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| 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:
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| Using the masculine and feminine forms of "live" |
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| 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:
- Hebrew is thought to be a combination of Arabic and Aramaic.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- Jesus spoke Biblical Hebrew, which, during his time, was commonly used at synagogue.
The sources I used to find this information were as follows:
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.
I hope your new textbook is more helpful than this one! I liked the connection with English and French. I'm learning how to read and write Mandarin Chinese, and I found that trying to draw similarities or distinctions between English and German (another language I'm learning) helped my understanding. Good luck on your next week :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Jess!
DeleteI agree, comparing English and French really helps me understand the grammatical differences in learning a new language. Good luck to you too! I am still soo excited for the scallion pancake recipe!
Jason
Jason, I love this so much. I clicked your blog and scrolled through and got really excited because I could read it! Of course, then you put a word without vowels and I was lost. Thanks, Hebrew school education. First of all, how on earth did you find 1100 relatives??? That's insane wow. Second, I'm really excited to see what you learn because I'll be able to utilize a fair bit of it in my life. Hebrew without vowels is really hard, so good luck learning it! I'm sure you'll do great. The vocab list was a great idea, and even though the book sucks, the activities will be helpful. I know those activities from Hebrew school still haunt my nightmares. Have fun!
ReplyDeleteHey Zoe!
DeleteI'm glad you liked my blog! I am definitely struggling through the Hebrew without vowels, but I'm making progress. More about that in my next post. Yea, I've spent hours every week since I was six years old doing family research, and I still make many phone calls and e-mails every month! One of the main reasons why I chose this topic was because I knew it would help in everyday life, especially at my synagogue. Thanks for the kind response! Hopefully, I will help you understand more about the Hebrew language throughout my project.
Jason
I thought that your research of the history of Hebrew was interesting and a good idea to further your understanding of the language. I am sorry to hear that your book did not work out but I am glad to hear you were able to be productive without it. I liked your blog and i though it displayed a lot of chutzpah.
ReplyDelete(see what i did there. Chutzpah derives from Hebrew)
Thanks Greg!
DeleteChutzpah is definitely one of my favorite Yiddish words. I will be sure to use it in future blogposts.
Jason