My experience in excellence center

I am Maiko from Japan participated in Individual Arabic study course for two weeks. I enjoyed the stay here a lot thanks to Excellence center.

In Arabic course, I learnt Palestinian Dialect mainly. My teacher is very kind and friendly, she taught me not only Arabic, but also Palestinian cultures and traditions. And her teaching way is brilliant. I had never studied Palestinian Dialect before, so it was really challenging, especially the pronunciation was so hard for me, but she found my weak points and taught me focusing on my weak points. Therefore, after two weeks, I found myself having small conversation in Arabic with host family and shopkeepers in the local shop.

During my stay here, I visited some places in Hebron as Excellence center organized some programs to visit old city, refugees camp and other cultural places. These programs made my stay more meaningful. Especially, the trip to the refugee camp widened my view and brought me deeper understanding about the situation in Palestine. If I was not attending the course in Excellence center, these special opportunities might not be gained. Also, I visited other cities such as Jericho, Jerusalem and Ramallah, sometimes with friends from the center, and sometimes by myself. All places were beautiful and different from each other. To visit new places talking to Taxi drivers and asking the way to local people were like an adventure, and I enjoyed it very much.

Another thing which made my two weeks more special was to stay with host family. I really appreciate their great hospitality. I have never felt lonely in Hebron as they treated me as one of their family members. All Palestinian dishes host mother cooked were very tasty and the teatime which I had with them in almost every night made me cozy and comfortable. Besides host father made me laugh with their cute four children. Therefore, the feeling that I want to communicate with them in Arabic was getting stronger day by day, which encouraged me to learn this challenging language. The time spending with them are so precious.

When I told my family and friends about the trip to Palestine, they worried about me because of negative perspectives which the media provided. But, actually I had never felt unsafe during these two weeks. All staffs, international volunteers and others in Excellence center are very warmhearted. They answer any questions kindly, for example, how to get the bus, how to reach other city and so on. Furthermore, Most Palestinians are helpful, so they give help kindly when we ask them.
For these reasons, I recommend participating in Excellence center in Hebron. Here is the right place to learn Arabic and also to know Palestinian traditions, their cultures and their lives.