The Excellence Center Reviews

As an Arabic student, most of my time was spent either in lesson, or backing up notes and memorising vocabulary outside of lesson. The excellence centre also offers weekly excursions to sites of interest, such as the refugee camp outside of Hebron, and a leather factory in the old city. Without a doubt these excursions are interesting, and really help build your understanding of the culture of Palestine, and the situation here. The centre gives you two days off a week. This coupled with the fact that transport in the West Bank is relatively affordable, means you can independently travel around the West Bank and Israel. I have visited Bethlehem and Jerusalem during my time here. The fact that you can independently travel in and around this area of the Middle East certainly adds to the experience.
Living with a host family is a wonderful experience. Mine has been kind, welcoming and generous since the moment I arrived. I have found most Palestinians, including those in my host family, to be inquisitive and talkative. Furthermore they are happy to answer any questions you may have on the current political situation in the area.
My time in Palestine has coincided with a period of unrest due to Israeli security measures at the al-Aqsa mosque. There were clashes within the city between protestors and the IDF which I witnessed. It must be said that It was of my choosing to witness this event, and it was the only time I have felt slightly unsafe in Palestine. I have noticed the tensions but only in h2 and in IDF administered areas outside of the city.
My favourite aspect of Palestine has undoubtedly been the people. From the staff at the centre, to my host family to people on the street, Palestinians are wonderful people to live and talk with.
Lessons were a good mix of fun and challenge, and the teaching is excellent. I came to the excellence centre as a complete beginner of Arabic, but I leave with a good vocabulary and ability to simple everyday conversations
I will look back on my time in Palestine fondly. I came here thinking there would be a degree of danger and tension, but I leave with a completely different opinion.
I would highly recommend the excellence centre. Not only is the teaching excellent, the rest of the staff are kind, professional and accommodating. Furthermore the price is highly competitive compared to alternatives in other areas such as Jordan, Lebanon, Cairo and Muscat.

Marhaba! I am a bilingual (Spanish) 5th grade teacher from San Francisco, California, USA. I came to Palestine for the first time in 2015 as the recipient of a Fulbright Distinguished Award in teaching. During my three-month stay, I focused the bulk of my three months on an inquiry project, and unfortunately didn’t have much opportunity to study and practice Arabic. Because of my love for this country and its people, (and my strong desire to return), I decided I would try to come back, but this time to focus on Arabic language acquisition. The elementary school where I teach has seen a recent increase in refugees from Yemen, so I requested a grant to come to the Excellence Center to study, in hopes that I'd gain the skills necessary to better be able to connect with Arabic speaking families at my school.

I feel so privileged to have been able to return to Palestine and participate in a language course through the Excellence Center! As soon as I arrived, I was given a very warm welcome by staff and volunteers in Hebron. Later that day, I was taken to meet my host family in the nearby village of Beit Ummar. Immediately upon arrival, I was happily greeted by a room full of women who were in the midst of making delicious ma’ mool (traditional cookies during Ramadan), which came to be one of my favorite treats.

It has been such an incredibly rich experience living with a host-family. I am very fortunate to have such a great placement. I have learned so much more about Palestinian culture and traditions living with a family than I could have living in my own apartment. I am also very happy that I chose to arrive during Ramadan, which gave me the opportunity to enjoy Iftar (breaking of the fast) with my host-family, as well as the three days of Eid celebration. My host-family ensures that I participate in as many traditions as possible, so I have also had the chance to attend a couple of weddings, which has been so fun!!

My Arabic instructor, Shaymaa, is so knowledgeable, lively, funny, kind, and most importantly, patient. I am trying to learn a third language rather late in my life, and I know that I am not as speedy of a student as Shaymaa is used to, but she has been so flexible and understanding, making adjustments to lessons in order to ensure that I understand. There have been moments when I have felt very frustrated with myself, and that I have made little progress, but then I review my notebook and I am reminded of all that I have learned. My host-family is also very encouraging, and always makes it a priority to assist me with my homework as needed, or answer whatever questions I might have.

The Excellence Center offers a variety of outings in and around Hebron, but since this is my second time in Palestine, I instead used my free time to travel and visit friends in Bethlehem, East Jerusalem, and Ramallah.

It has been a different experience living in Area B/C, compared to Area A during my first visit. (If you are not familiar with what that means, you'll quickly learn upon arrival.) I do feel extremely safe in Palestine. I am comfortable walking around my village, traveling by public transportation (called "service"), but there is always some discomfort that comes with witnessing the strong soldier presence around the village, and throughout the West Bank, for that matter. I believe that it is extremely important for outsiders to witness the daily injustices Palestinians face living under occupation. I feel that it is my responsibility to share what I’ve witnessed and the countless stories I’ve heard with as many people as possible in my own country, so that we can all fight to end this oppressive system.

Despite the unjust and difficult conditions under which Palestinians live, as a “people” they are so very welcoming and generous; we all have so much to learn from their strength and resiliency.

I am very sad to have to say goodbye to everyone who I’ve met during my stay. It has been such a privilege and honor to be here. I thank Marwa, Rafat, & everyone at the Excellence Center, especially my beautiful teacher, Shaymaa! I also feel deeply indebted to Abu Youssef, Fatin, Shoruq, Sultan, Bayan, Anas, Ameer, Youssef and the entire extended family in Beit Ummar for their magnificent hospitality. They all have a very special place in my heart.

Shukran ktiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiir!!!!!

One of the best programs I have ever attended. The teachers are above average educated, professional and accommodating. The lessons are fun and the center's efforts go way beyond teaching language. The entire Excellence center staff went out of their way to answer questions about local culture and politics, organized educational field trips and even included me in off-hours Ramadan events and family dinners. Frankly the center could easily charge three times as much for their language program.

I will return many times.

As my time in Hebron comes to an end, I am happy to say that I have had nothing but wonderful experiences throughout the past month. I arrived in the middle of Ramadan, and therefore had many opportunities to experience local culture during the Holy month. This included many iftars and many family visits. I felt very welcomed by my host family and accompanied them on visits to extended family members’ houses and even a wedding!
There were many opportunities to speak with locals from all different backgrounds. I had many interesting conversations that you couldn’t have in a classroom, including about the history of the area, the ongoing conflict, and how Hebron has progressed as a city in recent times. Hearing the opinions and point of views of different people in this setting was extremely interesting, and it will continue to fascinate me.
After the parties of Eid were over, there was more to see and do. I spent the long weekend travelling into the north of Israel with a few other teachers from the Center. We rented a car and drove to Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Tiberias. One day, we went hiking and river rafting in the Golan Heights. It was a very easy drive – only a few hours by highway – and therefore we had a lot of time to explore the surrounding countryside.
After arriving back in Hebron, there were a few more classes and the last few nights with my host family. I have spent most of my time at the Center teaching Workshops instead of the regular classes, which I very much enjoy. The workshops are for more advanced students and cover topics such as CV preparation, creative writing, and interview practice. The students are very open and eager to learn, and their motivation makes teaching these classes so rewarding. A lot of the students are eager to speak with you after class, to ask where you are from and what you study. I have even been invited to the homes of some of my students to meet their families.
I will be very sad to leave my host family when that day finally arrives. They have made me feel so at home and I feel like after nearly a month I have truly become part of the family. My host mom has taught me how to cook some Palestinian dishes, and we spend every night sitting and talking (and practicing Arabic). I have enjoyed my time in Hebron so much. I will always remember my time at the Center and I hope to come back the next chance I get.

I joined the Excellence Center three months ago as a volunteer and I could not be happier with my experience here in Hebron, Palestine. I had searched online for a program that would afford me total immersion in the Arabic-speaking community. As soon as I came across the website of the Excellence Center, I knew I had found the right place for me. Once I arrived in Hebron, I was placed in a host family. Living with a Palestinian family was truly special and an experience I will never forget. I was welcomed with open arms and treated like a member of the family from day one. I was always included in every family occasion, including seven wedding-related events, which truly gave me a unique look into everyday Palestinian life and culture. We always enjoyed meals together (my host mother is an exquisite and passionate cook!) and I feel I have tasted almost every Palestinian dish. Most importantly, I was able to have Arabic around me at all times which helped me tremendously in my quest to learn the language. It has all been a truly heart-warming experience and I know my host family and I will be friends for life.

Teaching Palestinians English was incredible as well. Prior to the Center, I did not have any teaching experience but I realized straight away that the wonderfully supportive staff at the Center led by the director Marwa was always there to answer questions and help guide me when help was needed. My students were very eager to learn and speak English. I taught different levels and always tried to stay loyal the main goal of the Center, which is to have the students speak as much as possible and for us to create classes that are fun and motivating for the students. Volunteers are asked to be as creative as possible and this freedom in teaching makes the work here in Hebron especially fun and rewarding for us.

I have dreamed about learning the Arabic language for many years. Having completed a Masters in Middle Eastern Studies ten years ago, I had already attempted to learn Arabic once before but sadly did not continue. I always regretted this. So I finally decided to go to the Middle East this year and signed up for the volunteer program at the Excellence Center, which includes 3 hours of private Arabic lessons each week. I could not have made a better decision. On my first day I met my teacher Shayma and we started the most amazing language journey! She is the most talented, charming and motivating teacher and every day with her has been pure joy. I was so excited about my progress after eight weeks that I decided to pursue the intensive course for another month. I could not speak any Arabic at all prior to my stay here in Hebron and can now hold a basic conversation in Arabic as well as read and write. This development feels incredible and it is all thanks to Shayma's positive energy and teaching methods, which make class fun and filled with laughter. If you do your share and study daily on your own, you can really benefit from everything the Center offers. The staff is just amazing. Especially the director of the Center, Marwa, is always concerned in making your stay as perfect as possible. Her support made me feel so welcome at all times and well-taken care of. The Excellence Center has a beautiful soul and I will never forget how well I was treated in Palestine.

Marhaba! My name is Eleanor. I’m 28 years old, was born in Australia and grew up in Oxford, United Kingdom. I have been living in London for the past five years. My undergraduate degree was in Social Anthropology and History of Art/Archaeology from SOAS, University of London; I’m currently completing a masters degree in Visual Anthropology from Goldsmiths, University of London. For the month of June 2017, I volunteered at The Excellence Centre in Hebron, Palestine.
I also participated at The Excellence Centre last year in 2016, with the ‘Teach English, Learn Arabic’ program. This experience improved my teaching skills, providing a variety of teaching experiences, such as the opportunity to teach children, teenagers and adults. Though I had taken some beginners Arabic classes before, both experiences of living in Hebron and volunteering at the centre improved my Arabic a great deal. This year, I was signed up as a volunteer, allowing me the freedom to create my own lessons.
From the 11th to the 14th of July 2017, creative writing workshops in English were coordinated for intermediate level students at The Excellence Centre. These were organised and filmed as part of my dissertation project for an MA in Visual Anthropology. The focus was linguistic exchange, and the project was designed to watch and encourage students to express themselves in English, in a manner with which they were perhaps not used to being taught. The workshops were split into four lessons, subsequently with four primary focuses: Introduction to creative writing, Form and Rhythm, Similes, Metaphors and Descriptions and finally: Performance. The final workshop was designed to mimic an open mic or spoken word night such as that are common in the United Kingdom and United States. Overall, the project was successful with good feedback.
My Arabic lessons on both occasions both helped to me to improve my proficiency in Arabic, but perhaps the most rewarding experience in improving my knowledge of the language has been staying with a host family. I stayed with the same host family on each visit to Palestine: they are kind and welcoming, have helped me with my homework and have taught me new words. Palestinian people are very welcoming, and if you have the opportunity to stay with a host family here then it will certainly be a rewarding experience. It enlightens the visitor to the culture, and provides a comforting safety network whilst in Palestine. I have remained in touch with my own host family, and they are very dear to me. Due to their welcoming nature, I have felt very safe in Palestine.
The centre’s environment is also welcoming, in which there’s the potential to meet new people every week from around the world. Teachers and volunteers cooperate together to plan their lessons, and help each other with their Arabic study. There’s a communal kitchen in which people have their morning tea. There are site visits, and during my time at The Excellence Centre in 2017 I have visited a local glass and ceramic factory.

There is nothing quite like volunteering in the West Bank during Ramadan - I would definitely recommend the Excellence Center as a way to do this. The staff are friendly and helpful, the center is really well located and the students are generally engaged and eager to learn. Hebron is an interesting city to explore, and it is easy to travel around the rest of the country and explore. If you want to teach English and also learn Palestinian Arabic from a fantastic teacher, this is the place to do it. One thing I would recommend for potential volunteers is to adapt to the Palestinian pace of life - things don't always get organised as promptly as they might do at home. But as soon as you get used to this, you are bound to have a great time.

I did not know what to expect coming to Hebron. I have over the years traveled enough to know that there is a difference between what we hear about a place as it is filtered through certain narratives or news services and reality as it is daily experienced, but I was still nevertheless unsure, probably because Hebron is one of the most unique places in the Holy Land.
I spent my time at the Excellence Centre writing articles and assisting the other volunteers in their classes. My daily duties involved speaking to the staff and students and doing research for the articles while attending the occasional lesson with one of the teachers. Daily, the Center was a hive of activity, students of all ages and all abilities attend the Excellence Center and after time I had become good friends with many of them. My favorite day was always the food day. The Excellence Center are very big proponents of informal conversational English training – a component missing from the Palestinian curriculum. For the teachers this means a relaxed teaching environment, and for everyone else this means food days. On these days, a volunteer would cook a dish from their country and the students would bring food from home. With each day starting with a Palestinian breakfast, the days would go quick – there was always something to do or someone to speak to.
As well as these activities, I also took Arabic lessons. The Center provides these to volunteers and the lessons are done one on one. As the teachers are experienced and trained in teaching methods, these classes improved my non-existent Arabic to a level I thought was not possible. I enjoyed these lessons so much (and my teacher, Do’a of whom I would recommend to anyone) that once my volunteering time was finished, I undertook an extra week of Arabic lessons with Do’a, and am hoping to continue with her when I return home.
Of course, being in Palestine, I wanted to travel and see the region and the Center were able to assist with this as well. I visited a nearby refugee camp where we had lunch with a family, visited a nearby village and meet the mayor after being driven through the beautiful surrounding hills. Mid-way through my stay, I was also taken on a tour of Hebron where I saw Abraham’s Oak. As at the time of writing this, I have also planned a trip to a Bedouin community in my last week in Hebron. Each tour is perfectly planned, all a volunteer has to do is express an interest and then show up at the Center, the rest is taken care of.
In all, the Excellence Center has been the perfect place from which to not only see Hebron, but to experience it. The staff members treat everyone like an extended family while Marwa is the perfect boss. Hebron itself can be hard to describe, it is not like Ramallah, nor does it match Jerusalem in its religious splendor. The city though has a distinctive flow, a rhythm that originates from the Palestinians who live there. It is this, this unique flow that Hebron moves to, that is the city’s true gift. It certainly has its troubles, and some days are reminders that this place is a hotly contested city between two groups of determined people, but despite this, or maybe even because of this, Hebron still takes a hold of you and in return provides an insight into Palestine that you will unlikely get anywhere else.
Stephen Hindes

I would definitely recommend the study abroad program at the Excellence Center in Hebron Palestine. I was treated with kindness and felt so welcomed. The Excellence Center helped me through every step of the way with providing detailed information about the process, the application and the getting there. Everyone at the Center were so nice and friendly and knowledgeable. My host family was amazing I felt like I was staying with family they cooked delicious Palestinian food I love them. I had the chance to experience real life in Palestine and learn Arabic from classes, trips and daily life experience. If you want to come to Palestine a safe and magical place do it through the Excellence Center they will go out of their way to make your stay a perfect one!!

My name is Syazana and I am from Singapore. I am 20 years old and just recently graduated with a Diploma in Hospitality and Tourism. I participated in the program, Volunteer in Palestine for about a week.

I participated volunteering works such as assisting a teacher teaching for one of the classes conducted at the center, conducted my own English lesson with two other volunteers at a local school, and also learn basic Arabic Language. This was a first for me as I’ve never done any teaching before, what more to students of many ages which ranged from as young as 10 years old to as old as working adults. It was also an experience trying to teach them with our language barrier.

Learning the Arabic language here was also a great opportunity for me to be able to expand on my Arabic language knowledge. I learnt very minimal basic Arabic back in Singapore and thus being able to learn the dialect here was fun. I can even apply them practically in or out of the center with the locals here. However, it is quite sad that I only get to learn very basic Arabic here due to my short stay with the center.

The staff at the center are very friendly and nice. They’re always welcoming me by making tea and breakfast at the start of the day. Breakfast at the center is a great time to socialize with the staff and other international volunteers here. During my short stay here, I was able to make friends with 4 other volunteers from countries such as Mexico, America, and London. The students at the center are very enthusiastic as they are very keen to learn English. It is really fun to be able to teach the students here.

The center brings volunteers to places in Hebron such as the Old City, the Ibrahimi Mosque, and also a glass and ceramic factory. The Old City and the Ibrahimi Mosque is one of the few tourist attraction in Hebron. It holds a rich history and thus the trip there was very engaging as I was able to learn about some history of Hebron. The glass and ceramic factory visit was an experience too as I was able to witness how the ceramics are being made before it is ready for sale. Other than the site visits that the center brought us to, I went to outside of Hebron on my off day. As I went for the volunteering program together with my sister, we went to visit Jerusalem for a day visit. We visited the famous Old City in Jerusalem as well as the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

During our stay here, I was attached to a host family together with my sister. Our host family was very friendly and welcomed us with open arms. They always provided us with whatever they could to ensure that we could adjust to living in Hebron. We learnt a lot while staying with them - their culture, their family, their traditions, the Hebron lifestyle, and the conflict with Israel and how it affects the lives of Palestinians, including our host family. Over dinner, we get to enjoy the host family’s home-cooked Palestinian food, and listen to the family converse in Arabic; a great way for us to pick up and learn the Arabic language here.

We love everything about Palestine - the food, the people, and the scenery. The food here is really delicious, a great opportunity to try out different types of local food that our home country doesn’t serve. The people here are very friendly. They will try to converse with you even though they can’t speak English fluently, and will be more than happy to help you out. Palestinians also get very excited when they see foreigners. They will ask where you’re from and welcome you to Palestine, wishing you a great stay here. The scenery here is very different from Singapore. The architecture is different as there are many high-rise buildings in Singapore compared to Palestine. The weather here is different too. Palestine experiences the 4 seasons while Singapore is very humid and either sunny or rainy. We were able to experience the end of their spring season and the beginning of their summer season. It is chilly in the morning and night, but very hot and sunny in the afternoon.

Safety and security of living in Palestine is one of the many concerns of tourists who’d like to visit Palestine. However, fret not. Although there are many checkpoints along Palestine and many armed soldiers stationed everywhere, I do feel safe. My sister and I did experience some difficulty at Tel Aviv when we first reached Israel but we were able to make it to Hebron safely.

My stay here in Hebron has been really great and I would recommend to others who are keen on doing volunteering works in Palestine, to those who are keen on learning the Arabic language, or even to those who want to visit Palestine as a tourist. I’ve learnt a lot of valuable things here and would not mind coming back again in the future.