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Modern Hebrew Experiences | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Tarshish Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4696 days ago 13 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English*, Modern Hebrew | Message 1 of 10 17 January 2012 at 9:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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This is my first post to the forum, so please excuse any ignorance regarding norms
here. I just wanted to share my experiences of studying Modern Hebrew for the past several months and hopefully impart some useful advice, and potentially receive some in kind. I started studying Modern Hebrew with the intent of becoming fluent this past July. I specify my intent because I had studied elements of Hebrew prior to this but without an eye towards language per se. From a very young age, I have known the alelph-bet and niqqud (vocalizations). I also acquired good knowledge of the verb conjugation system a few years ago. I emphasize this because I would advise any prospective learner of Modern Hebrew to begin with a few months 'prep work' on learning the alphabet and gaining at least a decent understanding of the verb system. Clearly the alphabet is crucial in any language, and Hebrew is no exception. However, a trap I have seen fellow learners succumb to is reliance on niqqud for reading. This is where the verb system can help wean learners off of niqqud. Prior to my learning the verb system I was hopelessly lost in pronouncing, let alone understanding, Modern Hebrew. With the verb system, reading the language becomes very intuitive. Furthermore, verbs really are the soul of Hebrew, and a given verb root can often be the locus for a dozen words that simply are conjugations. Your vocabulary can quickly take flight with this structure. Apart from the foreign vocabulary (almost no similarities apart from loan words), the verb system is really the primary hill to climb. Once mastered, you can quickly dive into native materials and practice speaking. With that said, I had no experience speaking the language or understanding native materials prior to this past July. I had a decent basic vocabulary but not much more. At this point, I would place myself on the cusp of advanced fluency, having impressed myself with my ability to converse with Israelis over the past few months. I mainly focused on expressing common thoughts in Hebrew, in order to mentally familiarize myself with conjugating on the fly, read newspapers and such with dictionary aid, and used short comedy clips for listening and translation/retranstlation. My major weakness is speech recognition. Many Hebrew words sound fairly similar and native speakers often run an entire sentence together. At this point, I am focusing on listening to audio downloaded from dvds (movies, tv shows, etc) with and without a script (using a subtitle ripper) in order to improve my comprehension. I would argue that this requires relatively more time in the early stages than perhaps in languages closer to English. In Spanish, for example, I have a good ability to diffrentiate speech on TV, with very little study relative to that of Modern Hebrew. I would also just like to run through some of the resources I have encountered and my thoughts on them. Rosetta Stone Hebrew (2.2): I would not recommend this product (I can't speak for any newer editions). I found it quite boring and do not think it imparts the verb system with any degree of clarity. In addition there are free resources which achieve much of the same in terms of vocabulary. It assumes knowledge of the alephbet. Needless to say it is pricey. Pimsleur Hebrew: It is what it is. I used it a lot more than Rosetta Stone (started from II and stopped midway through III) but eventually tired of it. What you learn sticks with you but since the verb system is not really covered it isn't much more than scattered vocab and phrases. Routledge Introductory Course in Modern Hebrew: Hebrew in Israel. This is a fairly new college style textbook and it is the best I have seen for Hebrew. This is mainly due to the extensive online content which is fully integrated with the book. Also see the links on the website. http://artsci.wustl.edu/~hii/resources.html The user name/password is the same for every book, so it isn't too hard to simply access the online material. Hebrew: Essential Grammar by Lewis Glinert: This is an excellent user friendly grammar with great exercises that incorporate realistic phrases, new vocabulary, and the associated grammar lesson. There are pdf's of this scattered around. Sha'ar Lamatchil (Gateway for the Beginner): A weekly newspaper written in simple Hebrew. Not so simple, but demonstrably below that of newspapers such as Ha'aretz. Very very good in preparing you for that level. Extremely high quality which is probably the result of it being published by the Israeli Ministry of Education. חמישיה הקאמרית: http://www.youtube.com/user/arikabc/videos A popular, yet bizarre, 90's comedy sketch show that focused on random monologues and conversations. Over 300 short clips uploaded with subtitles. I often download the audio onto my ipod and do translations/retranslations with the clips, say a new one every day. morfix.com: best online hebrew dictionary http://www.my-hebrew-dictionary.com/ http://www.in-hebrew.co.il/ Nice sites that I feel render something like Rosetta Stone superfluous. There are also loads of radio stations and tv shows free online (google search mako or nana10) Just wanted to share some of my thoughts on the learning process for Modern Hebrew as there is no official language profile. 17 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6230 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 2 of 10 08 May 2012 at 7:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Great run-down! Thanks!
How do you recommend learning the script? Edited by liddytime on 08 May 2012 at 7:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4689 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 3 of 10 08 May 2012 at 8:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
You had no problem learning Georgian script, you've studied Arabic and Persian, but you're asking for advice on learning hebrew letters? I'm a little surprised... ;-) But that's what we're here for at HTLAL. Anyhow, I think there are any number of books out there that do nothing else but teach the Hebrew alphabet (abjad, I know), but the first portion of basically every Hebrew teaching text I've seen has a run-down, so you might as well go with TY or the like if you need an instructional text. You could also check out omniglot, wikipedia, or anything else that pops up in a Google search and learn it from there (I think I originally learned it from omniglot). Are you having trouble with some particular aspect of the Hebrew alphabet, or are you just planning ahead? I really doubt you'll have difficulty with it, but let me know if you do, and I'd be glad to see if I can help. For example, there are occasional rare irregularities in pronunciation that not every basic text may cover, or you may find some difficult to understand explanations of the Tiberian vowel points, maybe. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| liddytime Pentaglot Senior Member United States mainlymagyar.wordpre Joined 6230 days ago 693 posts - 1328 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written) | Message 4 of 10 09 May 2012 at 2:38am | IP Logged | |||||
Ha ha! Yeah, that's because Georgian and Arabic scripts are EASY! Seriously though, for whatever reason the Hebrew script just doesn't stick in my head. I have tried to learn it a few times and it just doesn't stick. Plus the handwritten forms of the letters look so much different than the printed ones to me. I'm concentrating on Georgian right now, but one of these days I've just got to hunker down and learn the Hebrew script for once and for all! ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| shemi Triglot Newbie Australia Joined 4547 days ago 7 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English*, Modern Hebrew, Spanish Studies: French, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Gulf), Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 5 of 10 15 June 2012 at 4:08am | IP Logged | |||||
I definitely understand your concern. As pointed out, many people rely on the "niqqud". Arabic is a bit easier to read than Hebrew, I think, because Hebrew has letters which represent multiple sounds and stuff. I would say that the best way is to familiarise yourself with the script as much as you can (don't worry if you're not perfect) and then get started on learning the grammar basics. Once you do, reading the script will become much more "logical" and fluid. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| fiolmattias Triglot Groupie Sweden geocities.com/fiolmaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6690 days ago 62 posts - 129 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, Arabic (Written) | Message 6 of 10 15 June 2012 at 7:10am | IP Logged | |||||
Hehe, my experience has been the opposite :) Hebrew letters are often printed in a bigger font than arabic, and each hebrew letter is only written in one way compared to the 4 in arabic. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| shemi Triglot Newbie Australia Joined 4547 days ago 7 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English*, Modern Hebrew, Spanish Studies: French, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Gulf), Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 7 of 10 15 June 2012 at 1:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
Definitely true! I personally find reading Hebrew easier too, but then again - I've always known how to read it. Just observing other people I've noticed that they find Hebrew more confusing. Not sure why :-\ 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| readwritedance Newbie United States Joined 4544 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 8 of 10 18 June 2012 at 7:36am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've always grown up speaking Hebrew, and to me sometimes letters like "N" look like the cursive mem! (sans serif, obviously.) So the alephbet is definitely easier for me to understand than the Arabic alephbet (summer goal!).
1 person has voted this message useful |
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