Hebrew?

[KidsHappen]

My 18 year old has one year of Latin but she wants to take two years of Hebrew. She has learned the basic from my SIL but is not ready for a formal program. I am not familiar with Hebrew at all and have no idea of any programs that offer Hebrew much less a good self-learning program. Recommendations anyone?

[MBM]

The high schools in my area offer Hebrew and use the text Hebrew From Scratch. I have no idea how good it is, though.

[Ester Maria]

The high schools in my area offer Hebrew and use the text Hebrew From Scratch. I have no idea how good it is, though.

I was going to suggest that.

 

I've only skimmed the first part so I can't say comment on it, but I was pleasantly surprised with the second one and with how good and structured it actually appeared to be. Granted, my daughters learned Hebrew mostly by immersion so I used only same stuff from the second part when I wanted to make sure they're aware of some formal grammatical aspects, as well as to make sure they're literate - there are quite good texts on various aspects of Israeli and Jewish culture, with audio, so I used that for dictations; there are also quite a few excerpts from Bible and even mishna, as well as some poetry (all with audio).

 

I'm not sure what it'd be like for a self-learner with no exposure to the language, but if you'd like to give it a shot, it's probably one of the better options out there.

If you decide to try it, let me know... I might help (*hint, hint*). :tongue_smilie:

[susie in tx]

We're fond of the books from Behrman House. My younger children have used the Shalom Ivrit series, but your child may want to use something for the adults.

[Kathy in Richmond]

There are some free online tutorials listed here (scroll down to the bottom of the page).

 

I haven't used them, but one of my dd's friends is learning Hebrew during his winter break using these resources.

 

~Kathy

[Shifra]

Consider Colloquial Hebrew by Zippi Lyttleton. You can get CDs or cassettes to go with it. It is meant for self-teaching, but I can't tell you that it is easy (I learned to read Hebrew in school as a young child, but I'm not sure that this program will teach you enough to read on your own). Hebrew from Scratch is not meant for self-teaching! There is also a Pimsleur Hebrew (and now a Little Pim Hebrew for little kids), but both programs are all aural; she will not learn how to read Hebrew using either of them.

 

With Hebrew, learning to read can be a real stumbling block. If your daughter can read (even without understanding what she is reading), she is way ahead of the game.

 

This PDF file would probably be interesting for your daughter, since she college-aged: http://www.nmelrc.org/documents/Handbooks/HebrewHandbook.pdf

Edited January 26, 2010 by Shifra

[Ester Maria]

Hebrew from Scratch is not meant for self-teaching!

I actually know a handful of people who learned Hebrew with that textbook and audio (young adults). Granted, they had to outsource it at some point, but at the end of the day, to learn ANY language to a high level you need to actually use the language and not rely solely on what you get taught.

With Hebrew, learning to read can be a real stumbling block. If your daughter can read (even without understanding what she is reading), she is way ahead of the game.

What are you talking about? Anyone can learn to read Hebrew in a matter of maybe not hours, but certainly DAYS (that is, not weeks, and certainly not months) and with reasonable practice, they should be able to follow the material they're studying with quite smoothly.

 

To read Hebrew fluently without vowels and to know how to read it it takes to actually know the language (the tricky thing about Hebrew is that you often can't read what you don't know as you don't know where the vowels are and many words can be read differently), but let's not mystify the language to those who don't speak it - it's really not that hard to learn the script, and OP has an 18 y.o. ALL beginner textbooks will keep that in mind and use either vowels either phonetic transcription at first. Except for maybe very non-visual people, I can't see how can the fact it's a different script be a real stumbling block.

 

An advise, though - try to minimize the transliteration, and especially don't write the pronunciation above the words. Learn to read the alephbet right away, without "helping" it that way, cause it might actually hinder your progress. It's much better to have an alephbet chart next to you and decipher letter by letter for a while, and get stuck and try over and over, until she learns, than to write the pronunciation and trick herself, and thus not learn it properly for a nice while.

[Shifra]

Ester Maria--

 

I just want to point out to you that you are a fluent or near-fluent speaker of Hebrew, so you are approaching the study of Hebrew in one way. I too learned Hebrew as a child so the Hebrew writing is not an obstacle to me. However, KidsHappen's daughter is on the other hand a near beginner of Hebrew and will not be able to study Hebrew in the same way that you are teaching your own children. When you don't have a teacher readily available, Hebrew from Scratch will probably be too hard (and I checked the reviews on amazon.com to see what other people said about it, mind you). You yourself also pointed that out. Most Hebrew programs do expect at some point that you will be able to read the Hebrew writing--if KidsHappen's daughter does not have a teacher available to help her, which programs will allow her to learn this on her own? Most of the programs made by colleges (including Hebrew from Scratch) assume that there will be a teacher available. Colloquial Hebrew does not, which is why I particularly recommended it.

[Ester Maria]

Ester Maria--

 

I just want to point out to you that you are a fluent or near-fluent speaker of Hebrew, so you are approaching the study of Hebrew in one way. I too learned Hebrew as a child so the Hebrew writing is not an obstacle to me. However, KidsHappen's daughter is on the other hand a near beginner of Hebrew and will not be able to study Hebrew in the same way that you are teaching your own children. When you don't have a teacher readily available, Hebrew from Scratch will probably be too hard (and I checked the reviews on amazon.com to see what other people said about it, mind you). You yourself also pointed that out. Most Hebrew programs do expect at some point that you will be able to read the Hebrew writing--if KidsHappen's daughter does not have a teacher available to help her, which programs will allow her to learn this on her own? Most of the programs made by colleges (including Hebrew from Scratch) assume that there will be a teacher available. Colloquial Hebrew does not, which is why I particularly recommended it.

You know what, maybe at the end of the day you're right. :) Being fluent and teaching my kids from a different perspective, I don't have enough experience with true beginner programs, and Hebrew from Scratch is the kind of material that you profit from the most once you have some foundation to build on.

 

I mean certainly, there are people who learn Hebrew on their own via this program (as I said, I know a handful cause I was helping them with Hebrew and they were autodidacts who had used this program before), but there might be indeed easier options that are worth checking out.

[Guest sarahmarks]

there's also a great new book for self-study hebrew - its called 'English Hebrew by Subject' and you can check it out on http://www.engheb.com

good luck - sarah

[Ester Maria]

there's also a great new book for self-study hebrew - its called 'English Hebrew by Subject' and you can check it out on www.engheb.com

good luck - sarah

That doesn't look like a self-study book, it looks like a dictionary centered around topics.

I see no reason why would anyone choose such a dictionary over a "proper" dictionary, especially from what I skimmed on the sample chapter, i.e. given the lack of alphabetical order and verbs being listed in infinitives first and then in shoresh - makes it more difficult to go through, lacks order.

 

It seems to be one of a bunch of "accessories" in studying a language you can find around, but not a particularly high quality one.

I still stick to my opinion that all you need is a proper dictionary, a proper grammar book and a good course, and no fancy dictionaries by topic, phrasebooks and alike, which are usually just a waste of money. Only my two cents though.