Do you need prior knowledge of Arabic to come to Palestine? Coming to Palestine without knowing Arabic sounds challenging. The language barrier can create many confusing situations, but the challenge is not so unmanageable. Within the Excellence Center, no knowledge of Arabic is required in order to participate in any programs. Many international volunteers and interns travel to Palestine without any background in the Arabic language whatsoever.
Volunteering in Palestine without any knowledge of Arabic is not a problem
Volunteering in Palestine at the Excellence Centre without any knowledge of Arabic is really not a problem because the staff working there do have good English skills. During classes of any kind at the Excellence Centre, the majority of students have reached a beginner/intermediate English level thanks to Palestinian school education.
They should understand your instructions and explanations. In case internationals teach very young students and are not able to communicate with them, they will receive the help of one of the Excellence Centre staff.
Learning Arabic in Palestine without any prior knowledge is not a problem
Volunteers and interns learning Arabic in Palestine at the Excellence center show up with different levels in Arabic. We can choose either if we want an English speaker teacher or not.
The interns who have acquired many years of training would probably choose an Arabic-speaker only teacher, but lots of them have a very good English-speaker teacher. Learning Arabic without any prior knowledge is not a problem in this configuration
Many host families are willing to communicate with international and some of them are using translation apps to manage to communicate,
Volunteers and interns in Palestine have also the choice regarding the host family they are staying with during their stay in Hebron. Many host families have a minimum level of English or at least one of the relatives speaks English, which makes it easier for international without any background in Arabic.
Many families are willing to communicate with international and some of them are using translation apps to manage to communicate, which can turn out to be very funny!
Most of the Palestinian people can manage some basic English
Internationals would probably find some difficulties while traveling to Palestine or walking around in the city. However, most of the Palestinian people can manage some basic English, greetings and basic vocabulary. Others have quite a good level of English.
In case you get lost, Palestinian people are so helpful and would help you in any way they can. Some background in Fusha (classical Arabic) also can be very useful for internationals who travel to Palestine, even if Palestinian dialect is the spoken language in the country.
Final Conclusion
Of course, some knowledge of Arabic is very helpful on a daily basis to manage a conversation at a shop or to ask for the direction. we would recommend the international to develop an understanding of the sounds and learning the Arabic alphabet, which is an easy first step, before coming to Palestine and starting lessons. But again, no prior knowledge of Arabic is not a problem at all!
