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)
Sunday, August 23
Friday, August 7
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!
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!
Sunday, May 3
on the wild
i just finished watching the sean penn film, into the wild. the book is loosely based on the jon krakauer profile, first published as a series of articles in outsider magazine and then as a book. the story is so crazy poignant, i think, because the tragedy is that he does not live to learn what he ended up learning. the treagedy isn't that he made his mistake, i think. i think it's that he doesn't ever get to learn what he learned from making the mistake that he made.
by all accounts, mccandless was a good soul. an old wind. he was crazy and off the grid in the way we really should be if we were truly sensible. what is this whole thing anyway? what are we really doing anyway? i mean, don't you ever think that this whole thing really is screwed? i mean, we sit in rows and grids of things. i mean, not in actually rows and grids, but our styles, our interests, our friendships, our lives became made into grids and patterns and systems of emotions. anyway, i feel like his sotry call this whole thing. i mean, life is, in some sense, completely wacked.
krakauer also writes how he made a choice to try to conquer the stupidest hardest craziest obstacle he could. he told the story by way of disclaimer because he understood what mccandless set out to do. and i don't think that my trip out west, on my own, is exactly the same. i certainly did not climb the steepest mountain that had not been climbed. i did not set out to sustain myself apart from all society in the wilderness. i did set out to break from myself and from the world, to live, just live and meet experiences on the street that i didn't know about. i stayed at a friend's place for some time before they became also weary of me. but i do connect with what he wanted to do, with who he was, ith who he wanted to be.
the thing i cry most about when i cry about this story is that chris never was able to come back and see that he was crazy and see that he didn't fully understand how big we are and also how much bigger everything else is. that that bigger realy could just end everything else. that we are here, now, but he is not. that people, sometimes, just don't get that chance. that it just ends.
i know that people who know more about the wildnerness think he's more hurtful to the whole sense of wilderness and so on. but i just think there's real simple tragedy in his life. he was a good man. he was different. he wasn't perfect. but he did his thing and he ws only ever trying to be closer to himself, to his wilderness, to who he really was.
krakauer guesses that mccandless died from starvation from eating a misidentified seed. the poisonous seed accelerated starvation but the tragedy isn't just that he starved to deeath. it's not that he just died. in the end, he did come so much closer to himself, to his understanding of the world, to who he was and who he was not. it's not that he's a hero. and it's not that he's a villian.
the true tragedy, i think, is that he was just a young man that wanted to understand the world, to understand himself, and he lost and he lost and he never got to be whoever it is that he really wanted to be. it'sn ot that he was going to sell out. it's not that he wasn't. it's just that the tragedy is that he was on this path to just try to figure out what the real value of this all is anyway after all? what is the real value of this all after everything anyway?
i still wonder. i still wonder, what is the wild? i wonder, could i have gone further into the wild? i wonder, can i still go?
by all accounts, mccandless was a good soul. an old wind. he was crazy and off the grid in the way we really should be if we were truly sensible. what is this whole thing anyway? what are we really doing anyway? i mean, don't you ever think that this whole thing really is screwed? i mean, we sit in rows and grids of things. i mean, not in actually rows and grids, but our styles, our interests, our friendships, our lives became made into grids and patterns and systems of emotions. anyway, i feel like his sotry call this whole thing. i mean, life is, in some sense, completely wacked.
krakauer also writes how he made a choice to try to conquer the stupidest hardest craziest obstacle he could. he told the story by way of disclaimer because he understood what mccandless set out to do. and i don't think that my trip out west, on my own, is exactly the same. i certainly did not climb the steepest mountain that had not been climbed. i did not set out to sustain myself apart from all society in the wilderness. i did set out to break from myself and from the world, to live, just live and meet experiences on the street that i didn't know about. i stayed at a friend's place for some time before they became also weary of me. but i do connect with what he wanted to do, with who he was, ith who he wanted to be.
the thing i cry most about when i cry about this story is that chris never was able to come back and see that he was crazy and see that he didn't fully understand how big we are and also how much bigger everything else is. that that bigger realy could just end everything else. that we are here, now, but he is not. that people, sometimes, just don't get that chance. that it just ends.
i know that people who know more about the wildnerness think he's more hurtful to the whole sense of wilderness and so on. but i just think there's real simple tragedy in his life. he was a good man. he was different. he wasn't perfect. but he did his thing and he ws only ever trying to be closer to himself, to his wilderness, to who he really was.
krakauer guesses that mccandless died from starvation from eating a misidentified seed. the poisonous seed accelerated starvation but the tragedy isn't just that he starved to deeath. it's not that he just died. in the end, he did come so much closer to himself, to his understanding of the world, to who he was and who he was not. it's not that he's a hero. and it's not that he's a villian.
the true tragedy, i think, is that he was just a young man that wanted to understand the world, to understand himself, and he lost and he lost and he never got to be whoever it is that he really wanted to be. it'sn ot that he was going to sell out. it's not that he wasn't. it's just that the tragedy is that he was on this path to just try to figure out what the real value of this all is anyway after all? what is the real value of this all after everything anyway?
i still wonder. i still wonder, what is the wild? i wonder, could i have gone further into the wild? i wonder, can i still go?
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