Teaching Myself Hebrew

In a recent 2-minute video, Alex Rawlings, a young British man, speaks 15 languages. As he changes languages, the flag of the country whose language he's speaking flashes on the screen. As a child, Rawlings was inspired by his aunt, who spoke five languages, to learn every language in the world.

 

He is clearly gifted in a way I am not.

 

When I was in college, I had a friend whose Greek grandmother lived with her family. She would call her grandmother during our breaks between classes, speaking to her grandmother in fluent Greek. Then she would instantaneously switch back to English.

I was in awe.

 

When speaking or writing in English, I feel very confident. By contrast, today, I decided to finally try, in Hebrew, to schedule my own appointment with my family doctor. Expecting to speak to an office clerk, I practiced the way to say, “I hope you have patience because I need to make an appointment with my doctor and my Hebrew isn’t very good.”

I dialed the number and immediately, I was met with a fast-talking Hebrew phone system. I strained to pick up the word that I know means appointment. I knew they were going to ask me for my national ID number, so that part was easy. Once my number was input, the system matched me to my primary doctor’s schedule and started offering me appointment slots. So I think I have an appointment tomorrow at 11:50 AM.

 

I’ve tried to master Hebrew in so many ways. At first, I was taught to decode Hebrew, which is like reading, but without understanding anything. That’s the most common way American Jews begin to learn Hebrew. For many, their interaction with Hebrew ends there.

No wonder. It’s probably the worst way to start learning Hebrew.

According to a recent article by Rabbi David Gedzelman, president and CEO of The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, learning to read Hebrew before you understand what it means is exactly the opposite of how we acquire language as young children. Gedzelman supports something called the Proficiency Approach to teaching Hebrew.

 

“The Proficiency Approach works because it parallels the natural process by which human beings learn native language as infants, toddlers and children. Language is heard, understood, spoken, read and written — in that natural order,” wrote Gedzelman.

In other words, for anyone who wants to learn Hebrew, or any other language, the best way is to start by listening to the language spoken, even if you don’t understand any of the words. This parallels the advice I was given many times, which I didn’t take too seriously, to have Hebrew radio or television playing in the background. The exposure is a kind of passive learning that helps prepare your brain to understand Hebrew.

 

Truthfully, this makes a lot of sense. Two years ago, I binge-watched three seasons of Srugim, an Israeli television show about young religious Jews in Jerusalem. Although I watched with English subtitles, I was also listening to the Hebrew. And when I shut off the computer, I found that, for the next 30 minutes or so, the limited Hebrew I had acquired came flowing out of my mouth.

So tomorrow, I’m going to call the phone system at my health clinic again and just keep pressing buttons and listening to the recorded messages until it’s time for the appointment I think I have.