For Ohio U. junior Michael Lupsa, new languages and cultures are more than just classroom lessons.

The son of Romanian immigrants, Lupsa, who is studying communications, grew up in a household where English was not the primary language and the culture was different from the one outside his home. Fluent in Romanian, Italian, Spanish and English, he was exposed to languages early in life.

Lupsa’s interest in languages brought him to spend this summer in Jordan studying Arabic as part of the Critical Language Scholarship Program, funded by the U.S. Department of State. The department awarded 575 scholarships in 13 languages this year, including Lupsa’s choice of Arabic, according to the department’s website.

“I don’t really fit into any sort of niche,” Lupsa said. “I fit into different cultures, not just one.”

His interest in the Arab world sparked an ambition to study Arabic beginning his senior year of high school. Last year, he worked a summer job with a few Arab women, becoming exposed to their culture firsthand.

“(The Arabic language) sounds beautiful,” he said. “It’s different than the other languages I’ve studied. I became hooked on Arabic. I feel like I’m decoding an ancient language.”

First named as an alternate in March, Lupsa was crushed.

“I thought it was the end,” he said.

But after being awarded the scholarship in May, he had less than a month to prepare for his trip to Amman, Jordan. When he stepped off the plane, he said he expected to be able to read and understand everything. To his surprise, he could hardly understand a word that was said.

Lupsa learned modern standard Arabic in school before the program but arrived to find that most natives spoke different dialects.

“Without knowing the dialect, I couldn’t get around,” he said. “It was like knowing two Arabic languages – the one I learned in class, and the one everyone else spoke.”

The program involved a 12-hour class schedule with a three-hour break – equal to about 20 credit hours – and about four to five hours of homework, all in Arabic. But his lessons were still taught in modern standard Arabic. Luckily, Lupsa made friends with non-English-speaking people.

“They were the driving force behind learning Arabic and picking up the dialect,” he said.

Upon his return, Lupsa had only good things to say about going abroad. “If you decide to study abroad and keep an open mind, your life will change exponentially,” he said.