Studiing Arabic with Saymaa at the Excellence Center in Hebron

This is my first longer visit to Palestine. I am a 52 year old teacher from Passau, Germany and studied catholic theology from 1985 until 1991 and in these years I learned some basic Arabic for reading the Quran and to compare with Our Christian Bible. As a master of theology I teached the Old Hebrew language of the bible for some years at the University of Passau and at the Catholic University of Linz, Austria. Because of the many contacts with refugees during and after the refugee crisis I have many friends now from Syria and Iraq which speak Arabic and now learn German. For improving my contacts I now learn Arabic and did so for 2 weeks at the Excellence Center here in Al Chalil Hebron.

I learned at the Excellence Center in Hebron Arabic and travelled with the staff to many locations in Palestine to meet Palestinian people and discover the interesting country. Starting with Jerusalem on my way from the airport to Hebron by Bus and Taxi everyone was nice and gave me a friendly welcome. I remember Betlehem at most, because I am a Christian and teacher of Christian children in Austria. But also the national ecological garden in Battir was a very good experience when walking around and see the nice locations around the roman bath there and on the hills. Even the town of Hebron with the Ibrahimi mosque and the Suq was a very interesting visit. In Betlehem even the wall and the political background was of interest as was the refugee camp nearby called xxx. We will visit on my last day Jericho and Ramallah and I am looking forward to this warm and healthy places now in winter with 22 degree!

My Arabic lessons were an extraordinary experience, because my teacher Sazmaa forced me to immerse into the Arabic language as I hoped to when booking this course. I asked her to study Fuscha, the traditional high level language of the books, and she engaged totally during every lesson within my 10 days of study to lift my level from reading holy texts to also be able to speak and to talk about the experiences. I never had such an inspiring course even in University and she used modern teaching methods which made learning an adventure and activated all senses to learn Arabic. I am really grateful about this. I will try to write some Arabic at the end to show the effords I made with my teacher.
The hospitality of the people at the ME is really great and the mixture of students of Arabic and International volonteers helping Palestinian students to learn English by the help of native speakers was inspiring me even to learn some better English like I did before. Everyone is highly engaged in developing the education of the local people and the students and volonteers .
During my stay at the Excellence Center here in Al Chalil Hebron I lived with two other male students in an apartment with kitchen and 2 rooms where I as the oldest one could use one for me alone. The rooms are basic but comfortable and the cooperation in kitchen and when learning makes fun.
Safety had been guaranteed all the time at any area in Hebron. Even when walking around alone it was fun to be in contact very fast and feel a warm welcome everywhere. There was no security problem when I was visiting the mosque or Shahada street alone or when I went to the local barber. Everyone wanted to talk about Germany and the differences of my Christian faith and the Islam and the welcome of refugees in Germany which the Palestinian people appreciate and honor very much. I felt that it is a question of hospitality for any inhabitant in Hebron that I as the guest felt comfortable and of course secure at any time. Also when visiting alone Shahada street, the mosque or the suq I felt secure.. The hospitality when offering us local meals like maqluba or local Palestinian breakfast impressed me most, but also the historical places and the holy churches and mosques were amazing. Nature is nice even in winter.
When I arrived at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem early in the morning at 4 a.m. a nice guy started me speaking Arabic in front of bus 231 from al Quds to Betlehem, and the Arabic adventure begun in the first minutes. The first words I repeated and learned with him were the starting point of the studies here and this continued every day. The people here are kind and polite and I felt welcome all the time.
The tolerance between all the staff, the teachers, the volonteers and the students of the Arabic language was overwhelming (even jewish students could learn Arabic here during my stay).
I highly recommend the ME for studiing Arabic or volunteering and think about further chances to come to Hebron to continue my learning Arabic here. For older persons like me it might be of interest, that local hotels with a high standard of service might attract people which need a higher comfort.
انا درست اللغة العربية في المركز اكسلنس فالخليل من 27.12.2016-7.1.2017. انا احب هذا المدينة وكل الناس به. اليوم نحن درسنا كل العدد من 20 الى 20000. هذا كثير لي.
انا اريد ان ادروس لاستطيع لاقرا هذا اللغه الجميلة قي الكتب العربية