Greetings to all who made it to my blog! If you’re reading this, you’re either lost or need to comment on three other blogs. Regardless, I hope that you will enjoy reading this as much as I know I will enjoy learning Hebrew!
Motivation:
All of my reasons for wishing to learn Hebrew stem from the importance of Judaism in my life. My synagogue is one of my favorite places, and I spend hours there every week. I think that it’s extremely important to understand your culture, and learning the language of my people will allow me to do this. In addition, I am thinking about moving to Israel after getting out of college. It is a place I have always longed to visit, and I want to be a part of its future.
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| Back of Picture Depicting Ancestral Home |
Something about me that many people do not know is that I have an obsession with genealogy. Like, an "I've created eight family trees, one for each of my great-grandparents, the largest of which is over 1100 people" obsession. This quest of mine has led me to come across many old documents that are written in Hebrew. If I had the ability to translate them, I would gain a much better understanding of my family!
Resources:
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| Rabbi Abrasley, Congregation Beth Or |
The resources I’ve acquired include the Welcome to Modern Hebrew volumes 1 and 2. I anticipate spending the majority of the process immersing myself in these two books, because they will give me the basic understanding of vocabulary and sentence structure needed to learn any language.
I also found a website called transparent.com, which gives 7-day free trials in language learning. I plan to use this at some point during the process, most likely the last week.
Most importantly, Rabbi Laura Abrasley agreed to give me private study sessions, as she is fluent in Hebrew. This will vastly improve my speaking skills, one of the main reasons why I wish to learn the language.
With these books, websites, and rabbis, I will definitely be kept busy!
Goals:
By the end of the project, I would love to be able to decipher common Hebrew words without vowels, the way they do in Israel. If I want to live there someday, I am going to have to learn this skill at some point!
Additionally, I would love to read aloud and translate a popular bible verse in Hebrew, maybe the story of creation or Noah’s ark.This could either be recited in front of the class or filmed and shown at a later date.
Thankfully, I have an advantage in that I already have the ability to read Hebrew. I also know basic words, like shalom (hello, goodbye, and peace), ken v’lo (yes and no), and saba v’savtah (grandpa and grandma). I am extremely excited to begin working on this project, as learning Hebrew is something I have always wanted to do! My plan is to begin immersing myself in the Welcome to Modern Hebrew volume 1 this weekend, so I expect my next blogpost will be a review of that and the progress I have made. I will practice writing, reading, and speaking new words.
Feel free to share any questions, comments, or concerns you have regarding my project. With Hebrew's alleged complexity, I am going to need all the help I can get!
This Week's Comments:
Jess Miao
Dani Grafton
Alycia Lee
This Week's Comments:
Jess Miao
Dani Grafton
Alycia Lee
Wow, that's awesome! Hebrew sounds like a great topic for you! What obstacles do you foresee over the next five weeks? What expectations do you have--meaning do you believe that the learning process will be easy, medium, or difficult for you? I have friends who know Hebrew, and I've picked up some words here and there, but I'm definitely excited to see how your Hebrew is at the end of this project!
ReplyDeleteHi Alycia!
DeleteA main obstacle I foresee is my own inability to connect large, linear concepts. I am trying to learn as many vocabulary words as possible and attempt to synthesize them into sentences. However, Hebrew's erratic style when it comes to definite and indefinite objects will definitely be a struggle to understand. More on this in a later post. It will definitely be a difficult part of the learning process, but I think that other aspects will be easy-medium. I am generally good at memorization of vocab and, once I understanding the structural foundation of the language, I think learning it will be much simpler.
Learning Hebrew seems like it's the perfect topic for you, as I know it's something you care a lot about. Are you planning on taking a trip to Israel sometime soon? Also, are you planning on learning to speak mainly conversational Hebrew? I know how difficult Hebrew is to learn, but I think with your passion, you will learn a lot! I'm looking forward to seeing how much you will accomplish!
ReplyDeleteHi Hannah!
DeleteI wish I were taking a trip to Israel, but it doesn't seem to be on the horizon, unfortunately. I know that it will definitely happen at some point! However, for the time being, no plans are being made. Yes, I will mainly focus on conversational Hebrew. I think that there would be more applications for it than Biblical Hebrew.
This is really cool, Jason! I really want to learn ancient Hebrew (because for some reason I have had to ask my dad what a lot of words/phrases mean recently? not sure why...) Do you know what the differences are between modern and ancient Hebrew? They should have some similarities though. Maybe you could teach me some stuff when you're a Hebrew expert!
ReplyDeleteHi Dani!
DeleteWhen (unknown) I become fluent in Hebrew, I would definitely love to teach you some stuff! As for the differences between Ancient and Modern Hebrew, they are almost completely similar. Modern Hebrew was born in the late 19th century with the revival of Zionism, and it was almost completely based off of the Biblical Hebrew, also known as Ancient Hebrew. If you wish to learn more, I found a few links for you:
http://www.wisegeek.org/how-different-are-ancient-hebrew-and-modern-hebrew.htm
http://www.hebrewtoday.com/content/should-you-learn-modern-hebrew-or-biblical-hebrew
Enjoy!
Hi Jason! I know how passionate you are about family history and culture, so it seems like learning Hebrew will be beneficial to you. What kind of documents do you have that you are interested in translating? How far are you from this goal?
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah!
DeleteYes, this project will certainly be beneficial to me in many ways!
Many of the documents are captions of pictures, and I have a few letters from Israeli relatives as well. Not only this, but a lot of my family lives in Israel, so the ways in which I will use my new knowledge are endless! I'd like to say that I am seven weeks away from my goal, but unfortunately that is not entirely true. This has been a rough week for me with my terrible resource (see more in the next post). Once the new book comes, I plan on working double-time to make my goals a reality!
Jason
I think this sounds really interesting, Jason! It's really cool that you have managed to dig up all those documents on your families history, I think that will really keep you motivated and interested in this, as it is so personal. Do you think you will continue to learn Hebrew after this project is over?
ReplyDeleteHi Madi!
DeleteYes, the family documents are definitely a big motivation. The thought of being able to translate them encourages me to fulfill my goals to the best of my ability! Due to this, I am almost certain I will continue to learn Hebrew after the project is over. I might be forced to take a little hiatus, due to the schoolwork I will likely face. However, I plan on continuing learning Hebrew until I am fluent!
Jason