Hebrew characters are now fixed!

הכל בסדר

I’ve heard that from quite a few other people as well that it’s difficult to practice Hebrew on the streets. I suppose it’s simply a matter of will between the two people conversing. For a very beginner who has zero confidence to begin with, then it’s near impossible.

My number one pet peeve is being constantly interrupted when trying to form a full sentence in Hebrew (mostly for corrections to my accent). I found this to consistently happen with my Ulpan teacher and local Israelis.

P.S. I’ve been trying to upgrade my site to support Hebrew letters this last week. It will be fixed soon enough. It seems silly having a site about studying Hebrew when it doesn’t even display Hebrew script, eh?

The teacher knew Russian and patronized the Russians by speaking to the in Russian and translating new words for them. The Ulpan method is to draw pictures on the board and do pantomimes until the class understands. There are too many people who speak too many languages to base Hebrew learning on another language.

I am not just talking about Gordon. All government Ulpans have to use the same guidelines. I have found that the most successful way to teach a language is to feed the students practical dialogs in the beginning, rather than so much emphasis on grammar and the verb “binyanim”.

Also it doesn’t help that when the native Israelis hear just a trace of an English speakers accent, the say, “oh, you can speak English”. To which I reply,
?? ??? ???? ???? ???? ???? ??????, ??? ??? ????? ?????. ?? ??? ?? ?????? ????? ?????? ?????, ?? ??? ?? ???? ?????!

You’re learning by yourself? That really MUST be tricky. It’s definitely easier to soak things in with other classmates around and also nice to get explanations about things like gender and tenses. You must be a very disciplined person to do it alone.

I’m still at a rudimentary level though. I came to Gordon not knowing any of the letters, numbers, anything! So my confidence is really low when it comes to scratching together a conversation. But you’re right! We must persevere!

You’re also right by saying that it might not be worth it to study for only 2 weeks. Ulpan Gordon would let you come into a class for two weeks, no problem. But they require a minimum payment of a full month. I don’t know if it will be worth it for you to pay for a full month and only use 2 weeks of it.

What level of Hebrew are you? Have you studied before? Are you planning on coming back to Israel after your tourist visa expires?

I am learning Hebrew by myself in Israel at the moment and it is rather tricky. I would love to go on an ulpan but I have only 2 spare weeks and am a tourist so I think it is impossible to find a course. Know what you mean about talking to Israeli’s in Hebrew but I am persevering and getting somewhere with it!!