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AddReply(371574,"it\'s never too late!","Leah","Maaleh Adumim","12/15/08","Batya, from your description \"I speak it fluently, but I am phobic about writing and lazy about reading Hebrew. I know Hebrew grammar and catch nuances etc, but the written page is torture.\" - I suggest, every day read a few articles on the Hebrew Arutz 7 website, including at least one op-ed, and including its talkbacks!  and then start practicing your Hebrew writing by participating in the talkbacks.  as you get \"into practice\" it will be easier.  (if you are concerned about being recognized and people laughing at your mistakes - which I don\'t think they would do, but anyway - you can always use a screen name, as many do in TB\'s.");
AddReply(371263,"Hebrew","Jewish mom","Israel","12/14/08","I made aliyah over 30 years ago and speak and read Hebrew well. I made a great effort to read Hebrew newspapers several times a week. I also write quite well though sometimes I have to look up a word in order to get the exact spelling. Thank G-d my kids and grandchildren don\'t have these problems. They are all sabras!!");
AddReply(371203,"to 10. Paul S. ","","","12/14/08","I suggest you contact **njop and ask them who teaches the hebrew crash course in your area\n\n** http://www.njop.org/html/hebrew_crash_courses.html\n\nBest of luck, ZL ");
AddReply(371077,"Mastering Hebrew","Paul S.","Toronto, Canada","12/13/08","I spent about one year in Israel about 30 years ago.  I was determined to learn Hebrew and worked diligently towards that end.\nLong story short, I could speak relatively well at a simple level (no   \nslang) but deep emotional conversations were beyond me.\nReading was another matter.  I discovered that the Hebrew language uses two very different vocabularies between the written language and the spoken language.\nThis phenomenon is called diglossia and is not as commonly used or as pronounced a phenomenon in Western languages as it is in Hebrew. (Diglossia occurs heavily in Greek.  Written Greek is far more complex than spoken due to this phenomenon).  This is why Hebrew is so hard to read.  Not having vowels is also a factor.  I read a newspaper in Israel\nin \"ivrit kalah\" (easy Hebrew) called \nYisra\'el Shelanu (Our Israel).  It was\nwritten with n\'kudot (vowels) and in\na simpler syntax than normal for the foreign learner.  It was still hard\nto read.  Regular newspapers such\nas Ma\'ariv or Ha\'aretz were beyond\nme.  I applaud new immigrants who\nmanage to master Hebrew both oral and written.  I am especially \nimpressed with Caroline Glick who \nwrites for the Jerusalem Post who \ncame from Chicago, Ill. and is fluent\nin both languages now.  Impressive\nachievement.  I wish I could do it.\nStill, one cavil.  New olim (immigrants to Israel) would assimilate faster into Hebrew if Sabras (the native born Israelis) would be more patient with the halting Hebrew of olim (see above)\nand not grunt and groan with undisguised contempt every time we open our mouths.  Welcome us\nto Israel, don\'t roll your eyes to heaven and back again every time\nwe try to speak Hebrew (Ivrit) and make mistakes or you don\'t like our\naccent or pronunciation.  We are \nhere to help you build the country not to take your jobs away or to commit some other such offense. Get to know us.  You may even like us. (Incidentally, try learning to \nread Arabic.  If you think Hebrew is\nhard to read, try Arabic.  Very, very\ncomplex writing system.  Hebrew has 22 letters in its alphabet, no \ncapitals or smalls, though 5 letters \nhave two forms, one if the letter \nbegins a word or is in the middle, \nand another form if the letter ends\nthe word.  Arabic has 28 letters and\nabout half of them have more than\none form.  Some have up to 4 forms.  One if the letter begins a\nword, one for the middle, one for \nthe end of the word and yet another\nif the letter stands alone.  Whew!\nBut wait, that\'s not all.  The letters\njoin together in a kind of cursive \nform all the time (seeing where one\nletter begins and one ends is diff-\nicult) and there are no vowels in \nformal writing.  (Vowels exist in \nchildren\'s books to help them learn\nto read, but not generally).  Also \nthere are \"ligatures\", combinations\nof letters written one or two or even\nthree over top of each other forming\na new character with a special \nsound.  There are hundreds of \nthese.  Hebrew fortunately does \nnot have ligatures.  Be lucky we \ndon\'t have to learn to read Arabic, \nor Persian or Urdu.  Hebrew is a \nwalk in the park in comparison (and\nyet it\'s still hard to read...)");
AddReply(371053,"Might I suggest watching childrens","les","Ayr","12/13/08","educational programs on telvision as most foreigners to the USA do.  Picking up on the bare essentials as a child learns always gives a start then learn by associating with people that use the language.  I feel personally that Aramaic or Hebrew will be the law of the land during the Kingdom age after messiah returns and rules from the temple mount.  I believe this language will be a gift presented to everybody without having to spend time and frustration learning.  I have great exspectations and faith to back it up. My G-d can perform miracles!   He is about to prove Himself.");
AddReply(370825,"FREE HEBREW CRASH COURSES","ZL","Montreal, Canada","12/12/08","http://www.njop.org/html/hebrew_crash_courses.html\n\nhttp://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/128034\n\nCome to my class in Montreal\nmy students love that course !\nLe-hitraot, ZL \n");
AddReply(370724,"Thank you","Malka","upstate NY","12/11/08","I appreciate the honesty of this post. I can recite some prayers in Hebrew, write some verses of Tehillim in Hebrew and a major problem is speaking Hebrew.\n\nEven with a transliteration I have trouble with pronunciation and am terribly self-consciousness. Unless I am alone I usually just move my lips but don\'t speak Hebrew outloud.\n\nAs for conversational hebrew...If I visited Israel and got lost (which I would since reading Hebrew is sodifficult)  I wouldn\'t even know the Hebrew word for \"lost\" or \"help.\"\n\nI do know \"lo Ivrit\" so perhaps an Israeli would interpret that as \"Help. I\'m lost. I don\'t know Hebrew\" please help me :)");
AddReply(370697,"Another interesting aspect: Music","CDG","Yerushalayim","12/11/08","Reading music with Hebrew lyrics is something else to get used to. The musical notation is still left to right while each syllable of lyric is right to left. Mindbending. IMHO We need to figure out how to convert musical notation to a right-to-left system, as well as punctuation.");
AddReply(370691,"clarification--I know Hebrew","Batya","eye of storm","12/11/08","I speak it fluently, but I am phobic about writing and lazy about reading Hebrew.  I know Hebrew grammar and catch nuances etc, but the written page is torture.");
AddReply(370687,"Israeli society needs to hear from us. Desperately.","CDG","Yerushalayim","12/11/08","But we can\'t speak to them or with them if we can barely speak, let alone read or write our \"common\" language.\n\nI was fortunate enough, thank haShem, to be able to take ulpan, from K Aleph, for over a year. We had a short weekly schedule, so it worked out to a longer time overall - and I was able to absorb it better as well (I\'m in my 50s and age makes a difference too.). I got to K Daled. Makes a difference when you read the want-ads (as Israel said in comment 3) and when you want to conduct a real conversation, although my speech is still not so fluent. What can one do? I am in a women\'s singing group in my neighborhood and we speak Hebrew during weekly rehearsals and performances, because we group members are not all English speakers - not to mention our audiences! Next week I\'m going to try out for a translation course with WritePoint (Paula Stern\'s company). This will help maintain what I have learned and will enable me to make a difference while having a decent living between musical appearances (which aren\'t so frequent) and learning Torah (much more frequent - and I get reading and note taking practice there too). I\'m not there yet, but with time I am seeing improvement.");
AddReply(370596,"Join Israeli society?","Israel","Emanuel","12/11/08","Beyond the job front, why? Israeli society is sick from a Jewish perspective and does not want to change. Better to stick to Jewish yeshuvim and neighborhoods, English speaking or not. Only those specially equipped and talented can make an impact over the mass-media controlled by the left or right ultra-secular ruling class.");
AddReply(370581,"Learn Hebrew","Pinchas","Elon Moreh","12/11/08","As an Oleh YAshan (over 30 years in Israel), I understand that English is still much easier for me - reading, writing, and speaking - like must other olim I know froam all over the world.\n\nAs to Ulpan - yes, I, too, WASTED time in Ulpan with mostly Russian immigrants 30 years ago,  \nThere is only ONE WAY to learn a language - USE IT - Go to the makolet and explain what you need, go to the bank and speak to the teller, and even talk to your neighbor. Also listen to music on the radio.  This I tell the children trying to fight with ENGLISH in the schools.\n");
AddReply(370532,"Why Learn Hebrew?","Meira","Ariel","12/11/08","Batya, thanks for sharing.  Having studied in Ulpan Alef and part of Bet, I should be fairly conversant and able to read in Hebrew...but I\'m not.  Too many people want to hear Anglit, to use their English, and thus Hebrew keeps getting shoved further to the side...yet I love and long to speak the language, and comprehend that this is our Holy Tongue...this is the language of Torah, and my Siddur.  What a simple idea: to use Tanach or Torah as a basis.  I know that we are told that each person should write their own Torah, but I never looked at it from a learning relevant to Hebrew.  Thank you for sharing...let us encourage one another.  ");

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