Study Arabic In the West Bank, Palestine (1-13 Weeks)

Ahlan!
My name is Nathalie Hanzlik-Meech and I am from Canada. I am currently a High School student at the American School of Dubai, in the UAE. During the summer of my Junior year, I particiapted in a three-week intensive Arabic program at the Excellence Center in al-Khalil (Hebron). During this time I was able to not only improve my Arabic skills but also meet and befriend like-minded people and experince daily life in one of the most interesting regions of the world. Needless to say, as my last day at the center drew to a close, I felt that I could have easily spent three more weeks.

My intensive Arabic program consisted of three and a half hour classes every morning, with a half an hour break for a traditional (and delicious!) Palestinian breakfast. Having already studied Fusa (MSA) Arabic at my school, my classes at the center focused on the Ammiyah (spoken) dialect. While ultimately following a course book, individual class schedules were flexible and material was taught depending on the needs and requests of the student. I was given opportunities to practice my speaking, reading, writing and listening skills (though the greatest time was spent speaking). As a word of advice, I personally found it extremely helpful to build an English-Arabic dictionary with all of the new words I was learning.

Aside from my goal of studying Arabic, I also was interested in teaching English to non-native speakers in Palestine. After only a week at the center, an opportunity arose that allowed me to tutor a Palestinian lady for the TOEFL English exam. Soon, I was tutoring the lady every day after my Arabic classes for an hour and a half. In addition to this, after becoming fast friends with Palestinan teacher at the center, I found myself assisting in conversational English classes with Palestinian youth. Through these two experiences, unplanned though they were, I was able to discover my love for teaching English while also learn the complexities of the Palestinian situation from first hand accounts.

However, my experience of Palestine stretched far beyond the Excellence Center itself. Day trips were organized by the center and included guided tours of the Old City, the famous Hebron Keffiyeh Factory and a hike through beautiful region nearby to Bethlehem, to name a few. In addition to these trips, I had many adventures which I undertook with other internationals at the center. I had far too many adventures to list here, but a few major ones consisted of deeply exploring al-Khalil, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. I have memories of those adventures that I will never forget.

In terms of my experience of life in al-Khalil, I can say with confidence that there are few other people who I have met who are as friendly, welcoming and caring as those in al-Khalil. If you opt to stay with a host family, you will likely be considered a family member by the end of your stay and take with you memories of family dinners, lunches, and family celebrations. In addition to the welcoming atmosphere of the city, I found it to be very safe. With that being said, keeping oneself ‘street-smart’ applies in al-Khalil as it does anywhere else. In terms of the likelihood of experiencing and being involved in political skirmishes, I would say that is very rare.
I would highly recommend engaging with the Excellence Center in al-Khalil if you are someone who wants to learn more about Palestine, the culture, language and current situation there. Perhaps equally as important, I would recommend the center if you are someone open to having new adventures and make memories that will last a lifetime. Even spending a time as short as three weeks will undoubtably leave you knowing far more about Palestine, knowing far more about yourself, and knowing people who you will always remember.

I found the Excellence Center on the internet and after reading the reviews of other students and volunteers, I chose to come here or two weeks for the Intensive Arabic in the Laventine/Shaami accent. I've been to Jerusalem before so I knew what to expect at the airport. After couple of hours of wait and a few questions, I was given 1 month Israeli visa (a separate piece of paper and not a passport stamp).

Getting from the airport to Hebron (via Damascus Gate) was easy and cheap in a shared taxi. When I arrived in the Excellence Center, I was greeted by Usama and Marwa who welcomed me and took me to my accommodation which was about 30 mins walk from the center. I had the option of getting taxi but I really enjoyed the daily walk to and from the center.

I was in a class with two other students who were at similar level - one from Spain and another from Italy. We had all studied Fusha before and were attempting to learn to speak in Aamiyah. The lessons were well structured and all teaching was in Aamiyah Arabic.

While it was difficult at first, our teacher really helped us slowly progress. We practiced speaking, writing, listening and writing. By the end of the first week, I started to get more comfortable with the accent and felt confident enough to try speaking with the local shopkeepers and kids around the Excellence Center.

I would highly recommend the Arabic program. There is only so much one can learn in 2 weeks and I wish I was able to stay longer.

Before I came to Hebron, everyone was concerned about my safety. Besides the Arabic, I visited Jerusalem, Bethlehem's apartheid wall, Bitteer Valley, Refugee camp, Dar Sara Monastery near the Dead sea, Old Hebron market and Ibrahimi Masjid (areas under Israeli control). At no point did I ever feel unsafe or uneasy. As long as I showed my passport and visa, I was able to go through various checkpoints without issue.

Everyone at the Excellence Center is extremely friendly and helpful. I cannot thank Usama enough for personally helping me with some charitable activities that I had requested privately. Marwa also randomly invited me to her house for tea and sometimes for dinner.

If you're looking for Arabic program you will not be disappointed with the teaching here.

I found the Excellence Center on the internet and after reading the reviews of other students and volunteers, I chose to come here or two weeks for the Intensive Arabic in the Laventine/Shaami accent. I've been to Jerusalem before so I knew what to expect at the airport. After couple of hours of wait and a few questions, I was given 1 month Israeli visa (a separate piece of paper and not a passport stamp).

Getting from the airport to Hebron (via Damascus Gate) was easy and cheap in a shared taxi. When I arrived in the Excellence Center, I was greeted by Usama and Marwa who welcomed me and took me to my accommodation which was about 30 mins walk from the center. I had the option of getting taxi but I really enjoyed the daily walk to and from the center.

I was in a class with two other students who were at similar level - one from Spain and another from Italy. We had all studied Fusha before and were attempting to learn to speak in Aamiyah. The lessons were well structured and all teaching was in Aamiyah Arabic.

While it was difficult at first, our teacher really helped us slowly progress. We practiced speaking, writing, listening and writing. By the end of the first week, I started to get more comfortable with the accent and felt confident enough to try speaking with the local shopkeepers and kids around the Excellence Center.

I would highly recommend the Arabic program. There is only so much one can learn in 2 weeks and I wish I was able to stay longer.

Before I came to Hebron, everyone was concerned about my safety. Besides the Arabic, I visited Jerusalem, Bethlehem's apartheid wall, Bitteer Valley, Refugee camp, Dar Sara Monastery near the Dead sea, Old Hebron market and Ibrahimi Masjid (areas under Israeli control). At no point did I ever feel unsafe or uneasy. As long as I showed my passport and visa, I was able to go through various checkpoints without issue.

Everyone at the Excellence Center is extremely friendly and helpful. I cannot thank Usama enough for personally helping me with some charitable activities that I had requested privately. Marwa also randomly invited me to her house for tea and sometimes for dinner.

If you're looking for Arabic program you will not be disappointed with the teaching here.

My knowledge of Arabic was limited to the basics before I came to Hebron. I had taken language classes for two semesters in college and wanted to learn the spoken language. I decided to take the intensive course with 20 hours of classes per week. I learned a lot during the two weeks at the center. My teacher was great and taught me a lot of new things. She used creative teaching methods and sometimes in the afternoon instead of going to the classroom we went to a coffee shop or sat down at the soccer field close to the center.
Not only my teacher, but also the rest of the team at the center was great. The atmosphere there is very pleasant.
The center organized several excursions: we visited the old town, a weaving mill and went hiking near Bethlehem for a day.
During the two weeks I lived with a host family. I lived on one floor of the house with another student. We played with the children, talked with the adults and were able to improve our Arabic easily. The family also took us to visit relatives, showed us culinary highlights and the best places in the city. Their hospitality was amazing! We even got to spend the holidays with them and kept meeting new parts of the family.
Hebron is a bustling city. People are very welcoming. You often hear them shouting "Welcome to Palestine!" They are also incredibly helpful. We lived just outside the center and took the bus sometimes. The bus drivers always took the time to make sure we were on the right bus and got to our destination.
At no time did I feel unsafe. In the city, people want to talk to you from time to time. They are usually interested about where you are from and what you are doing in Hebron. I never felt uncomfortable at any time.
I enjoyed my stay very much and will definitely come back to Hebron!

My name is Elisha. I am from the United States and have a degree in English and Intercultural Studies. I participated in the Intensive Arabic program at the Excellence Center.

During my time at the center I was able to enjoy time with other participants and staff over breakfast, join a tour around the old city of Hebron, and go on a trip to explore a monastery and spring near Bethlehem with the Excellence Center community. My time in Arabic classes was very enjoyable and challenged me to use new vocabulary and communicate useful information about daily life and my experiences. My teacher went at a great pace throughout the lessons and had fun activities planned to help us learn and practice. The environment at the center was welcoming and warm. Everyone was willing to sit and chat and ask questions about each other as well as help with any questions about the program or life in Hebron.

Living with a host family was an amazing and unforgettable experience. There's nothing like learning and experiencing a culture and language with locals, and my host family was incredibly welcoming and generous, inviting us to join in their family life and activities and showing us around the city. The people in general were very welcoming and willing to help with directions and finding things around the city.

Although Palestinian food is delicious and the landscapes are beautiful, I think the part I enjoyed most about being in Palestine was the people. I enjoyed their openness and welcoming spirit and spending evenings chatting with the host family out on the balcony, grabbing a juice or tea at their favorite cafes, or playing games with the young children and grandchildren in the home. I am thankful to have experienced even a short time in Palestine and will remember the kindness and hospitality I received.

I would definitely recommend the Arabic program at the center because it was very helpful to be immersed in the language in class, around the city, and with the host family. Being able to learn about the history and culture of the people was also incredibly valuable, and wish I could have stayed longer.

My name is Vicky and I am Costa Rican-American. I studied International Studies at American University in Washington, DC, and I specialized in environmental sustainability and peace and conflict resolution. I also studied Arabic for three years in college, but I wanted to come to the Excellence Center to practice the language more and learn the Palestinian dialect in the Intensive Arabic Program. I spent a month at the Excellence Center. I chose to come to Palestine because I wanted to support the Palestinian people and their freedom from occupation and I love Palestinian culture, like Elia Suleiman’s films, writing from Mahmoud Darwish and Ghassan Kanafani, and dabke. I travelled to Palestine four years ago but I only spent two weeks in Nablus and Jerusalem, and I wanted to return to make deeper connections with the people and the country.

At the Excellence Center, I took three hours of Arabic lessons five days a week. Although I had previously studied Modern Standard Arabic for three years in university, I realized that I did not have much practice speaking in the dialect. After a month of practice with my teacher every day, I feel much more confident in my ability to hold conversations with people on a variety of topics.

The staff, teachers, and volunteers at the Center foster a welcoming environment, especially as we gather together for breakfast, have coffee together throughout the day, and often have conversations about complex topics outside of class. Sometimes after my lessons, I joined the other students and volunteers on tours to the Old City, the Ibrahimi Mosque, the Hirbawi Kufiya factory, Hebron University, and the National Association of Human Rights Defenders. Outside of the Center, I travelled with a group of volunteers to Nablus, where we stayed in a cultural center at Balata refugee camp. I also travelled with some volunteers to Ramallah one weekend, and we visited the Yasser Arafat Museum.

I enjoyed living with my host family, speaking Arabic with them, helping the children practice English, and trying traditional foods like warak diwali and molokhia with rice. We celebrated family members' birthdays together. The family home has a beautiful garden, and sometimes I would go home in the afternoon to study Arabic in the garden, but sometimes all of the children would come to our section of the house and it could be hard to focus on work. But most of all, the family is very sweet and generous. Even though I will be in Ramallah next month, my host mom invited me to return in two weeks for Eid al-Adha, and I am looking forward to spending this special holiday with them.

When I first came to Palestine four years ago, my first impression was that people are so kind and willing to help you even if they hardly know you. Now, my impression is the same, and this is what I liked most about Palestine and why I wanted to return. There have been several times where I speak to someone I hardly know, and they invite me to their homes for coffee or dinner. I feel very safe in Palestine, maybe even safer than I do in the United States or at home in San José, Costa Rica.

One of my favorite memories about Palestine occurred a few days ago, when I was walking alone through the Old City and I saw an old woman sitting in front of her shop where she sold traditional tatreez embroidery. By coincidence, I realized I had met her three years ago in Washington, DC when I worked at a magazine on Middle East affairs, and she had been invited to sell her products there in DC. She invited me to drink tea, and we began to speak in Arabic about the occupation, the situation in the Old City, and how her organization supports women in the villages near Hebron, giving them an opportunity to sell their beautiful, handmade products. It was a memorable experience. I could understand the conversation in Arabic, despite the complicated topics, and I learned so much from her.

In spite of violent occupation, the Palestinian culture and identity is alive and beating, and I have an immense respect for everyone in Hebron and Palestine. I recommend the Excellence Center, especially to those who want to join the Intensive Arabic Program. Thank you!

WELCOME TO THE FAMILY

My name is Sheila, 45 years, from Germany, more precisely from a little village called Glems, population 1200, located in the southwest of Germany. I would describe myself as blessed, very curious, young at heart, fearless and of course somehow charmingly crazy in my own way.

Then:
I quit running a hostel and being self-employed in January 2021.
During Covid I had a lot of time to think about myself, we all experienced that, even though I wasn´t inactive, I worked for friends´ businesses, did any kinds of office works, waitressing, cleaned up… and I figured out what I really love:
People, making people at least smile, helping, travelling and broadening my horizon.
At that time Afghanistan was the main subject in the news and I realized that I reacted emotionally strong to the stories of people who had to leave their country under fear of death…Refugees! THAT´S IT!
There are refugee-projects all over the world, most refugees need existential help and most refugees are from Arabic speaking countries – great, I always wanted to learn a totally different language and I always wanted to go on a language trip…

Now:
I´m sitting in the sunny front of the apartment that´s owned by the best Palestinian host family Marwa & Osama moved me to, sharing the apartment with an American Mormon beauty, writing about myself, Palestine and the Excellence Center after I spent 3 months from the 27th March until the 26th June 2022 as a totally changed person.
On the one hand I could write a book on every single day I had here and on the other hand the situations, experiences, and stories that happened here just make me speechless.
But one thing is for sure: I am a part of a lot of families now!

Excellence Center:
Marwa & Osama are the heart, Rafat is managing from Germany, with the lovely Khitam and the highly passionate teachers and of course some of their excellent family members at the Excellence Center.
I started with the Intensive Arabic Course, 20 hours per week of one-to-one lessons. The time I started there were not a lot of students, so I was lucky to have the one-to-one lessons as a total beginner starting Arabic from zero.
Nada, my teacher, is 23 years old, professional, structured and very patient. Her lessons were always prepared, she was very aware of my needs and my way of learning, flexible to adjust at any point of progress, so that I felt comfortable and successful. I love her!
After one month I changed into the Refugees Program.
That basically means teaching English (mostly to children), interviewing refugees, local people and different organizations about structures, economy, education, all-day-living, the issues, struggles and human rights violations caused by the occupation.
It then turned out that the Refugees Program became a mixture between the Refugees Program and the Human Rights Program that even surpassed my expectations.
I appreciated the flexibility of Osama. He had to deal with my individual expectations like
- I had never taught before at all,
- I didn’t want to teach children,
- I was interested in economic structures, education system, possibilities and solutions
He made it possible that I experienced all of it in a for me perfect way.
I taught adult refugees in the refugee camp, I had an English Club with teenage girls and I interviewed lawyers, teachers, activists against human right violation and children’s right violation, managers of different kinds of community centers etc.
I visited schools, kindergardens, the Hebron chamber of commerce, a Bedouin village and all the pride the Palestinian people have in trying to change the situation and seek freedom.
It was always possible to tell Osama about your interests or if you wanted to dive deeper into a subject, he is the one who helps you to meet with the right people.
Marwa organizes all the teachers, students, volunteers, internal workshops and meetings about teaching and studying in general, or presentations about the experiences of leaving students and volunteers. And Marwa is responsible for the host families and apartments. Besides that she teaches Arabic and she is a mother of the happiest one-year-old girl in the world. She leads the most unpredictable parts and I don’t know how she does it – huge respect!
She has to deal with a lot of sudden changes every day, literally everyone has different needs at different times, no structure, no red line, nothing to rely on… and guess:
She´s able to move mountains to make you happy. THANK YOU min albii!

All in one, the Excellence Center has a vibe that is very welcoming, warm and familiar. As I confirmed to Rafat 4 months ago, he sent a message with “Welcome to the family”.
Me as a German I just thought “yes standard – phrase, nice and polite”. Now I know better… I AM part of the family and it feels great!

Palestine:
Yes, it is there and it is real and it is existent!
Palestine is beautiful, authentic, lively, heartfelt, hospitable, resistant, religious, proud, safe, funny, mind- and life-changing and EXISTENT!

I recommend Hebron, I highly recommend the Excellence Center and I recommend the experiences you’ll just get here in Palestine!

I participated in the intensive Arabic program (1 on 1 for 3 weeks). I was nervous about doing 1-1 at first thinking we would hit some walls and have nothing to do, but it really was exactly the opposite. (Most) of the teachers are focused, dedicated, and will make sure the time is fully utilized, even in 1-1 lessons for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. If you are a more advanced student, its also great because you have the opportunity to even take tours in the old city in Arabic with your teacher if you do so choose. This really is an amazing, unique experience learning the language and being able to advance your arabic level while also learning from someone who has lived in Hebron their whole life and can share first-hand about their experience there. You will learn about Arabic, Palestinian life in Hebron, and maybe even yourself if you are lucky. :)

The Excellence Center is located in Hebron Palestine and really is easy to get to. From Ben Gurion airport, travel to Jerusalem and from Damascus Gate it is very easy to get affordable public transportation. I felt completely safe in Hebron and highly recommend other Arabic students or those who wish to volunteer and educate themselves on Palestinian issues to visit the center.

You will be included in the family there and there are many other foreigners present to help with any issues that arise at the center.