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Published: August 31st 2009
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My Ulpan Class
Teacher Ornit is holding the flowers In the first week of Ulpan we studied the alphabets. Yes both of them, there are two. We learned this basic introduction speach where you tell your name, where you are from and that you are currently a student studying hebrew at the University of Haifa. There were a lot of people in beginners level so there was a test at the end of week one to see how much we had learned and according to this we would be placed in new groups. I don't really think they did this though cause there wasn't much of a difference in the new classes. There were quick learners aswell as slow learners. I had my days and moments. Sometimes I saw the light and I did understand what the teacher was saying, but on other days I didn't understand anything, which can be quite frustrating.
We are 9 people in my class, with ages varying from 19 to 60+. There are jewish aswell as christians, people coming only for a month to study hebrew and others who are studying for a semester or working for a year. My class only consists of Europeans and Americans, but there are many other nationalities
in the Ulpan. My teachers name is Ornit and she is a very sweet lady. She teaches us a lot of grammar and we sing songs with her. The class is fun, they are eager to learn, but also appreciate the fact that they (we) are on a holiday.
We have had listening sessions, talking sessions, grammar sessions and even more grammar sessions. After class, which ends at 13:00 there is either excursions, lectures or Hebrew zone. A zone where you study Hebrew with the help of Madrichim (Israeli students) and eat snacks. It's good, but very tiring. At the end of the day I have heard and learned so many new things that I can hardly do anything else but sleep when I come home.
Some facts about Hebrew:
* There are two alphabets! The printed version used for writing books, newspapers etcetc and the handwritten alphabet, which does not look like the printed version at all! We are expected to write with the handwritten alphabet during the ulpan.
* There are female and male numbers, which is very annoying because I don't know which words are female or male and therefore I don't know
which number to use.
* Hebrew is written from right to left, but I don't think that is a new fact.
* The words are either female or male, just like French. This was also one of the reasons why I disliked French, probably also the reason why I sucked at it.
* Vowels are not used when writing Hebrew, just like Arabic. Because of this you have to guess how to pronounce the word.
* Hebrew is a special language and is not similair to any other language. Therefore it makes no sence trying to guess what a word might mean.
* Here is a little taste of my excellent beginners hebrew😊
שלום חברים!
עכשיו אני כותבת בעברית. אני לומדת עברית באולפן באוניברסיטת חיפה.
פו אנחנו לומדים לדבר, לכתוב ולקרוא עברית מצוין!
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Marloes
non-member comment
Leuk stukje, dat in het hebreeuws, had het even vertaald :D