My Experience Studying Arabic in Palestine: My name is Lennard Swolfs. I am a 24-year-old journalist from the Netherlands. I have recently completed my bachelor’s degree in Journalism at the HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht in the Netherlands. I have completed another bachelor’s degree in Journalism, Media and Communications at the University of Tasmania in Australia last year.

I decided to come to the Excellence Center in Hebron to study Arabic in Palestine and therefore I participated in the intensive Arabic program for two months. The reason for this is that I have the ambition to become a correspondent in the Middle East. During my stay in Hebron, I not only learned a lot about the language but also about the culture and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was all in all a very interesting and valuable experience.

The Excellence Center


The Excellence Center is a fantastic place to be and perfectly located near the center of the city. The atmosphere in the Center is amazing and the people who work there are lovely, both the Palestinian staff and teachers as the international volunteers and students. Everyone helps each other out and I have never felt alone for a moment. Especially Marwa and Khitam Shantir make it a warm and welcoming place.

Because I did the intensive Arabic program, I had five days of class a week, about three hours a day. My teacher Dua’a has a lot of teaching experience and knows a lot about the language. During the classes we did both speaking, reading and writing. This really helped me to improve my Arabic language skills. Coming from almost nowhere, I am now able to have a basic conversation. Besides the regular classes in the classroom, we also went out sometimes. For example, we cooked shakshouka – an Arab dish that mainly consists of eggs and tomatoes – and we did a day trip to Bethlehem together.

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Living in Hebron


During my two months in Hebron, I stayed in an apartment in the city center with eight other students and volunteers. The owner of the place was always very friendly and often invited us to have coffee or tea with him. We also played football with his kids and hung around with his cousins. One day, he even took us on a hike near Jericho, which was a tiring but great experience. We walked around in a desert landscape and swam in a beautiful little lake in the mountains.

The evenings in Hebron are mostly very quiet. I often went out for food or drinks with the other students and volunteers. Sometimes we stayed in and cooked ourselves – shakshouka for example. One of my favorite places in the city that I would recommend to everyone who is coming to Hebron is the Peace Garden. This small garden in the old city is a quiet place where you can escape the busy everyday life of Hebron and relax with your friends.

Travelling around Palestine


During the weekends, the other volunteers and students and I often organized trips together. We have been to Bethlehem, Jericho, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Nablus, Haifa, Acre, Nazareth, and Tiberius. In general, it is easy and comfortable to travel around Israel and the West Bank, Palestine but just keep in mind that public transport on Fridays and Saturdays can be more difficult because these are religious days for Muslims and Jews respectively.

The Excellence Center also organizes all kinds of trips and tours, which I can really recommend. For example, I have been on a tour of Hebron’s old city and to the keffiyeh factory. One of the highlights was the day trip to Israel with the Excellence Center. We went to Acre, both the beach as the old city, and to the border with Lebanon. Almost everyone from the Excellence Center joined the trip, which made it a great and fun day out.

Safety and hospitality


In the media, Palestine is often portrayed as a dangerous place to be. Journalists often focus on the conflict with Israel and the protests at the borders. However, I have never felt unsafe in Palestine. On the contrary, I felt very comfortable there and have never felt more welcome anywhere else. Palestinians are very hospitable and love to get in touch with foreigners. It often happened to me that someone I had met in the street invited me over for dinner with his or her family.

Although I have always felt safe, the situation in Hebron can be tense. Hebron is the only city in the West Bank where Israeli settlements and enclaves are inside the city itself. This occasionally leads to disturbances between the Palestinians and the Israeli army, especially on Fridays after Noon Prayer. However, these protests only take place at the checkpoint near the old city and are therefore easy to avoid. Other than these protests, there is nothing to worry about in terms of safety.

All in all, I do really recommend the Excellence Center to anyone who is planning to come to Palestine. It is an amazing opportunity to learn the Arabic language, to learn about the culture and to experience the Palestinian hospitality yourself. We hope you enjoyed reading “My Experience Studying Arabic in Palestine” article. Many thanks to Lennard

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