The Value of Immersion

CET really understands the value of cultural and linguistic immersion, and I felt that the program tried to immerse students as much as possible into the Jordanian community. Each student has a Jordanian roommate, and my roommate became one of my lifelong friends very quickly, taking me to visit her family every weekend outside of Amman - they were all welcoming, and didn't speak English, so it was a wonderful way to begin practicing Arabic rather quickly. Additionally, it is very easy to make friends with other roommates living in the building - I found that almost all roommates were happy to spend time with CET students, for tea, to help with homework, or just to talk. I entered the program with a fairly low level of Arabic, but the learning curve was very steep thanks to constant practice.

CET provides many other opportunities for conversational practice: students meet with language partners regularly, and there are also teacher's assistants in every class. There are often days when students are paired up with assistants to practice speaking on a certain topic. The class sizes are small, so the student-teacher ratio is very good, and the student-teacher's assistant ratio was almost 1:1 in my class. Furthermore, teacher's assistants are usually students at the University of Jordan, so it is a great way to make friends and learn more about the community. The classes themselves were interactive, and used a diverse range of methods to develop listening, speaking, and reading skills.

Most of the blocks for linguistic progress and cultural immersion came from CET students themselves. Often, they didn't stick to the language pledge, and stuck together rather than branching out to get to know Jordanians. CET's summer program was an incredibly meaningful experience for me, and after just two months I felt completely comfortable and able to take a taxi in Arabic, talk about myself/my life, talk about culture and women's rights, and banter in the fun and sassy Arab way : ) However, I rarely spent time with other students on the program - most of my time was spent with my roommate, her family, other CET roommates, language partners, or teacher's assistants. While this takes a lot of energy (and a fair amount of courage in the beginning, depending on your Arabic level), it made my experience so worthwhile, and I am still in touch with many of the friends I made during my time abroad.

If I were to return to study with CET again, I would study under the intensive language program rather than the internship program. While the internships may provide a good introduction to a specific field, it can be a gamble, because you won't necessarily be placed into the field you want to explore, and not all internships have a lot of work for internship students to do. Meanwhile, my classes were intensive and fast-paced, and my Arabic level probably would have sky-rocketed even more if I would have had an extra two days of classes per. week. That being said, I entered the program with more excitement for the language aspect than the internship aspect - I chose the internship program, only because my university provides funding for internships and it would have been impossible for me to enroll in the program without it. Some people had really meaningful experiences in their internships, one student even conducting their own research in hospitals, etc.