What are the impacts that a constantly changing MENA region both culturally and socially has on study-abroad programs? To what extent do these socio-cultural changes impose an adaptation of Arabic instruction programs and pedagogies? How does cultural awareness contribute to bridge the gap between personal identities and other social realities and foster behavioral adjustments and create new interactions between the Arabic language learners and their new socio-cultural environment in study-abroad programs? These questions are the focus of this paper which aims at proposing strategies that Arabic study-abroad participants facing unexpected linguistic and cultural challenging unpredictabilities, especially when they travelling to the MENA region for the first time, could use to interact with their new social surrounding. We will explore ways of preparing students to cope with both cultural and linguistic opaqueness and intricacies. We will also illustrate ways of integrating Formal Arabic and Moroccan Arabic and going beyond the limitations of textbook content to invade other untrodden areas of social involvement and cultural interaction. We will present techniques we use at Dartmouth College to build cultural awareness and help the students become active partners in their new communities rather than mere passive observers and note-takers.