learning hebrew 4 (top ten grammar tips)

people have wildly different views of how hard hebrew is to learn. people who feel hebrew is easy to learn explain that the root system, or basic verb structure, largely organizes grammar and conjugation. however, the language grammar is also very different than romantic or latin languages, so it can be quite difficult to understand what the rules and systems are and exactly how they operate.

for me, it took a little bit of hard work to get started into the language, but once i started to understand some or the really core concepts, i feel like the work started to get easier for me. the things i've listed below are some understandings that i've picked up from speaking and reading and listening over time. i imagine that the ideas aren't totally pure, but i hope they can be helpful if you're trying to find your way. each idea is something that i didn't know at first and then learned to internalize with practice.

(where possible, i've tried to give a brief explanation of what i mean, as well as a link to a useful website to explain further. some explanations are still in draft, and please forgive any spelling errors below. i will fix as soon as i see them and realize (or learn) my mistakes.)


1) gender
in hebrew, all nouns and adjectives are masculine or feminine.

when you describe nouns, you have to conjugate the adjective to match the gender of the noun. it's exactly like you would do in spanish. . . that is, it's backwards from english. generally, a word that ends with a "ה" or with a "ת" will be feminine. all other word endings will generally be masculine. (of course, there are always irregulars.)

• red car
• car red = מכונית אדומה

• black sock
• sock black = גרב שחור

2) verb conjugation
you conjugate each verb according to case, tense, and binyan.

we do conjugate our verbs in a rather regular fashion in english, but our verbs also vary according to language of origin. (we've received a mishmash of rules from a mishmash of languages.) in hebrew, you conjugate each verb according to the subject and tense, the same as in english. however, you also learn to understand different rules for different g'zarot, types or forms of the verbs. if each binyan is a building, then the g'zarot are like little rooms of verbs within the buildings.


3) verb system
there are 7 verb "buildings", or binyanim.

each verb (most often) has a 3 letter root, or שורש. you can often apply a different filter to the base root in order to cause different verbs. as you get to understand the binyanim, you start to understand how to adjust verbs for actions someone is performing, actions you are performing to somebody or something else, and actions you perform to yourself. for example:

he is wearing a shirt.
he dresses her in a shirt.
he dresses himself in a shirt.

• הוא לובש חולצה.
• הוא מלביש אותה בחולצה.
• הוא מתלבש את החולצה.

4) "et" and "ה"
a special hebrew word identifies proper or specific nouns.

there is no direct corrolary to the hebrew word "et" in english. you simply have to learn to add it in every time the direct object is a proper or specific noun.

for example:
i do not want the orange stroller.
i do not want "et" the orange stroller.

• אני לא רוצה את העגלה הכתומה.
• ani lo rotze et ha-agalah ha-k'tuma.

when you have a specific noun to identify, you also place a "ה" before the noun and adjective in order to signify they are joined. (a sentence without the second "ה" will mean something different.)


5) smichut
two nouns join together to form a connected phrase.

in hebrew, when you match two nouns together, you move the "ה" from before the specific noun to between the two nouns. you also change the ending of the first noun and make the second noun (only) plural (when necessary).

feminine smichut:
swimming pool
pool swimming

• בריכה + שחייה
• בריכת שחייה

masculine smichut:
air temperament (weather)
temperament air

• מזג אוויר

masculine plural smichut:
sun glasses
glasses sun

• משקפיים + שמש
• משקפיי שמש

6) prepositions
individual verbs use specific prepositions.

the specific preposition don't really make sense, although it helps to learn which means what. there can be some intuition when verbs acts towards on upon somebody. however, these can really only be learned by reading or hearing in context and then memorizing. (they are also listed in 501 Hebrew Verbs.)

• לראות את
• להשתמש ב
• לענות ל

7) prepositions decline
the prepositions conjugate according to pronoun case.


when you form sentences, it's important to understand an important hebrew convention: you conjugate prepositions. in english, you would simply add the preposition as an independent word in a sentence. however, when prepositions connect to pronouns, you conjugate the preposition to fit the pronoun case. that is, you or he or she or us or so on. a partial list of included prepositions: of, with, towards, in, from, with, for, on, between, before, after, behind, in front, as, and without.

• i am going with | you.
• i am going "wiyu".
• אני הולך עיתך.

(i have a great document here, but i can't find the original website, and i don't yet know how to link the document to the blog.)


8) imperative
use the future tense to order someone around.

israelis use the future tense as the colloquial imperative. that is, "do this!" there is an actual imperative that is used more in songs, films, and literature. soem words are still used in the imperative, like sit or go, but most are just used in the future tense. (the convention is to add the word בבקשה , or please, when using the future tense.)

• ask!
• תשאל
• תשאלי

• eat!
• תאוכל
• תאוכלי

9a) making nouns.
you can generally make exact nouns from the verb's root.

• שמר
• שמירה

• דיבר
• דיבור

• התרגש
• התרגשות

9b) making adjectives.
you can generally make adjectives from verb conjugation.

9c) making adverbs.
you can sometimes make adverbs from connected adjectives.


10) double negatives.
you say no and the negative verb together.

in formal english, a double negative cancels out the negative and makes a positive idea. however, hebrew requires the use of "no" as well as the negative direct object. it's more like american black english, where you could say something like, "i ain't saying nothing."

• I didn't do nothing.

• אני לא עסיתי שום דבר.

some extra tips just for free:
(although, strictly speaking, they're all for free, i guess.)

A) pronominal suffixes
you can add declined endings to nouns in order to show possession.

in prayerbook hebrew, you often find changed endings to the same base noun. it is possible to add the possessive noun to the end of the base noun. for example, your bagel becomes something like "bagelyr". this is largely uses only in high hebrew (prayerbooks and literature); however, there are some places where pronominal suffixes are more conventional, including body parts.

(my best suggestion is to wait for a while before you try to learn and add in these endings. they're a bit tricky and using regular possessive pronouns is also completely normal and completely fine.)


B) "ש".
that means that, but it also splits time and tense.

"ש" is used (more often than in hebrew) to split sentences with the word "that". you will start to get a sense over time of when israelis interject the word, but it is often used to split the sentence by verb tense or sentence subject.

• xxxx
• xxxx
  

• xxxx
• xxxx
  

C) sentence structure
noun + verb? verb + noun?

in hebrew, not all sentences run noun verb, noun verb. some sentences flip the noun and verb (and even the direct object) in order to emphasize the actor or the action and some sentences are simply conventional to flip:

• it is raining.
  
• falling (is) rain.
• יורד גשם.

D) impersonal sentences.
you're really talking about everybody.

impersonal sentences in english use a singular verb. however, impersonal sentences in hebrew use the masculine plural conjugation and drop any preceding pronoun. it implies something like that everybody is doing something always.

• one uses a fork to pick up food.
• משתמשים במזלג לתקוע אוכל

E) Cardinal and ordinate numbers.
there are four different sets of numbers: masculine and feminine numbers to count and assign.

when you simply count numbers, you use the feminine set of cardinal numbers to count. however, when you count specific things, you use the specific gender to number those things. for example:

• six pencils
• שיש אפרונות

• six monkeys
• שישה קופים

there also are two sets of numbers when you use ordinal numbers to count sets or positions, like races or streets.

• sixth place
• XXX

• 8th avenue
  
• שדרה שמינית
  

F) The Subjunctive.
i would like to . . .

in english, we often use the subjunctive tense in order express a want or wish more politely. for example, when we order food, we might say, "i would like to order. . . ". you make the subjunctive tense in hebrew by adding the correct conjugated past tense form of to be or להיות.

• i would like
• הייתי רוצה

• we would like
• היינו רוצים
  

learning hebrew 2 (program ladder)

in a previous post, i listed a full collection of hebrew resources i have used. i've tried to update them over time, but i realize that it's just a huge collection of all kinds of different things. below, i tried to organize the list a bit to help identify what can be helpful at which stage. i progressed through all of these programs, so i'm reflecting on my experience and also my best judgment about what can most help you where.

my hebrew is still in progress, but i feel like i've been able to learn a good deal so far. i started really learning when aviyah was about 8 months old, January 2007. as of august 2009, i have almost 900 verbs, 500 adjectives, and a whole mess of other nouns and adverbs. i have a good accent for an american, although israelis often think that i sound french. (now that i think about it, strangers who ask me what language i'm speaking also guess that i'm speaking french.)

i really encourage you to try it out. you really can do it! i was bar mitzvah, so i did have a working knowledge of the hebrew alphabet and i was able to read hebrew from a prayerbook. however, i really knew nothing at all about how to speak or understand any hebrew at all. i always tell the story that on my first adult trip to israel my friend tried to teach me an israeli slang word for cool: סבבה. (which is actually arabic, actually.) and i went around the whole trip screaming: סבה. (which is actually grandfather, actually.) :)

so below, i've listed several major programs and resources listed by level in order to help you plan out a learning program. i hope this helps!


A or א)

Ulpan א
Textbook: עברית שלב א
BYKI Deluxe
Learn HebrewPod (iTunes Podcast)
in Flight Hebrew
topDictionaries (iPhone dictionary)
iFlipr (iPhone flashcard program)


B or ב)

Ulpan ב
Textbook: עברית שלב ב
Rosetta Stone I
Pimsleur I
Bereshit (Easy Hebrew Newspaper)


C or ג)

Ulpan ג
Textbook: עברית שלב ג
Rosetta Stone II
Pimsleur II
Hebrew Podcast (iTunes Podcast)
vocabulearn I
Children's Books
Yanshuf (Easy Hebrew Newspaper)


D or ד)

Ulpan: Advanced Sicha
Textbook: שׁReader - Modern Hebrew Prose and Poetry
Rosetta Stone III
Pimsleur III (Janauary 2010)
Heivenu Shalom
vocabulearn II
Children's Shows (Dora)
Israeli Music


E or ה)

Disney Movies
Disney Books
Young Adult Literature
Sha'ar L'Matchil (Advanced Learning Hebrew Newspaper)

learning hebrew 3 (learning principles)

at camp this summer, i taught an elective session on learning hebrew. my hebrew is only so so in the bigger picture, and i still make a lot of mistakes. there are things in grammar and conjugation that are really hard to figure out without social context. still, for my situation, i feel like i've been pretty successful trying to learn and apply hebrew in a short amount of time. i try to be honest about my difficulties, and i also try to be honest about the fact that i'm not really really good, yet. i'm still working. . .

i listed the different kinds of resources that i've used to learn hebrew in a separate post. it's so nice now because there are so many different kinds of resources out there. there are professional, research based programs and textbooks, and there are also free and cheap computer-based or ipod-friendly learning programs.

there are so many ways to go, but i've really come to believe that there are core principles to learning the language that are even more important than what resources you use.


1) commit to learn.

this sounds so simple, but it's so important. it's true that i used rosetta stone to learn, or pimsleur or others. still, the programs can't actually make you learn the language. i know that sounds silly, but if you don't work the programs, they really can't work for you. whatever program or book you use to learn hebrew, you have to be really deeply committed to learning every single day. you'll really have to put in the work. i recommend setting aside 30-60 minutes every day to study for at least the first year. to study and practice learning and review learning and to learn new things. i know it sounds like a lot, but i think it's really important.

that's a really big commitment, right. but at the same time, it's really not that easy to learn and internalize a language. it isn't just memorizing words. it's about giving yourself the practice and repetition to really internalize the structure of the language. i always say that if there were a monkey who studied hebrew as much as i do, i'm pretty confident that the monkey would speak hebrew better than i do.

2) learn in context

any program will give you an organized set of vocabulary words that are largely tested and pretty important. at the same time, you should focus on learning words that you want to learn and that you can really commit to using or trying to use in context. i always carried a little scrap of paper with me so i could record a word that i wanted to know. then, i would look the word up when i got back home so i could learn it. if i could use a word in context, i knew that i had so much better of a chance to really own the word. (now, i have a dictionary in my iphone, so i can look up the word in the moment and then email it to myself. it's really helpful!)

3) learn with others.

you really can't learn hebrew in isolation. it's really important to provide context for your learning. can you find a buddy to commit to learning with you? for me, aviyah (and the idea of aviyah) was so important to learning the language because it gave me consistent repetition and real context and purpose. but it doesn't have to be your daughter. is there someone you can write letters or emails to? is there someone you can ask questions to make sure you're understanding something right?is there someone who you can actually talk to (or try to talk to) in hebrew?

4) learn different ways.

they can all work. some people say that this way or that way is better for learning. that may be true in some ways, but they all have their advantages. try to use all different methods to give yourself the best chance at retaining all kinds of stuff. if you recognize the strengths or weaknesses to each method, you can work to use the best practice of each.

for example, flashcards can't help you put words in context, but they can help you process a whole mess of words that you can try to put in context later. or, when you see a flashcard, you can try to place that word in the context of an imaginary conversation with someone else.

5) keep learning.

if you are able to commit to really learning, you will pick up enough language to be functional. however, you'll need to keep going. keep using your old skills as you keep trying new and more challenging ways to move yourself forward. you'll graduate from some early programs and techniques, and you'll need to find more advanced programs and techniques to keep learning! there's so many!

good luck!
בחצלחה!

dual language school

the other day, i was talking to another father who lives in our building. his wife is israeli, and he recognized that i was speaking hebrew with aviyah. i asked him if they or she were also trying to speak hebrew with their daughter. he said that they were not going to try to introduce hebrew until they knew that everything was okay with her first language, english.

that made sense. i'd also heard before that sometimes second language acquisition can move smoothly when learners have mastered their primary language. in some ways this makes sense, and i definitely feel that because i understand how english works, and i can understand the similarities and differences between the two languages.

at the same time, i can totally see that it just makes sense to teach a second language this early. the whole world is kind of a question, right? i mean, to young children, the whole day is exploring and testing and trying to figure out what things are, how they work, what might happen next. in some ways, language is a natural extension of that. we learn to infer and predict and analyze before we even have words, and we definitely try to express what we're thinking before we even have words. at root, our words are abstract translations of the things we actually think or feel, right? at root, our thoughts and feelings are just chemical reactions in our body?

sometimes, i get worried to see if aviyah is developing her english well. i want to teach her hebrew, but i always want to check in with samantha or the teachers at her school to make sure that they think her language is going okay and moving forward because i definitely don't want this to ever get in the way. i really do want to continue learning and speaking hebrew with aviyah for a bunch of reasons, but i definitely don't want it to slow her down from developing or anything.

when i was in israel, i definitely saw that the israeli children have so many more supports and their hebrew is so clearly better than my hebrew, too. i mean, it makes sense, right? in the same way that we are surrounded by english here, on television, in stores, in our building, on the street. and i definitely know that her hebrew is behind their hebrew. i mean, i was talking with some 5 year olds and i was kinda embarrassed because i couldn't follow all of them.

(at one point, i was like, "oh, i don't know, maybe ask your mommy." i don't know what the little boy was asking me, but i figured he'd either ask him mom and it would make sense, or he'd figure out ok, this dude can't hang.)

i also know that her hebrew is behind her english. she doesn't struggle nearly as much as she did before, and she's actually got a bunch of words that she uses. but she does forget some words she knows, and she doesn't flow anywhere near as much as she does in english. i'd say her hebrew is about at 70% of her english. that might be high, i don't know. i do know she speaks always in hebrew to me, nad sometimes she sputters or pauses but she clearly knows to speak to me in hebrew even if she is in the middle of a conversation with somebody else in english.

in an older video, she lapsed into some english when she just wanted to say something and didn't want to wait. she doesn't do that so much anymore. she's pretty much able to say what she wants to say, kind of like i was when i was further back, because the truth is you only need a certain amount of words to say most things. then, you get stuck on specific objects or specific actions and you an learn the word in context.

dora b'ivrit

דורה Sticky Tape
Uploaded by xxvirtualxx

dora is actually really popular for young kids in israel. it airs on hop!, the major children's channel. they actually redub dora so that she is teaching english to hebrew speakers. dora and boots speak hebrew, but the many of the friends and characters speak english. dora translates the words from english to hebrew for boots, just like she does for spanish in the american dora.

דורה Koki
Uploaded by xxvirtualxx

דורה Wishes
Uploaded by xxvirtualxx

דורה Ice Cream
Uploaded by xxvirtualxx

arbah echad echad

aviyah has been speaking hebrew really well, lately.  she is probably well behind a native speaker, and for sure she gets tongue tied sometimes when she is trying to speak really fast.  when she really doesn't know what a word is she'll definitely say the phrase in heblish.  but, for the most part, now she's speaking to me 95% of the time in hebrew.  she's even picking up on some grammar things, like the "et" and gender stuff.  

one major major thing that i did do that i think that's really really helped is that i only only speak to her always in hebrew.  i've only ever said one real thing to her english ("just so you i make sure you totally understand i am going to also say this in english:  it is never ever never okay to push or hit mommy or daddy or anybody!"), and i started over the summer to only only respond to her if she said something to me in hebrew.  it seemed really kind of harsh at first, maybe, but it is definitely the thing that pushed her to have to start speaking in hebrew to me, i think, because we do spend a lot of time together, and we are close, and i think anyways it helped her want to talk in hebrew. 

i'm also still working on improving my hebrew because i'm definitely only okay.  i feel like sometimes i've gotten a lot better, and i know that i've come a really long way, but sometimes i still get discouraged too.  i have a really hard time listening and following, and i know i still make a lot of grammar mistakes that are probably simple but that i don't know.  for the most part, i can feel like i can find the right words that i want to say.  every once in a while i have to dumb down a word because i can't find the one i wanted, but we actually don't use a crazy big range of verbs or adjectives in normal conversation.  

i do feel like i maybe i stalled for a little bit because it was hard with starting school last semester and also teaching and also the girls.  now, i'm starting to try to get better again. i started a subscription for sha'ar la-matchil, a hebrew language newspaper, and also i started trying to listen to israeli news.  it's crazy hard to follow the israeli shows yet, but hopefully if i keep trying it will get a little easier.  it's definitely one thing that people have _always_ tried to encourage me to do: watch israeli tv.  

hopefully, it will help.  maybe it's kind of like when i think back to moments when i didn't know how to say the shapes in hebrew when i first started.  isn't that crazy?  (i mean, sometimes i think about what i knew when i actually started to talk to aviyah in hebrew, and it's really really crazy.  i mean, it's genuinely nuts.  i didn't know anything, really.)  you don't know what's going on, and then, hopefully, you do.

when i was talking with my friend, i realized that i really need to keep improving.  he was saying, well where does this all go?  what is the end goal?  when do you want to stop talking with her in hebrew?

i said that i think probably i always want to speak to her in hebrew, but i hadn't really thought about it like that.  i'd gotten some pushback from some people about why was i speaking hebrew in the first place, but i think that's a little more silly.  first of all, people across the world are bilingual or more, and research is pretty clear:  second language fluency is a huge positive.  but, mostly, i decided to speak hebrew because i want to teach a more intimate and more direct connection to judaism and jewish culture.  

i feel like it's really hard to pass down theology, and i feel like it's not crazy essential that my girls grow up to be observant, whatever that means.  at the same time, it is important to me that they have a strong identity and a strong jewish identity.  so much of how this is done sometimes is not sustainable, and i just feel like language is a real clear way to make connections.  

still, i don't think i'd thought so far down the road.  i mean, i kind of just decided to do it really quickly without a really huge background.  i didn't even start speaking to aviyah in hebrew, we discovered, until around 10 or 11 months.  i think i said my first things in hebrew to her when we so it's been less than two years since i started.  (of course, she wasn't talking so much then either.)

in the end, i've actually done a lot a lot of programs and study to learn the hebrew that i am learning.  i mean, it really is possible to do.  at the same time, i've really spent a lot of time and given a lot of effort to figure it all out.  i've always said that if a monkey spent as much time learning hebrew as i do, the monkey would speak better than me.  and, still, my listening to hebrew is way way behind.  because i speak all the time in hebrew, i'm pretty good at saying what i need to say.  alhtough i'm sure my vocabulary is much smaller than i'd normally use, i can find the words to describe the things i need to say.  i'm sure that to really get better now i ned to have more fluent conversations and more practice listening.  

b'ezrat ha-shem.

ps.  a new hebrew language charter school in brooklyn got approval to approval to open this fall.  yesh!

skuuuuuuuul

so, aviyah's started to do this really cute thing. (that's on the side from her being a little bit haywire adjusting to everything that's happening and learning that we don't yell and flap our arms wildly when we want someone to stop something.) anyway, she's started translating hebrew for mommy. this morning, aviyah really wanted to go to the park, but we were really close to her naptime. i told her in hebrew that first we would take a nap, and then we would go to the park to play afterwards. she then turned and told mommy, "daddy say, first sleep, then park."

abc 123

aviyah has started to count to ten in english and hebrew. i don't know how all this starts. one day she just busted out 5 through 10 in a rush, over and over again. she does not like to do her alef bet _at all_, but she loves her abc's. (by the way, i discovered that papa says lnmop for some reason.)

learning hebrew 1 (resources)

when i started graduate social work school at the university of michigan, i applied for a dual degree program in judaic studies. the judaic studies degree required language proficiency in hebrew in order to complete research on primary texts.

while modern hebrew _is_ different than biblical hebrew, i thought that if i learned to be proficient in modern hebrew, i could learn the specific conventions of biblical hebrew alongside my research. in my study, i had to search around a bit to find programs and dictionaries and websites that could help me learn.

i certainly still make a lot of mistakes in my hebrew, but i do feel like all of the things below helped me in different ways. when i first got started, i searched so many websites, but it was difficult to find an easy to understand guide to learning hebrew. if you're interested in finding resources to help learn beginner and intermediate hebrew, i've listed my resources below.


I. online dictionaries

morfix

morfix is the best and most accurate online dictionary for actual words in conversation. it includes nikud (points) for all words, and it suggest all close alternatives if you've misspelled a word. morfix can also reverse a word search, and i often recycle the listed alternatives in hebrew to find a more precise meaning. morfix gives the traditional 3rd person past form as the definition for all verbs. unfortunately, morfix has a tough time with phrase or colloquial searches.

i crosscheck all searches with both lingvosoft and morfix. when i find consensus between the two dictionaries, i can feel confident this is the correct word to use.

lingvosoft

lingvosoft develops and sells language learning and language translation software for more than 30 languages. they also offer a free online dictionary that i use daily. while morfix is the best native dictionary for actual conversation, lingvosoft provides a wider range of words that includes more literary and biblical terms. lingvosoft also provides the full infinitive of each verb, as well as words connected by root or idiom.

babylon

when i need to look up an idiom or colloquial phrase that does not come up in lingvosoft or morfix, i use milon. it has almost always included obscure or challenging phrases the other dictionaries have not. milon is the online dictionary component of babylon software, used in ectaco pocket hebrew translators. however, milon does not use nikudim, which makes pronunciation a bit more difficult for a novice learner.

hebrew-verbs

hebrew-verbs.com is part of an online effort to support hebrew language learning for olim, or new immigrants. on the connected site, you can find structured vocabulary lists, as well as other hebrew language resources. it's very difficult to work through the dictionary, but i do use the verb list as a final resource on the most common verb to use. additionally, the website can list every form and tense for each verb listed. sometimes, i even just use the website as an online flashcard program. it's kind of like an online companion to 501 Hebrew Verbs.


II. language learning programs

ulpan

ulpan is the traditional israeli program to help any level hebrew learner. some students are frustrated because it includes too much conversation, and other students are frustrated because it has too much structure. for me, i thought that ulpan was the only and best way to start language learning, and it was the best way to make sure i kept moving forward in the right way. all of my individual study helped me learn more words, but only ulpan helped me understand how the language worked and how to learn new tenses or noun structures.

every ulpan teacher was always extraordinarily helpful, and i always took at least one major step forward in each level. the one drawback: they're expensive!

ulpan a: summer 2004 (conservative yeshiva - jerusalem)
ulpan a+: summer 2005 (jts - manhattan)
ulpan b: summer 2006 (jcc - manhattan)
ulpan c: fall 2007 (psjc - brooklyn)

pimsleur hebrew I and II

pimsleur and rosetta stone are the two most expensive language programs on the market. it's possible to find pimsleur's torrents online, but i felt badly so i purchased the software from an online store at a discount. i've found that as an intermediate learner i knew almost all of the vocabulary on the sets. however, i've still found the lessons incredibly helpful. the structure or repitition of the lessons really does work, and they gradually stretch you to use new phrases in longer sentences with more difficulty vocabulary over time.

pimsleur uses colloquial pronunciations which you can trust will be understood on the street. the tapes, though, are not designed to give you a comprehensive vocabulary. it is specifically designed to get you up and moving into conversation. it does not cover how or why the language works the way it does.

that said, i think it's the perfect compliment to the other programs i use to learn. it still helps to pracitice listening to the hebrew as well. i absolutely recommend pimsleur, and i'm disappointed to have to wait until at least december '08 for pimsleur hebrew III. (update: version III release date postponed until june.)

rosetta stone

rosetta stone was the first program i bought to help learn hebrew after i completed my first ulpans. it's amazing to help promote vocabulary. you learn to associate new hebrew words with pictures, so you can avoid translating the word back into english to understand. i've found that words learned in rosetta stone that have practical context have stuck really well; where there is little practical context for me to use, i have not kept the words as well.

there is an intense learning curve, though. i don't believe that an absolute beginner user would benefit from buying the program. but, if you have a general understanding of how the language is structured, the system really works. it continues to help me add new words and to help me correct pronunciations or conjugations of existing words. i absolutely strongly recommend the program, although it can get a bit "gamey". resist the urge to play the game to win. i try to guess each panel before they're said, and i also repeat each panel after the speaker announces the statement.

before you know it!

BYKI begins as a free download program to help you build first vocabulary. the deluxe program includes full lists organized by categories, and it also allows you to develop, adapt, or edit your own lists using hebrew letters. BYKI uses a special algorithm to help you learn and memorize new vocabulary words. for example, when you miss a word early on, the program remembers to bring that word back at different intervals to help you acquire its meaning.

i don't think that memorization is the best way to learn a new language, but it absolutely helped me get a memory of new words that i could then try and use. because i speak out loud consistently, i was then able to practice those words and the words made their way into my working vocabulary. as of now, i've worked up to about 400 verbs, 300 adjectives, and more than 500 other words. yay! (update: 700 verbs, 400 adjectives, and more than 1000 other words.) (update 2: they have released a version 4. version 4 allows export to excel and word which helps building words lists for online/iphone flash applications.)


III. online learning programs (text based)

milingua
milingua is a pay site that includes beginner, intermediate, and advanced units. the package also includes verb tables, a hebrew dictionary, and easy short texts. i'm not sure the fee was completely worth it. that said, there's been some really good tips and words and phrases that i've brought into my conversation, and i think they've really helped.

foundation stone

i didn't review the former version of foundation stone because i found it way too confusing and not very helpful. recently, they released a revamped 4.0 version, and it includes much more helpful word lists and super cool audio files for learners. the interface is still a little complicated to use and the word lists are not as expansive as i'd like. however, i believe that you can add to them as you like. more to come here. . .

iFlipr

i recently bought the new iphone, and i have been dying for a native iphone hebrew flashcard application. it's not quite here yet, although byki has released a spanish and french version. (they've limited the add on feature, so it's impossible to use with hebrew.) also, many of the free and open flashcard programs do not support hebrew language. the iphone often reverses the order of the letter and mixes up the nikud.

iflipr does work well. the only problem is that you have to take a few steps to transport the lists you have on your computer to on online database to your iphone. it's great once you get it loaded, though.

1) create list in desktop flashcard program (such as byki)

2) export list to microsoft excel (or other database program: csv or tsv)

3) copy list, create list, or edit list on iflip website

4) click download in iflipr iphone appliction

5) sync decks from your online account to your iphone


IV. online learning programs (audio)

iTunes

there are a good deal of israeli musicians on itunes, now, including classic and traditional artists. a good way to sample a wide variety of music is to test track on user created mixes. there are also two new podcasts listed on itunes to help study and learn hebrew on your digital music players:

learn hebrewpod and
hebrew podcasts

both programs are free downloads from the itunes music store, and both programs offer paid subscriptions to additional online content. i believe both websites include additional activities on the core lesson, although i have not used their online lessons. the hebrew podcasts actually started quite recently, so i had moved a good deal ahead of where both lessons begin. at the same time, the podcasts are always getting a bit more advanced and all past lessons are easily retrievable when you subscribe to the programs.

each program starts each lesson with a partner dialogue and then breaks down the dialogue in both hebrew and english afterwards. each program then repeats the complete dialogue again at the end to help reinforce your learning. i feel like learn hebrew now! is a little bit more advanced than hebrewpod. in the end, i found pimsleur much much more helpful for my language learning, and i often found myself hoping that they would just use the pimsleur method. at the same time, pimsleur is also quite a good deal more expensive - these are pretty good options for free!

vocabulearn

i purchased vocabulearn as a digital audiobook from itunes. (i linked it, here, to amazon, only because it's easier for me to figure out how to do that.) vocabulearn presents a long series of words to help build et otzar ha-milim (your vocabulary!). the program is a bit awkward because it is really just a long list of words in a line, but it is helpful to discover new words. in addition, it gives both the masculine and the feminine version of adjectives, as well as the verb infinitive. i find the verb infinitive much more useful that the shoresh, or verb root. the language is organized by the verb roots, but it was a bit more complicated for me to figure out the root system until later. vocabulearn was quite cheap, and i still listen to it from time to time to even help review words i know.

IV. learning language texts

ivrit min ha-hatchala

hebrew from scratch is the most used textbook in current ulpan classes for new learners, including new olim to israel. and it is an excellent textbook for guided study in class. lessons include a variety of angles, such as grammar, conversation, and slang around common themes you will need in real life, like food, family, and vacations.

the books are primarily written in hebrew, so it is helpful to immerse yourself in the language. in addition, the series also offers a helpful series of audio cd's to help improve your listening skills. however, i found these books to be really really hard to learn from without a learning group or ulpan class.

ivrit shalav

i started this series on level gimmel, or level 3, so i cannot speak to the first two books. this book is designed specifically for american students. that means, that exercises and activities are most like the way we learned second languages in school. there are dialogues and crosswords and passages. it also means that the directions are largely written in english. i thought this book was awesome to use for self study, picking up and putting down and picking up again a bit later to help practice. there are three books in the full series, as well as a fourth book, a modern hebrew reader, which is great for more advanced but still leveled reading.


501 hebrew verbs

this book is a very popular book for ehinning and intermediate hebrew students. it provides a comprehensive verb table for most common hebrew verbs. this means the book lists past, present, and future tenses for the individual verbs. the book also gives the governing preposition, connected phrases, and sample sentences that show the verbs in context. you can search for words by the english verb or by the hebrew root.

Hebrew Verb Tables

hebrew verb tables has a more comprehensive list of verbs that 501 hebrew verbs; however, verbs are linked to groups or families of verbs with similar patterns. as you become familiar with hebrew, you will start to see that there are patterns and systems that govern grammar and conjugation. it can be helpful to see words in common groups, , but it can also be challenging to figure out the exact conjugation. my general rule is that if a word isn't listed in this book, it probably isn't used colloquially.

easy hebrew newspapers

there are three easy hebrew newspapers with current news and events: sha'ar la-matchil, yanshuf, and bereshit. bereshit is advanced beginner level, yanshuf is intermediate level, and shaar l'matchil is advanced intermediate to beginner advanced level. each newspaper has the option to purchase the newspaper with or without supplemental audio. i felt that the articles and audio were interesting because they identified current events and ideas that made it easy to connect, too. at the same time, i cancelled my subscription to bereshit/yanshuf because it was just too expensive for the content. while it was helpful to read and listen and practice, much of this kind of content can be also found in other books and program for far less money.

it's important to note that sha'ar recently expanded their options to include a far cheaper digital version of their newspaper. the newspaper includes audio supplements for only $6 per month or $60 for the whole year. this is a much more reasonable and sensible idea. they only allow you to store 4 issues at a time; however, you can also save the papers as a .pdf document forever, and you can record the audio to store on your ipod. i highly recommend this program. the real challenge, though, is that it's quite advanced even for an intermediate learner.

children's books

picture books were incredibly helpful for me. the books tell simple stories that readers can follow in context of illustrations. i was lucky to be able to buy books from an israeli based bookstore here in brooklyn (sifrutake), but you can also find a range of sites online, including steimatsky, orly's, blue white direct, and even צומת, the largest israeli bookstore.

here's a bunch of books aviyah and i loved:

tiras cham
barakevet yoshevet arnevet
ma'aseh b'chamishah balonim
mitz petel
dondon ha-abir
chanan ha-ganan
tuq tuq tuq
ain arayot k'aleh
ata k'var gadol
olivia
sidra dora
sidra kor'im im dora
sidra yuli
sidra or shoelet. . .

to disney children's books. . . (available only in israel, published by ידיעות אחרונות)

to young adult literature. . .

Hugo Cabaret
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
The Alchemist
Twilight
Harry Potter
Eragon


V. online video

heveinu shalom aleichem

the stanford hebrew language webpage hosts a variety of resources, including student produced films. the most valuable link is to "heveinu shalom aleichem", a series of instructional videos to help olim learn modern spoken hebrew. the series is seriously dated, the acting is corny, and the storylines are awful. that said, it was incredibly helpful for me because it helped me practice hebrew listening. i speak hebrew everyday out loud. however, because my daughter is young, i rarely get consistent practice listening to hebrew. so, my spoken hebrew is far more advanced than my listening. "heveinu" helps me adjust to hebrew pace and cadence and helps me practice my accent listening to native israeli speakers.

youtube

youtube has a great selection of hebrew videos, including uploaded rehov sumsum (sesame street) clips and disney videos translated and dubbed into hebrew. my daughter can't get over watching clips from melekh ha-aryot (lion king)! you can also find all major songs from any disney film, including beauty and the beast, the little mermaid, and aladdin. it's been very helpful to search for and print out the lyrics to translate back into english. the words in the disney films can sometimes be literary, but i've definitely learned key words from hakuna matata. in fact, i'm pretty sure that aviyah thinks hakuna matata is a (wonderful) hebrew phrase.

online television

there are also a host of israel television and radio broadcasts you can access online. these are the real deal websites that israelis use to access news stories, music clips, and television clips. caution: they're native speakers speaking hebrew for native speakers so it's fast and complicated. one big help: subtitles on the mabat link!

• mabat
• iba
• knesset
• muzika 24
• mako
• reshet
• yes!
• hop! (tin tv)

disney movies
dora the explorer

after i started speaking more fluently, i purchased single dvd's in hebrew. i purchased online steimatskyusa.com and also from tzomet sfarim in israel. there is a large selection of israeli television shows that children love, but it was easier for me to connect with american shows and movies. i have linked to a few clips from the dora television series, and you can also find some nice hebrew dubbed torrents online. if you download a bit torrent application, you can visit any of a series of torrent websites that offer around 7-10 disney and pixar movies. the torrents should be helpful for you to review movies before you decide to purchase them. however, i recommend purchasing the original movies. (the originals include english and hebrew subtitles, which are extremely helpful for me.)