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Modern Hebrew

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13 messages over 2 pages: 1
renaissancemedi
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Greece
Joined 4360 days ago

941 posts - 1309 votes 
Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2
Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 9 of 13
31 January 2013 at 4:23pm | IP Logged 
May I ask what your reading and writing texbooks are?
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SnowManR1
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United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5490 days ago

53 posts - 95 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 10 of 13
31 January 2013 at 9:21pm | IP Logged 
Here's the bulk of my learning materials with my 2 cents. I get most of my stuff from www.myhebrewbooks.com and www.ekspublishing.com. The others I get from Amazon, Language Quest, etc. Most of the things I mention have examples and exercises.

Sichon-Hebrew English conversation book by Yigal Tzadka
This one is like Assimil, but without the English Translations. Although it does have dictionary after each lesson and lists the vocabulary in order as they appear in the dialogue to help you translate the lesson. It also has exercises and introduces you to some slang after each lesson.

The Routledge Introductory Course in Modern Hebrew by Giore Etzion
It’s got a lot of vocabulary after each lesson, but without prior knowledge of Hebrew or a teacher I wouldn’t recommend this one. I know people say “It has too much “insert mother tongue”, but in this case it doesn’t have enough.

Practical Bilingual Dictionary by Prolog
It’s a great resource and I hear the Oxford Edition is good as well.

English Hebrew By Subject by Hanna G. Perez
An awesome resource for vocabulary.

Hebrew With Pleasure by Edna Kadman
This book is a lot like Assimil and also has exercises in grammar and sentence structure.

The First Hebrew Primer by EKS Publishing
It’s basically like a standard textbook, but I believe its Biblical Hebrew, although if you ask me, other than very slight differences in vocabulary, I don’t really see the difference.

EKS Verb and Grammar Charts by EKS Publishing
Pretty handy and constructed well.

Teach Yourself to Read Hebrew by Ethelyn Simon and Joseph Anderson
This book taught me to read and write Hebrew and I consider it awesome.

Prayerbook Hebrew the Easy Way by EKS Publishing
It’s a great way to further your learning though text and audio. It’s also Biblical Hebrew, but I figure that once you learn a few uncommon words outside of traditional Hebrew, the Bible has roughly 23,000 sentences, which makes Assimil look like a bathroom read.

Modern Hebrew for Beginners and Intermediate by Esther Raizen
It’s great and presents the information clearly, but if you want the audio it’s only available online and I sit at the computer enough.

Barrons 501 Hebrew Verbs by Shmuek Bolozky
I would say the best feature about this book is that it uses several sentences for each verb.

Modern Hebrew Vocabulary Cards by Visual Education
Awesome and gets you out from in front of the computer.

Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary Cards by Visual Education
Awesome and gets you out from in front of the computer.

Colloquial Hebrew by Zippi Lyttleton
It’s a good course, but I only know the vowel point system and since it doesn’t use them it makes it a little harder to pronounce things correctly. Although it’s a necessary evil, since you will eventually need to function without the vowel points. Plus it has exercises after each lesson.

Modern Hebrew: An Essential Grammar by Lewis Glinert
Read it in spurts and it’s not so bad. Plus there’s a pretty decent vocabulary section in the back.

Pimsleur I, II, II
People can say what they want, but Hebrew is an exotic language and until Michel Thomas or someone else comes up with something I find it to be a major asset.


Edited by SnowManR1 on 31 January 2013 at 10:32pm

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renaissancemedi
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Greece
Joined 4360 days ago

941 posts - 1309 votes 
Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2
Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 11 of 13
01 February 2013 at 8:00am | IP Logged 
Thank you so much! This is very helpful to me.
As for the vowel point system, I also wanted to learn to live without it right from the start, but I haven't started learning the alphabet yet.
How will you be able to use all of those sources, and which one first, second, etc? I am asking because one of my biggest problems is too much material, and I don't know what to use and what to leave! (Not just in hebrew. I have the same problem with German, but anyway...)
I like Pimsleur for hebrew as well. It gets me talking. I'd love MT so much, if there was course (or is there?).



Edited by renaissancemedi on 01 February 2013 at 8:03am

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SnowManR1
Groupie
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5490 days ago

53 posts - 95 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 12 of 13
02 February 2013 at 2:53am | IP Logged 
Well I definitely recommend you start with Teach Yourself to Read Hebrew by Ethelyn Simon and Joseph Anderson. It’s 10 lessons and about 70 pages, but it has paid for itself time and time again. In all the material I have there’s usually 1-2 chapters in the beginning of each book that tries to teach you the sounds, vowels and letters, but none of them come close to Teach Yourself to Read Hebrew. Learning to read without the vowel points according to the Colloquial Series will just develop naturally on its own.

In regards to which textbook I start with, I pick the one that has at least 20 or more chapters and introduces the material in a pleasant way and without pressure. I call this one book the “pace setter”, because it’s just that and everything else just becomes a supplement. Before I had a chance to examine all the materials I was fully convinced The Routledge Introductory Course in Modern Hebrew was going to be the winner, but it was demoted for the reasons I mentioned above. Which one did I choose? I went with Hebrew With Pleasure by Edna Kadman.

I agree with you about how difficult it can be to incorporate all these sources into ones study schedule, so I decided to alternate the textbook each night but keep many supplements the same. It looks something like this and in this order:

Monday:
Pimsleur Review 30 Minutes (picking any lesson from the past)
Vocabulary 30 Minutes (Modern or Biblical Hebrew flash cards from Visual Education, Anki, etc.)
Textbook 1 Hour (Hebrew with pleasure)
Pimsleur New lesson 30 Minutes
Podcast 30 Minutes

The schedule stays the same throughout the whole week except I change the textbook each night. The remainder of the week for Tuesday is (Sichon-Hebrew English conversation book), Wednesday (The First Hebrew Primer), Thursday (Colloquial Hebrew) and Friday (Prayerbook Hebrew the Easy Way). Then on Saturday and Sunday I review the chapters I covered throughout the week and fill in the remaining time with vocabulary, listening or introducing myself to grammar, but at a very slow pace to avoid the pain of studying grammar.

You’ve probably noticed that I left out The Routledge Introductory Course by Giore Etzion and Modern Hebrew for Beginners and Intermediate by Esther Raizen, but the reason is because the audio is only available online and I just don’t like having to work in a book and on the computer at the same time. I’ve stored them for now, but since I can’t load the audio on my iPod they’ll probably stay that way. Sadly paying for them and examining them was the only way I could discover whether I would like them or not.

No, there’s no Michel Thomas as of yet, so until then Pimsleur remains the audio course of choice. I’ve been tracking the new words learned per lesson, so if you go through Pimsleur I, II, and III you should reach approximately 840 words, which isn’t too bad when you think about it.

PS: I think the Greek language and the history behind it along with your culture is very fascinating.


Edited by SnowManR1 on 02 February 2013 at 2:55am

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renaissancemedi
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Greece
Joined 4360 days ago

941 posts - 1309 votes 
Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2
Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 13 of 13
02 February 2013 at 8:07am | IP Logged 
Thank you, you have no idea how much you have just helped. Pimsleur is the one that first got me into hebrew, but just audio is clearly not enough. However 840 words is great! I will try Teach Yourself to Read Hebrew. I also have Colloquial Hebrew, and some of the other downloads you mention.

I am one of those people who actually like and enjoy English. I think the more you know something, the more you love it.


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