How many students are in a class — at maximum, not on average?

Ask for the maximum, because "average" hides the bad weeks. This is the single most predictive number you will get, and it decides how many minutes you personally spend speaking in a ninety-minute lesson.

Four to six is a class where you cannot hide. Eight to ten still works if the teacher is good. Twelve and up is a lecture, whatever it is called in the brochure — and for speaking a language, a lecture is close to useless.

What training do the teachers have in teaching Arabic to non-native speakers?

Being a native speaker qualifies nobody to teach. Explaining your own language to someone who does not share your instincts is a separate skill, learned deliberately.

Ask for two things: years spent teaching foreigners specifically, and formal qualifications in language or language teaching. "All our teachers are native Jordanians" is an answer to a question you did not ask.

Which Arabic will I actually be speaking after three months?

Some schools teach Modern Standard Arabic and describe it as "Arabic", which leaves you able to read a newspaper and unable to buy bread. Others teach a dialect but from materials written for a different country.

In Jordan the spoken language is Levantine, and the useful version of it is the one people speak on this street, not a textbook approximation. Ask which one they teach, ask to see the materials, and ask whether those materials were written here.

Our own guide to Levantine Arabic vs MSA sets out the difference so you can judge the answer you get.

Can I try a lesson before I pay?

A school confident in its teaching will let you sit in a real class. One that offers only a "consultation" or a sales call is protecting something.

And when you do sit in: watch how much the students talk. If the teacher is speaking for most of the hour, you are watching a performance, not a lesson.

What happens if the class turns out to be the wrong level for me?

This happens constantly and almost nobody asks about it in advance. Placement is guesswork at the start, and a third of students end up in the wrong group in week one.

What you want to hear is a process: we reassess, we move you, here is how quickly. What you do not want is silence followed by three months of being lost or bored.

Is there a written contract, and what is the refund policy?

Unglamorous and important. You are paying in advance, in a foreign country, often before you arrive. Ask what happens if you fall ill, if your visa is delayed, if you have to leave early.

Get it in writing. A school that puts its terms on paper without being pushed is telling you something about how it will behave later.

What do they refuse to promise?

This is the question we would weight most heavily, and nobody asks it.

Ask how long until you are fluent. A school that answers with a number — three months, six months, one level per term — is guessing, because the honest answer depends on your hours, your background, your other languages and your life. A school that says "we cannot tell you that, and here is what we can tell you instead" is being straight with you, and that is the behaviour you want from whoever handles your money and your year.