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