• Host Family

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• Americans

• Local program staff
• Location
• Language learning

• Host families
• Interaction with local students

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