Recommended, but with caution

From what I've heard, CET is the one of the best Arabic intensive language program. The curriculum is laid out well, the teachers and directors love the students and work tirelessly to help them learn. That being said, I felt that there were unreasonable expectations placed on the students that led to a lot of burn out, frustration and discouragement. For me, having only finished one year of Arabic, there's a lot of grammar that I thought I would learn this summer, but the focus on grammar was minimal. The idea is that we will learn grammar from context as we read the lessons, but we went through the readings so quickly, often times barely understanding what they were about, before moving on to the next one that the opportunity to look at grammatical structures in sentences was often missed. There were days when I was deeply concerned that I would leave Jordan hating Arabic. That did not end up being the case, and in spite of a lot of challenges this summer, I learned a lot-- the language pledge forced me to speak in Arabic a lot more than I would have otherwise. (I definitely spoke in English with the two Americans I lived with in order to maintain my emotional and mental sanity, but I did my best to maintain the pledge as much as possible.) My vocabulary expanded exponentially and my comfort in speaking, reading, and writing grew considerably. For students considering CET, yes, you will learn a lot, have a great time on the trips that CET coordinates for the program and you will interact a lot with Jordanians through homework assignments, hanging out with your roommate, and meeting with your language partner three times a week (by far my favorite part of the summer!). But also be aware that you will be pushed beyond what seems actually possible. I have two pieces of advice: if your school uses Al-kitaab and doesn't finish the first book at the end of the first year (my university only finished chapter 10), finish it yourself (and learn the vocabulary) before you arrive in Jordan. It lays groundwork for key grammatical concepts that would've been extremely helpful to know. Second, do not be afraid to talk to the program directors and teachers if you're struggling. They want you to succeed, it's just a matter of figuring out how to achieve that!