Review Arabic Intense

My time at the Excellence Center was a fantastic intellectual, intercultural and social journey. Every week day (Sunday to Thursday) I had 3,5 hours of Arabic class with the extremely knowledgeable and pedagogically apt Doha as my teacher. Not only did Doha help me drastically improve my Palestinian dialect Arabic skills, she also was always able to teach me grammatical concepts and words in a fun and motivating way. She also adapted the class teaching plan according my needs whenever necessary. In addition to being a great teacher, Doha - and also her sister Saja who is also a teacher at the Excellence Center - conversed with me a lot in our free time at the school and thus introduced me to colloquial expressions, jokes and everyday language. The other staff at the Excellence Center was also always very helpful when I needed any specific information about Hebron or its surrounding (e.g. when I needed to get to Dura, a town next to Hebron), and even more great companions during my 1-month stay at the Excellence Center. Moreover the stories Anas and Ibrahim told me about their everyday life were exceedingly interesting and pertinent to my work as a doctoral researcher on Palestine. The center managers, Osama and Marwa, were also always willing to compromise and accommodate my needs regarding my living situation.

Contrary to what you may hear from Western media, Hebron is actually a very safe and fun city to live in (in H1 area). There are many cafes and pastry shops that are open all day and long into the night. The food is among the best Ive ever had. I was in Hebron during 2 weeks of Ramadan and must say that the Muslim month of fasting quite changes the city`s vibe. Restaurants and most stores are closed all day and life only awakes in the night. It is a interesting cultural experience for sure, but if you are keen on experiencing the culinary culture of Khalil to its fullest you might want to reconsider whether you want to come during Ramadan. Overall, the hospitality in Khalil is amazing. There were many times I was just invited for coffee or cocktails *(non-alcoholic ones) by strangers and I was also invited to a couple of Iftar dinners which were great fun. The Palestinian hospitality is unparalleled by anything I have seen elsewhere in the world. Last, if you really want 24/7 arabic exposure, I recommend you see if you can stay with a host family, as I was staying in a shared apartment with other foreigners which limited my exposure to Arabic in the evenings. Moreover, I traveled to Bethlehem, Ramallah and Jericho, which was all very easy because the West Bank is not very big. And before I forget, it is quite cold in March.