English Club Oujda (ECO)

Editorial for Students Newsletter, issue 1, 2005:

Working within a group and for certain goals is becoming a necessity; and our case as students is no exception. We have to do the same thing. We have to work in group(s) to test our understanding, speaking, writing, and listening skills of English. Since we feel involved and concerned because we are students of a foreign and worldwide spoken language, we have agreed to found a space where we can meet and tackle those matters to us as students. As students, we are required to communicate with both the local and the international world through channels like these, i.e. a journal or a newsletter. Communication is our target. We have agreed to name it English Club in Oujda, ECO for short. The Club’s presence in our department will hopefully give a new taste to English Studies and a fresh stimulus to students in general and to those who have been aspiring to have a medium through which they may discover their hidden skills, ripen their academic capacities, and develop their talents.

The current members of the Club, who have shown great enthusiasm when the project was in embryo and who have burdened themselves with the responsibility of making it a reality, welcome new suggestions and new members. Without their encouragement, we could not be writing now about the Club nor could the latter be given life. We do thank them a great deal. Equal thanks go also to the encouragements we received from some teachers in the department, particularly from the head of the department, Mr Mohamed Dellal, and from teachers: Mr Khalid Hajji, Mr Larbi Touaf, Mr Elhachemy Serraj and Mr Amar Sellam, to name but these.

The Club attempted to organize formally one of its first activities – Public Reading Competition - by the end of the academic year 2004-2005, but because this coincided with the examinations period the idea was and changed into an informal party. The latter was organized in a very short period of time and took place in a theatre-training class-room. Most of attendants were 3rd year students, in addition to some teachers, students belonging to the same department and other guests who were once our fellow students and were then either already teachers in High Schools or were still being trained in CPR. All in all, the party was like an exercise that the Club took as a preparation for more formal activities to follow.

The English Club Oujda (ECO) then depends on students without whom it cannot breathe. So, we do invite all our fellow students in the department to try their utmost best to join the Club and enrich it with their views, suggestions, attendance and criticism.

For the editing Board

Mohammed HASHAS

A group of 3rd year students belonging to the Department of English met on 19th March, 2005, and decided to found a club that aims at the following :

To test students’ understanding, speaking, and writing skills of English Language
To organize study days, seminars, and conferences
To carry out public speaking and debating competitions
To edit magazines and newsletters
To discover creative writers in English via organizing forums for the talented students
To implement meetings that would solve students’ difficulties concerning studies

The English Club cannot stand without students’ care and attention. ECO believes that it is not the job of teachers to think of activities and to arrange for them. Instead, it is the job of students. Teachers will certainly be there just to guide and advise. ECO is our home which we like to see very clean and beautiful. It is your chance to take and to give instead of just taking. It is your first touchstone where you have to use what you have. It is a daily examination which prepares us for a final test. is our place to voice our voices which we cannot voice in the class-room.

The Club Members  

Fore more information please contact:

• Mohammed HASHAS in person or at hashasm@gmail.com, cell: 071-360-502 or
• Nour-eddine LABIAD at nlabiad@gmail.com, cell: 068-999-444

Thanks to

Special thanks to

Nour-eddinE LABIAD who encouraged the idea of having a club at the university from afar when he was still preparing his BA at Rutgers University, USA . Without him the idea of having a blog for the Club would not have taken place at this age.

Impressions

     Founding and running a club is a very interesting and tiring project. It needs hard work, a strong will and a fuelled enthusiasm and gumption. The idea of having a club in our department, which is in fact an old dream, has been brought to life and should not die out. The Club should survive with or without us. I do not want it to vanish when we leave this Faculty. At the moment it is ‘Ours’ that is why we have to

attend to it well.  The coming   generations will have to attend to it as well , as it will be ‘Theirs,’ and that is what I want and hope for…I invite the founding members of the Club to try their  best to make it  successful and to pave the ground for the coming generations to work on it, develop it, and make it well known, and successful.

   I thank our advisors, Dr Mohamed Dellal and Dr. Khalid Hajji, for their interest and support.

          I wish this Club every success. Mohammed Hashas

The idea of the club has been a dream since my first year at the University, but thanks to God it is going to become a reality now that I have met fellow students who share the same idea , and who are willing to develop it. Aziz Ouchlikh

My interest in joining this Club arises out of my strong need to read and write. I hope that this Club will be a success through the contributions and the help of the students of the English Department as well as that of our supervisors.  Hanae Hakkou

I am very pleased to be a member of this Club. Jalal Karim

     I am very pleased to join this Club as I have always been thinking about participating in intellectual activities. Since hope is the beginning of success, I am very optimistic that our Club will be an ideal one because of its enthusiastic and hard working members. Redouane LOUKILI

First of all, I’d like to express my gratitude to all the members of the Club for trusting me. It is a privilege to be involved in such an interesting project. I really have pleasure to work with my great friends and colleagues. The idea of founding a club is very difficult, I admit, since it calls for a great deal of  hard work and stamina. Yet, I do believe in each member’s aptitudes and talents. Through cooperation we will manage to turn this project into a great achievement of which the English Department students will be very proud. The wise guidance of our advisors, Mr Hajji and Mr Dellal, will be of great help, too. So, I wish good luck to every member of the Club, and may God help us all. Ilhame Boutchich

Students Memoriam

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       “The Club was a second house where we used to meet weekly to discuss hot issues, books and some courses of our university program. Moreover, the Club extended its activities by planning for journeys and trips to Barken, Fazouen and so on paying visits to associations (in Berkane) and churches (in Oujda) to exchange ideas and learn from the others’ group work. As far as I am concerned, the Club was a second opportunity for us to discuss our ideas, problems, ambitions….We used to help each other and find solutions to our problems…So many thanks to the founders of the Club…,” says Omar MAABICH, the critic of the Society.        “By the end of my fourth year I recall all the beautiful days at Mohamed I University, Oujda , four years of hard work…. I met good friends especially my gang…and of course there are my great professors who gave us the best  What is important now is to consider the end of our university studies as a beginning of our life because how we will deal with real problems is the most important exam in our life,” writes Amal OUARHLI, with a broad smile in her face.        “Well, my years at university were marked by good souvenirs. I have learnt a lot from the circumstances I went through and from the formation I got. My first year was the beginning of my hard work. At that time I knew that studies at university are not easy as I was told. Just then I began working assiduously and seriously, preparing various         exposes    in different subjects.  It is really wonderful       to feel that you  are               fulfilling your mission as it should be. During the 3rd and the 4th years I have been taking part in extra curricular activities as a member of the organizing committee of ESC…I have also contributed in cataloguing  the books of the Resource Room. Without forgetting the work shop supervised by professor YAHYA CHAWAL. In fact, during these 4 years, as many teachers have admitted, I have succeeded to show obvious signs of clear insight and critical analysis. This is thanks to their fruitful pieces of advice to which I will stay always mindful. This helped me to get my BA easily. On the social level, I have won many friends…,” Hanane HAKKOU writes joyfully.