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