TED Talk Reflection

My friends after my TED Talk was over: That went really well, Jason!

Me: Sank god.

Phew, that’s a relief. My TED Talk is now finished, and I actually feel confident in how I did. I didn’t require any notes and I don’t believe that I stuttered once. Just what I was hoping for.

Although it might seem as though what I did required very little effort, the truth was that I worked extremely hard in order to achieve the result I got.

I spent hours and hours rehearsing my presentation, in a variety of different settings and with a variety of different people. The first person I practiced in front of was my dad. I knew this would be a good idea because it is impossible for him to give me criticism. Sometimes, this can be an issue, but, for a first trial, it was just perfect. I needed to become comfortable speaking what I wrote in front of other people, and the best way to ease my way into this cold pool was to put one foot in at a time.

After I practiced in front of my dad, I realized where I needed to spend additional time rehearsing, although he seemed to think I did it perfectly (On his standards, I would have failed)!

I basically spent the next day practicing for myself in front of my bedroom window, which overlooks the street. I did this because I knew that I would be able to see the sun setting and also because I would be able to hear the cars moving. I wished to give myself minor distractions, so I would be prepared in case one of the audion doors opened during my presentation (which ended up happening for another presenter).

Later that same night (Wednesday), I pulled my brother away from his Phineas and Ferb episode and forced him to watch me. I knew he wouldn’t really be listening and that he would just keep moving around in his chair. 9-year-olds are antsy and don’t care about learning Hebrew. Well...most. When I was 9 that would’ve sounded like a dream come true!

Anyways, sure enough, my brother lived up to my expectations. Fidgeting constantly during my speech, he even curled himself in a ball and tried to fit under the couch. I don’t quite know his motive, but it definitely helped me get used to any distractions I might face.

The next night, I pretty much did the exact same thing. Practice, practice, practice, consider watching a Downton Abbey episode but ultimately decide it would not be the best choice, practice, practice. Then, right before I went to bed, I video chatted with a trusted friend from the morning block, and she gave me tips on how to improve my TED Talk. I definitely felt prepared.

Friday morning was an extremely stressful affair. I was so worried that the snow would send us home, and I wouldn’t be able to get it over with. Luckily, this did not occur.

As the time drew closer to when I would give my TED Talk, I became more and more nervous. I practiced both in IE and during lunch in front of some friends who basically told me one thing: SLOW DOWN. Ok, fine. I guess I can slow down.

Going first was something I knew I had to do. There’s nothing worse than waiting for your turn to come, because you can’t truly enjoy the talks before you without being stressed. Going first means that, although you are constantly comparing your talk to theirs, you know that there is nothing that can be done about it.

So, when I got to the audion, I got up on stage, and gave my TED Talk. There’s nothing quite like that feeling when you’re driving home your message, hoping that you can connect to your audience. “When we berate the people who speak other languages, practice other religions, lead other lives, we destroy diversity.” These powerful lines that concluded my presentation were actually fun to say. It’s hard to think that giving a 4-5 minute talk could ever be fun, but when you’re that close to the end, and you think you’ve done a pretty good job thus far, the light at the end of the tunnel is so close. You just have to walk one more step. You just have to say two more sentences. And then you’re done.

And everything’s grand.

Now that the project is officially over, I’m feeling a bit nostalgic. I’ve never felt that way about a school assignment before, so I am definitely truly grateful that I was given this time to delve into the Hebrew language. I will be continuing my journey, but not my blog. So, as FunForLouis, one of my favorite YouTubers, says at the end of every video, “Peace out. Enjoy life. Live the adventure.” Shalom! (שלום)


Weekly Comments:
Toni McFarland
Hannah Gruen
Sarah Kollender

Today's The Day

Snow, stop. I mean it. Stop. Stop. STOP! Would it be nicer if I asked in Hebrew? !להפסיק (l'hah-fee-sohk). 

I'm currently sitting in French class, but don't worry, me typing this is completely legal. I already took the test everyone else is taking, so Madame Bianchi gave me a little free time. 

And here I am, looking to my left, seeing the snow come down...and down...and down.

I'm just praying that we don't leave school early, because I really want to get my TED Talk over with today.

I feel prepared, and I don't want to have to think about it at all over the weekend. 

My script is memorized, my prezi is on a flashdrive, and I'm dressed in a nice blue long-sleeved shirt and khaki pants. 

I have the Gifted Workday IE today, and I expect to be practicing my script again, even though I really don't need to.

Will I eat lunch today? Doubtful. Maybe I'll manage to swallow a few grapes, but that's the best I can hope for. 

Anyways, this is (keeping my fingers crossed) the last post before my TED Talk. As you know, I'm really bad at posing, but the picture below is a representation of how I feel:

שלום - Jason

Week 4: שבוע 4

As I’m writing this, my stomach is flooding with butterflies. Just imagining my presentation tomorrow...it’s all too much. I remember first struggling to find a topic. Now, I am prepared with a 4 - 5 minute TED Talk and a Prezi to accompany it. Surprisingly, I feel quite confident with my progress. I have my TED Talk completely memorized, and now it is just a matter of timing it perfectly. I know that some people say that the words should just come flowing out of my mouth and that it shouldn’t be “memorized,” but that is not how I work. I only have the confidence to speak publicly if I know exactly what I am going to say, which comes only with intense practice.

I’m going to be completely honest with you: I have not practiced my Hebrew as much as I would have liked to this week. I spent so much time writing my TED Talk...and then every free minute I had was spent memorizing it. Although sometimes I don’t feel like it, I am in other classes besides Gifted. With Spring Break quickly approaching, they have all chosen to ramp up the workload. Just perfect.

However, my Rabbi gave me a little Conversational Hebrew book as a companion to my Biblical Hebrew studies with her. She confirmed that there are no books designed for teenagers; they are all either written for kids or for adults. This textbook is for kids, but she said that it was a good resource that would help me a lot. It will (hopefully) build up my vocabulary and knowledge of sentence structure.

You know what this means: more entries in my Hebrew Vocabulary Notebook. I’m starting to enjoy looking at the things I already know how to do. Seeing the things I already know how to say motivates me to become fluent ASAP.

In addition, I thought it would be fun to try writing a few full sentences. Nothing fancy, just a few things I can say, with confidence and poise. Well...poised might not be the word to describe it.

The book that my Rabbi gave me is cool because it is about four kids traveling around Israel. So, of course, the first two lessons are at the airport and explain introductions. And, I even learned the verb, “travel.” It is not conjugated with the standard “kal” format that I already learned and mastered. Rather this one is more complicated:

Masculine, Singular	נוסע	Noh-say-ah
Feminine, Singular	נוסעת	Noh-sah-aht
Masculine, Plural	נוסעים	Noh-seem
Feminine, Plural	נוסעת	Noh-soht

Since traveling is one of my favorite things to do, I am glad I can now conjugate the verb in Hebrew!

Now, it is time to get back to preparing for my TED Talk. I’m praying there’s school tomorrow and that I can get it over with. *Says Shema, a Hebrew prayer*

Well, this is my last weekly update. Thank you so much for sharing this language-learning voyage with me! I hope that you enjoy my TED Talk.

שלום! - Goodbye

:Weekly Comments

Jess Miao

Catelyn Huang
Toni McFarland

Thoughts after Meeting with the Rabbi

Ok, so today I had my first study session with the Rabbi, and it went very well. She stressed what I should be focusing on moving forward:

1. Building my vocabulary - Quizlet will likely be a major help here, because a lot of this will be simple memorization. In addition, I need to know which nouns are masculine and which nouns are feminine. This will be more difficult than in French, because, in French, you learn the words based on their gender. For example, you don’t simply learn the word “crayon,” meaning pencil. Instead, you learn it as “un crayon,” so that there is never any question that the word is masculine. On the other hand, there is no distinction between masculine and feminine nouns in Hebrew; you just need to memorize them.
2. The 7 major verb families. The one I already learned is called “Kal,” and it is both the simplest and the most common one. One of the verbs that falls under this category is למד - learn

For next week, she assigned me to read Chapters 4 and 5 in the Biblical Hebrew Textbook! Hopefully, it will be funny and enjoyable. The passage I read to her at our session was about a father who ate all the bread in the house! Anyways, we created a 1:00 - 1:30 slot every sunday, and this is set to continue far after the project is completed. Who knows?! Maybe by the end, I’ll be fluent in Hebrew! Now, it’s time to go memorize my TED Talk. Wish me luck!

Week 3: שבוע 3

I’m the saddest town in town! Ok, that was a really lame Young Frankenstein reference, I’m sorry. I’m not a town, I’m a person. Anyways, the musical is over. This means more time to learn Hebrew, but it also means more time to feel depressed that the musical is over. I have no motivation to do anything except pretend I’m in another world, either by watching Downton Abbey or reading a Rainbow Rowell novel. When I’m not doing one of those two things, the depression washes over me deeply (sorry but I’m going to be making these references for the rest of the post...or the week...or forever).

Anyways, this week definitely had its ups and downs. It started off on a good note when, after my free trial on transparent.com expired, I found an extremely helpful blog called “learnhebreweasily.” This blogspot has organized lessons based on relevance and a logical flow of verbs, prepositions, vocabulary, and other Hebrew nuances.

It took awhile to get 100%!

One of the most important structural things I learned was the four different verb conjugations, which are as follows: masculine singular, masculine plural, feminine singular, and feminine plural. As far as I know, there are no irregular verbs, and every verb is conjugated with the same vowel order. Easy right?! Well...it turns out that I’m not as good at remembering Hebrew verbs than I am at remembering French ones. I tried to learn ten this week, but I kept jumbling them all up. To help, I created a Quizlet that I practice whenever I get the chance. This has definitely allowed to me to begin building sentences, for example: אני לומד (Ah-nee loh-med - I learn). If you are interested in seeing the conjugations, take a look at the picture for Lesson 1 below. (Keep in mind that the “X” means a consonant sound, and that the three consonants make up the root of the verb. Every conjugation uses those three letters, in the case of the verb, “learn,” the three letters are למד, or “lamed, mem, dalit.” I’m sorry if this is really confusing, that’s why I wrote it down!

Another useful thing I learned is prepositions. Since each preposition is only one letter, it is connected to the next word. For example, the Hebrew word for “garden” is גן, or “gahn.” If we were to say “the garden,” you would simply add the letter “hay - ה,” which means “the.” Therefore, “the garden” is הגן - ha-gahn.

I also learned pronouns, some of which are interrogative: he - הוא (hoo); she - היא (hee); why - לָמָה (lah-mah); and what - מה (mah). ?למה אני אוהב עברית - Why (do) I love Hebrew?

Biblical Hebrew doesn't have present tense!

To help me remember key concepts, I wrote down everything that I thought might be useful. The pictures above are of the first three units, which I immersed myself in this week.

All of this meant that, when my Hebrew book came, I wouldn’t have much use for it...which was a relief. It turns out that the textbook I ordered is a guide to Biblical Hebrew, not Conversational Hebrew. I immediately spoke to my Rabbi, who said that learning Biblical Hebrew would help me a great deal when learning Conversational, so...I will be studying Biblical Hebrew as a little side project; this is the last time you will hear about it on the blog. My Rabbi and I have a scheduled study session on sunday, so my next post will likely be a reflection of that.

Thank you so much (תודה רבה) for reading my blog, and I hope you have enjoyed my journey thus far. I know I have!

שלום!

Weekly Comments:

Jess Miao

Sarah Wolbach

Sarah Kollender

My Vlog!

Hey guys! I hope you enjoy my vlog! The password is: hebrewwithhaste


Hebrew Genius Hour from Jason Smith on Vimeo.

Happy Snow Day - שמח יום שלג

Oh, how nice it is to have this snow day. I’d like to say I spent most of my time doing homework, but Downton Abbey can be irresistible. However, I thought it would be fun to learn some Winter-related vocabulary, so that is exactly what I did! Many people think that since Israel is located in the Middle East it doesn't snow there, but that is not the case! Jerusalem gets snow on rare occasions, but it snows often in the Golan Heights near Syria. It is even a popular skiing destination! When I was in Hebrew School and learning about Israel, the teachers would tell us that you could take a camel ride in the desert and go skiing all in one day!

Anyways, here is the Hebrew vocabulary!

Winter	Choh-rehf	חורף
Cold	Kahr	קר
Snow	Sheh-leg	שלג
It’s snowing!	Yoh-rehd sheh-leg	יורד שלג
Happy snow day!	Sah-may-ach yohm sheh-leg	שמח יום שלג
It’s cold today	Kahr ha-yohm	קר היום

And now for some pictures!

One of my favorite things about snow is that can make the most simple thing appear photogenic!

Blank Spaces

I think this is a twig

I thought this one looked cool

I hope you had a great day and were more productive than I was! I’ll be back this weekend for a Purim-themed post. I LOVE PURIM!

Good-bye (שלום),

Jason

Week 2: שבוע 2

Hello! (שלום  - shah-lohm), and welcome to week 3 of my language learning process. Let’s start this week off with a little math problem. If you enjoy solving equations, feel free to join in! If not, just sit back and let me show you what one could potentially do with too much free-time:

I'm sorry but it's hard to roll my eyes on command

A Hebrew Textbook leaves Springfield, Illinois on February 20. It arrives in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania never. A student leaves Blue Bell, Pennsylvania by car the morning of February 20. Including one hour for dinner, a few bathroom breaks, and moderate traffic, the student in question would arrive in Springfield, Illinois late the same night. Let’s say this student had an errand to run in the city, perhaps meet a client or pick up a book. He spends all of February 21 in the city, and then arrives back home late on February 22. This cycle could repeat three and a half times by them time I am writing this entry on March 2.

My textbook has not arrived yet. You can see my agony.

However, despite this setback, I have still been kept busy. I decided to use my free trial on transparent.com now, while I have no other major resource to utilize. I found this website very helpful, and I’m glad I chose to use it. I quickly learned vocabulary that I would need should I ever have an emergency while vacationing in Israel, including “I need help” (אני צריך עזור - ah-nee tzah-reech ehz-rah) and “bakery” (מאפייה - mah-ah-fee-yah). Although a bakery is where I would likely spend most of my

time, I would have preferred to learn some basic words, rather than learn the most useful ones in Israel. I wish there could be specific units to teach me the building blocks of Hebrew, as there were when I began learning French in 7th grade. For example, one of the things I learned how to say was credit card. I’ve been taking French for three years, and I still don’t know how to say that. Clearly transparent.com needs to get its priorities straight.

Much of the vocabulary I’ve learned I put in my Hebrew Vocabulary Notebook. The updated version can be seen at right:

I’ve also noticed a few interesting things regarding the Hebrew language itself:

First of all, verbs are gender specific. This is something I have never encountered before, as, in English, this does not occur, and, in French, only nouns and adjectives specify gender. This can be seen below:

English: I need (masculine and feminine)

French: Je dois (masculine and feminine)

Hebrew:אני צריך (ah-nee tzah-reech/masculine) אני צריכה(ah-nee tzah-ree-chah/feminine)

As can be seen, the feminine example has an extra letter at the end, a “hay.” This letter provides the extra “ah” sound that differentiates between the masculine and feminine versions of the verb.

Also, in case you haven’t realized, Hebrew is written from right to left, much like the Bible. This can sometimes be tricky when attempting to incorporate the language into my blogpost, because the letters are constantly shifting around the page!

Unfortunately, my free trial expires today, but I will try and find as much use out of other resources I will find. As they say, when your free trial expires, find another one!

Good-bye! (שלום  - shah-lohm),

Jason

Weekly Comments:
Zoe Bentley
Nicole Tan
Ellie Alberti

Thoughts about Zionism

Greetings classmates! I recently read a rather interesting article about Orthodox Jews and their feelings regarding Israel and Zionism as a whole. For those of you who don’t know, Zionism is the belief that Jews should live in and operate a Jewish state around Jerusalem, our holy city. According to a slightly radical website titled truetorahjews.org, “Israeli propaganda endangers Jews worldwide.” I will briefly summarize and respond to the article, but if you wish to read it in its purest form, you can visit the following link: http://www.truetorahjews.org/issues/france-denmark

Basically, the article argued that antisemitism has increased since Israel became an independent nation in May of 1948. It cited peace between Jews and Arabs prior to Zionism’s inception as the primary point. It also mentioned radical attempts to bomb the Temple Mount and the Israeli settlements in the West Bank as escalators of an unnecessary crisis and the main reasons for growing antisemitism.

Personally, I think that the Holocaust proved Israel’s inception to be an important step in the rebuilding of Jewish culture, but this blog is not meant to discuss my views, but to talk about the importance of the Hebrew language.

Last summer,during my “I only read books that relate to Judaism” phase, I devoted myself to a novel called Exodus by Leon Uris. The book was published in 1958 and highlights Israel’s early history. I still remember being shocked to learn that Orthodox Jews were against speaking Hebrew as a conversational language. They only believed it should be use in synagogue and religious settings and argued to keep Yiddish as the tongue-of-choice. As we know, Hebrew became Israel’s official language, but this article proves there are still people out there who wish to keep things the way they have always been.  I just thought it was interesting that we commonly associate all Jews with Israel, and, as this article pointed out, that is not the case.

On another note, I will continue to use transparent.com, an online language-learning site that has helped me enormously in the past few days. Too bad my free trial expires shortly! Hopefully, by then, my new textbook will have arrived!

And yes, this was posted far past my bedtime. Hell Week has taken its toll.

Week 1: שבוע 1

See what I mean? There's a frickin' ant! Her name is Malmalah...

Oy vey. It’s been a difficult week. And not because of difficulty acclimating, or the language’s complexity. The fault lies in my Welcome to Modern Hebrew book; it is absolutely terrible or, in Hebrew, נורא (nor-ah)! I didn’t realize when I got it, but it’s definitely  more of a kid’s guide than an adult’s textbook. 

The chapters are not organized in any particular way, and vocabulary is introduced where it is completely unnecessary. I know how to say umbrella (מטרייה - mee-tree-yah), but I don’t know how to say please, or thank you!

I turned to my Rabbi for guidance, as I always do in times of need. She suggested a specific book on amazon.com, and it should be arriving any day now. Until then, I will continue to explore the resource I currently have, for any help it could possibly provide.

In order to not make this week a complete waste of my time, I started to create a Hebrew Vocabulary notebook, with all the vocabulary I have learned so far. This consists of five prefixes, two verbs, and a series of helpful (plus a few useless) words:

 The book also has some practice exercises, which I have completed:

Using the masculine and feminine forms of "live" 

Matching English vocabulary to its Hebrew translation

I decided a different way to further my understanding of the language would be to research its history.  These are some fun facts I’ve learned:

1. Hebrew is thought to be a combination of Arabic and Aramaic.
2. Scholars have argued whether the Israelites brought their language to Palestine, or whether it had been spoken there prior to their arrival. Some believe that Abraham and Sarah, the first Jews, actually spoke Aramaic!
3. Modern Hebrew was not revived until the late 19th century, when Eliezer ben Yehuda moved to Israel and encouraged use of the language at school and home.
4. Ladino (spoken by Sephardic Jews of the Iberian Peninsula) and Yiddish (spoken by Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern/Central Europe) are modeled after Hebrew. These two languages were developed by the European Jews and currently mark the most plain distinction between the two Jewish factions. I belong to the Ashkenazic group, as do most American Jews.
5. Jesus spoke Biblical Hebrew, which, during his time, was commonly used at synagogue.

The sources I used to find this information were as follows:

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7453-hebrew-language

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/History/history.html

Something interesting that I noticed in the language itself is that not every sentence requires a conjugated verb, as in English and French. Take, for example, the sentence, “I am in the house.”

English: I am in the house.

French: Je suis dans la maison.

Hebrew: אני בבית - Ah-nee ba-ba-yeet

As can be seen, the conjugated verb (“am” in English - “suis” in French) is absent from the Hebrew version, yet it means the same thing and is grammatically correct.

Of course, I cannot wait until the new book comes in the mail. Until then, I will do more research on the history of the Hebrew language and suck out whatever knowledge that could possibly be contained in my book’s pages.

Peace! (שלום - sha-lom)

Oh, and, shabbat shalom (שבת שלום), a popular greeting used on the Sabbath.

This Week's Comments:
Hannah Gruen
Sarah Wolbach
Laura Roth