2009.12.18 So You Think You Want to Learn Hebrew???!!!!

On December 16, 2009, Barbara and I finished the last of 10 Hebrew 101 classes at Temple Beth-El. In it, we learned the basic Hebrew alphabet (which has no vowels by the way). By this I mean, we learned the symbols and sounds associated with the symbols. Whatever speaking we did was mostly just sounding out the symbols presented with occasional information telling us what the words meant. I don't even think everything we sounded out represented a word or words. Vowels are designated by a series of dots or dashes or apostrophe-looking signs surrounding the letter. Most of these vowel designations are below the letter but some are beside or above. Also, some of the "letters" look VERY similar to other letters so you had to look carefully toward the end to see which letter is which. I liked the letter P, which looks for all the world like a little Pac-Man (including a dot that looks like his eye) from an old Atari game I used to play. The letter K looks very much like our P except the rounded part nearly meets but does not quite meet the line. One version of the letter, F, looks like the pac-man without an eye in it.

Our teacher, Dahlia, was from Israel and was very enthusiastic about her subject. Both Barbara and I thought she was a very good teacher. Many of the other students in class had attended Temple services for years and knew the Hebrew prayers that were often given as examples of words used from the letters we were learning. Barbara, another Oriental-looking lady, and I appeared to be the only three who were not familiar with those prayers so the examples were a little lost on me at least. The Oriental-looking lady was married to a Jewish guy who was in the class and who was always very friendly and nice to Barbara and me. She did not attend the last two classes and often said "Pass" when it was her turn to read a "word." I think her husband was a little disappointed that she gave up and didn't attend the last two classes.

Barbara and I had perfect attendance and neither of us ever "passed" when it was our turn. I wasn't always successful in reading the letters right but I did give it a try.

Some letters such as the M, N, F and TS sounds had two symbols - one if it were inside the word and another symbol if it ended a word. Other letters also had two symbols but had nothing to do with whether it was at the end of the word or not. I think on some of them, you just get to choose which symbol you like best - that was not really explained in any other way. The throaty "CH" (as is said at the end of Bach) sound had three symbols- one of which was a final "CH", the T had two, S has two. Two of the symbols (ayin and alef) were silent but could be put somewhere if you needed to add a vowel designation without a consonant being present.

Proportion of the letters was also important as that is the only way to tell the difference between some letters which look the same except for length or width of a line. A few letters go a bit above the line or a bit below and you need to know which ones are appropriate for that. Lamed (L) was one that went above the line, Final Nun or Nun Sofit (N) was one that went below the line as was final Feh (F), final Tzadi (TS), Kaf (K), and final Khaf (CH).

Also, the teacher made symbols on the board that did not look exactly like those shown in our book. Sometimes that could be confusing. And, vowel sounds can sometimes be silent even though they are shown as part of the word. There were six rules for this that were put on the board every week. I might get used to those rules over time but did not while I was in this class. I was concentrating on what the sounds were for all the symbols. I would have had to take this for quite a while to start adding in the rule variations for vowel sounds.

In Hebrew 102, some of the prayers are read and learned so reading is more important there and I don't feel adequate for that yet. Maybe if I took 101 again, the second time with the base of knowing most of the letters by looking at the symbol - maybe then I could move to 102 with a little more comfort that I would get something from it.

Since I don't have keyboard keys for the symbols we used, this lesson in Hebrew will do for now. I did pick up certain words as Shalom Shabbat, Torah, Alleluia, Amen, Adonai (looks like two apostrophes side by side - these symbols are called Yod and normally have a "Y" sound). The Yod is also used to turn a vowel sound into something more distinct such as an "ah" sound into an "a-ya" sound. But if you see two of these symbols together in a prayer book, the word to say is Adonai.

There are actual symbols for the sound oy (as in toy) and ooey (as in gooey). These were the last two sounds we learned in class.

Overall, I am glad I took this class and I think I will miss it. Barbara told me she practiced in front of her cats so I did a little of that too. Milo slept through most of it and Gray just left the room.

By the way, we went through Halloween, Thanksgiving and part of the Christmas season during all this and one perk is that I got to walk through Barbara's yard at Halloween. I have never seen a more decorated place for Halloween and Don and I had great fun on that adventure - especially at the head-removing witch at the end. Barbara's husband loves the holidays and loves doing up the yard especially at Halloween. I think kids all over the neighborhood must view a visit to their house as their favorite trick or treat place. We also saw the outside Christmas decorations her husband has put up after the class last Wednesday. Beautiful and complete with a countdown sign showing the days, hours and minutes until Christmas. Barbara and I ate at Izzy's Restaurant before the last two classes. The last time, we had a sandwich called the Providence which was a great chicken salad sandwich (not on the menu but available on request - at least when Barbara is the requestor).

Shalom!!!