Middlebury - C.V. Starr Schools Abroad

Overall, the Middlebury Russian Intensive Language Program in Astana is well-organized and designed to help students improve their Russian. They provide a variety of different course subjects, including Russian grammar. The professors test our knowledge and give us opportunities to practice the language through various mediums such as: presentations, group work, writing tests, and reading and watching movies (as homework) then discussing them in class. Not only this, but the professors are extremely knowledgeable about their topics. They often encourage questions, and will gladly repeat themselves if need be. Shout out to Professor Yuliya K! I particularly enjoyed the information I learned in this class, and how she uses her substantive knowledge of Russian literature and culture to help us understand texts in ways we would have never thought of before.

I studied at Middlebury School in Jordan in the spring semester of 2025. I had spent the previous summer in Jordan with another great program, but my time at Middlebury was not only the most fun regarding the people involved and my ability to interact with local Jordanians, but also because I came in non-conversational and I left nearly fluent. Not just in that I had a larger vocabulary, but that I was able to speak and think in Arabic directly, without having to translate from English first. The program staff are amazing, the class sizes are great and the content feels relevant. There is the ability to choose which electives you want to take (depending on your level), and even those at a lower level felt that they were using the Arabic that they knew in applicable contexts. Although the language pledge was difficult at first, after a week of commitment to the process, it became easy. In addition to the amazing academic environment, my homestay family was also a key component to my advancement in Arabic. I come from an Arab background and it really felt like I had another Arab jidda (grandma) helping me the whole way. The program also connected us with local students at the University of Jordan who took us around Amman and genuinely became our close friends. One other quick note was that the trips that we took were amazing. Like I mentioned, I had been in Jordan for a couple months before, and the places that we went to with Middlebury were not only some of the crucial must-see spots but also some more niche spots that I felt very privileged to be able to go to that I wouldn't have found/been motivated to go to on my own. I think that the program did a good job of giving us enough out-of-class work to improve our skills without it being so much that we didn't have enough time to explore the city/country. I do think that the program would be best suited for someone who has some prior experience with the language (in fact, I think you have to have studied for at least two years??? dont quote me on that). I had studied Arabic for almost three years at that point, but most others had studied it for two (academic) years before starting. Would 1000/10 recommend this program to anyone wanting to improve their Arabic.

When I signed the language pledge on day one, I made a promise: only Chinese, all day, every day. Every character was a rep, every assignment a set, and I studied my way through coffee shops all over Beijing, rating each one out of five stars. My politics and business courses were taught entirely in Chinese, and my one-on-one research dug into modern dating and why so few young Chinese are having kids — answers I found by interviewing locals myself. The real growth, though, happened outside the classroom. I'd talk to anyone who would say hello — monks, aunties in the park, students in the library, a woman making tea in a Yunnan mountain village. Each conversation was a private lesson worth more than gold. I took the bullet train to Shanghai, biked around West Lake in Hangzhou, got lost in the tea mountains, played pick-up basketball with Tibetan and Uyghur students, and even talked my way into a free tour of Alibaba's headquarters after waiting at the gate for over an hour. Persistence works. By the end, my teachers said my Chinese was the most improved in the program. But the part I'll carry with me isn't a grade or a trip — it's that I loved who I was in China.