|
 |
Worldwide interest in Hebrew | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| JBI Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 5693 days ago 46 posts - 67 votes  Speaks: Modern Hebrew, English* Studies: Italian, Mandarin, French | Message 9 of 27 26 April 2009 at 5:09am | IP Logged | ||
|
You won't learn much about Jewish people by learning Hebrew, I would think (being Jewish, and a Hebrew Speaker, and coming from an Israeli family). The only way to really learn anything, I think, is to go to Israel, but even there - there is no authentic Jewish experience per say in Hebrew - a large part of the most religious Jewish people speak Yiddish primarily, whereas the bulk of Israelis are rather secular in comparison, and have a completely different perception of themselves, and culture as something apart from the traditional diaspora culture, and yet something very hard to define - in my opinion. I think, if one thinks of learning Hebrew as similar to learning Italian, in terms of cultural exposure, you will probably be sadly let down, once you master the language that is.
The concept of get to know the Jews is a rather difficult one - difficult to define as Jewish culture is difficult to define, and difficult to understand as Jewish culture is, in many ways, very regional, and very different than European or Middle Eastern culture. That being said, as a language, I guess it is interesting. The history of the language surely is, but even then - I don't know - perhaps I'm just biased. Generally though, I am of the mind that language acquisition is tied to first communication abilities, and then secondly to cultural understanding. In terms of communication, learning Hebrew will not really broaden much, like I said, most Jews speak English, and essentially all of the younger generation do. As for culture, the language perhaps is a step, but a rather small one. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JBI Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 5693 days ago 46 posts - 67 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew, English* Studies: Italian, Mandarin, French | Message 11 of 27 26 April 2009 at 6:40am | IP Logged | ||
|
I used to read more, now I don't. Enough of it does, if it is current, but I think there is a good selection of academic translations surfacing. With all languages though, there is the exclusiveness, but the major canonical players have more or less been translated, as there are many academics working with these texts, from both in and outside of Israel.
That being said - for current texts - well, perhaps getting them is a problem. Bialik should be easy to find, Amos Oz is easy to find, S. Y. Agnon is easy to find, Amichai is easy to find, whereas contemporary stuff - all in time. But that is the same with all literatures, but when one considers it, contemporary Israeli literature seems to be one of the more accessible world literatures for the English reader. That being said, do not let my posts dissuade people from studying Hebrew - studying all languages is a good thing - but just keep in mind, if people are really looking to find this huge untapped culture, one is better off studying other languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5840 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 13 of 27 26 April 2009 at 10:57pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I am with JBI...
Sure, Hebrew is beautiful, fascinating, cool and there is the Biblical/Historical side to it. But like JBI said: It is VERY difficult to learn. Part of my family is Jewish and cousins of mine went to the Jewish day school in Stockholm. They studied Hebrew at school for 9 years and they are pretty useless at Hebrew. They can just about order a sandwich at a cafe... That's how hard it is. Meanwhile they picked up several other languages. Most young Israelis speak very good English so there is no problem communcating if you go there on holiday. Other Euro languages can be helpful too, since Israel is incredibly diverse and packed with immigrants and tourists from all over the world. It's a very international country - I highly recommend a holiday there! I got interested in Hebrew in my late teens, for personal reasons. I had a go at learning it as I stayed with some family in Israel. A fantastic time, but all I learnt was to ask directions, read street signs and order in restaurants! To learn Hebrew in reasonably fast, you've really got to enroll in something called an "ulpan" which is a residential course run by the Israeli government. Boot-camp, but it works and people get fluent, fast! Because of the situation with "no vowels" you have to be familiar with all words before you can actually read them in modern Hebrew. This is a really tough! I'd only recommend Hebrew to: 1)People who plan to live in Israel 2)Committed Jews 3)Serious biblical scholars Anyone else could learn 2 or 3 much more useful languages in the same time it took them to learn passable Hebrew. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sprachefin Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5748 days ago 300 posts - 317 votes Speaks: German*, English, Spanish Studies: French, Turkish, Mandarin, Bulgarian, Persian, Dutch | Message 14 of 27 26 April 2009 at 11:02pm | IP Logged | ||
I guess learning Hebrew can just be for the experience. Being Jewish, and making plans to travel to Israel in the future, I will definitely learn Hebrew at some point in my life. I can already read pretty well after going to Hebrew school as a child, but I do not know how much I have forgotten. I have a large amount of learning materials for Modern Israeli Hebrew so I could technically start learning it now, but I want to finish my other languages before moving on (at least Turkish). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JBI Diglot Groupie Canada Joined 5693 days ago 46 posts - 67 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew, English* Studies: Italian, Mandarin, French | Message 15 of 27 27 April 2009 at 1:11am | IP Logged | ||
|
Even if you are fluent, the Bible is almost a while other language, and Biblical commentary is in a different language from even that. Just keep that in mind, it's like the difference between Sir Gawain and Green Knight to the works of Ernest Hemingway in comparison, and that is being generous I think. Once you get Hebrew down, you would probably need a formal education in Biblical Hebrew to look into Canonical texts, and then special emphasis from there to look into other texts and historical works.
But yeah, those boot-camps supposedly work well. Other than that though - well, I recommend learning it formally rather than by yourself, as the sound of the language is very different than English, and from what I know about Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone's series in Hebrew, they are pretty inefficient. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 6032 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch | Message 16 of 27 27 April 2009 at 2:30am | IP Logged | ||
|
It seems every is so busy telling everyone how useless their own language is. :D
I really like the Hebrew language even though I found it difficult and had nobody to speak with. On the other hand JBI....I could imagine learning a more useless language than Italian...I guess it's a subjective thing. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
