Eight Points to Consider when Starting Your Hebrew Adventures
by Neal Walters Learning to read and pronounce letters and vowels is the first step on the road to learning Hebrew. Learning the naems of the letters is not quite as important as learning to pronounce them. While the Latin alphabet is based on the Hebrew and Greek originally, there are enough differences to make it challenging for westerners. The beginner student must examine his goals. While some students want to learn to read the Hebrew Bible, other students are preparing for a trip to Israel, and need to learn modern Hebrew. Other students might want to learn how to read the sidur (Hebrew prayerbook). It makes since to learn the most popular words first, doesn’t it? If learning Biblical Hebrew, why not start with the most popular 400 words. We have put those words on audio-CDs, for learning at home or in your car, and we have also included the same words in our software program. Let’s compare Modern and Biblical Hebrew. The verb systems are very similar, but Hebrew tends use the perfect and imperfect (past and future) where as Modern Hebrew uses those and a lot of the present tense. Nouns are similar, but Biblical Hebrew might talk about chariots, kings, and prophets, modern Hebrew might talk about plains, trains, and automobiles. Some students might get some words “mixed-up”, because there are several letters in Hebrew that are silent. For example, the word “ET” could be AYIN-TAV (meaning “time”), ALEPH-TAV (pronounced: “AT” meaing “you feminine singular” or “ET the pointer to the direct object , or even ALEPH-TET (pronounced “ET” meaning “pen’). A good tutorial will point out these similarities and differences. Learning numbers is another challenge. Hebrew has both masculine and feminine numbers, so the student must learn to count to 10 two different ways! A good way to enforce numbers is telling time, or doing simple math problems in Hebrew. Games certainly make learning fun, especially for children. It is common for Hebrew study to begin at age 3 for Jewish children. So if you are wondering if your child can learn Hebrew, the answer is a resounding YES! Most students of modern Hebrew must also learn the cursive letters. This is almost like learning a second Hebrew alphabet, because they are quite different from their printed counterparts. The time-tested method of writing the letters over-and-over on lined paper works today as well as it did years ago. See our videos that demonstrate the above features at our Learn Hebrew Alphabet website. This and other unique content hebrew articles are available with free reprint rights.
