Second year student

I've voluntarily cursed myself with a continuation of another Hebrew course. Yes, as if the humiliations of last semester weren't enough, I decided to rise up for the challenge yet again and keep struggling with this foreign language. It is stressful at work again so I need that counterbalance anyway...

A tiny factor for creating stupid, useless arguments between an Israeli guy and a Finnish girl is to urge the Finnish person to read Hebrew. Reading without what I call the vowels. Infuriating. It is simply impossible to guess what a word means if your basic vocabulary is on the same level what a chimpanzee would know after completing immense training for years in this language. To give the Israeli an idea what it is like, I tried the same in Finnish. Do you know what this word is?

rhtomtti

Yes, a few vowels missing. For a Finn, it might be easy to figure out but for you foreigners, probably not. (Hint: I twisted this word in Hebrew to something nasty, similar to the word you use for "glass" in Hebrew.)

To bring back some of the alphabet learnt last time around, I'm posting some familiar writing below encountered in Israel. But for the record, I would not have been able to figure out the red & white text if I hadn't recognized the logo and famous bottle shape...

Mickey D's! Mem, kof, dalet, vav, nun, lamed, dalet, samech... Be-te avon!

Le chaim!

Eager ivrit student

I (אני) can't begin describing how studying (לומדת) Hebrew (עברית) has saved my life (חיים) last autumn and this spring. Even though the language classes (שיעורים) sometimes are a source of temporary moments of intense frustration, looking back I am so happy and glad to see how I have progressed from zero knowledge to what (מה) I know (יודעת) now (עכשיו). The classes have also (גם) been a form of therapy for me amongst busy working life, taking my thoughts off from all the work things I should not be wasting my time thinking when outside the office.

Now I can in Hebrew tell a bit about myself, order simple stuff in a restaurant (מסעדה), ask and tell the time (מה השעה) and make simple questions and sentences. In Hebrew - the language that made no sense to me not so many months ago! I even installed a Hebrew keyboard to my cell phone (פלאפון) so I can sometimes surprise my boyfriend (חבר) by WhatsApping him in Hebrew.

When the course started, we were about 25 eager students (סטודנטים). Those with not enough time or motivation have dropped out and a bit over 10 (עשר) is left. This remaining group is so into the language that together we bought extra classes for the spring. And I already pre-enrolled for the next course starting in September.

There's still a long way to go before I could add Hebrew to my LinkedIn profile as a skill. Maybe (אולי) a four (ארבע) week summer holiday in a kibbutz (קיבוץ) in Israel (בישראל) would take me to that level?

I wonder, though, how well do the Jews in diaspora know Hebrew or is it just the sabras of Israel that know it well? Do e.g. Finnish Jews speak fluent Hebrew?

Back to basics

After Xmas and New Year's comes January which means that reality calls... Work starts again, and this time school, too (גם). Or, my Hebrew (עברית) classes. Another 12 x 1,5hrs of learning this mystical language waits ahead.

Things have been a bit (OK, a lot!) stressful at work recently, and I (אני) have been a sleepless nerve wreck ever since the holidays ended. I don't have a family & kids (ילדים), pets, hobbies or anything similar to keep me regularly distracted from the place where I bring home (בית) the bread (לחם). Therefore I have a bad habit of dwelling on things. Uh, this sounds sad, sad, sad.

But I guess diving in to the world of Hebrew makes a tiny exception to this. The first class of this year started with (עם) revising last autumn's things (and no, I hadn't done my homework or practiced over the holidays) and I got furious how I still can't remember all the alphabet. Hebrew is distracting!

And (ו), I'm still a little (קצת) disappointed that I haven't learnt any proper small talk. We go through a lot of the same things and words that you can't really build a sentence with. Also this spring, the classes very often clash with other engagements I have, so this will furthermore diminish my chances to learn and absorb. But let's see if I get anything right. The following sentence should have something to do with the picture below:

...אני רוצה קצת עוגה בבקשה

www.shavkin.com

PS. After writing this post I read it through and picked out and marked in bold all the words I also know in Hebrew. See what I mean? Just nine words. No (לא) ingredients for chitchat. Well, now 10. :)

End of Chapter One

Right, my Hebrew classes for this year are over. It was 12 weeks ago when the course started in September, and I can say that I am a bit smarter comparing the back-then situation to now. OK, that isn't too hard to achieve when you start from zero :).

Being completely honest with you, I still can't remember all the alphabet but I can fairly enough say that if I try hard, I can read Hebrew. However, it is kind of a struggle that longer sentences will discourage me and make me dizzy. And as my vocabulary is rather limited, I wouldn't understand what I am reading anyway!

As I am somewhat of a language freak, it has been an interesting journey to learn a language that is so completely different from what I am used to. This - if anything - should keep off Alzheimer's, as my brain is really challenged by the alphabet and reading from right to left.

The story does not end here, I have enrolled to the next level. After that I hope to have enough ingredients to carry a short smalltalk with someone. To be continued in January and below is a sample of my writing. 10 points to those who can read and translate :).

...שלום! אני לומדת עברי. אז יאללה, ביי

And now a little word from my sponsor...

Cartoons and 110 magnet letters - isn't it fun and easy learning a new language and culture? :)

I'd like to buy a vowel

Yesterday I had my 3rd Hebrew class. The amount of students has grown during these three weeks, and we are now approximately 25, all getting together once a week to cram this ancient language into our heads.

Unlike usually with language studies, learning Hebrew happens very slowly. When it comes to other European languages for instance, you know by the 3rd class how to say hello and introduce yourself. Here things take time, as the alphabet is something that needs to be figured out before going forward. You can't study the language in Latin alphabet or phonetically, so before advancing in the book the alphabet needs to be more than familiar to you.

So far, it has some curiosities compared to other languages that I have learnt. For instance, Hebrew does not have capital letters or lower case. This makes it somewhat easier to learn writing. Secondly, the language hasn't officially got vowels - or not at least in the sense I'm used to. The basic set of letters are all consonants, and turned into vowels by adding little dots or lines above or below the letter.

I am quite inspired by the language, even though I have not learnt much yet. I still have problems recognizing some of the letters (not to mention writing them!), but the sheer joy of actually being able to figure out a word and what it means in Hebrew gives such pleasure that it's hard to describe. Suddenly, all that nonsense and weird symbols make sense - it is a rewarding and eye-opening feeling.

The papers and notes are getting messy, but will make sense in the end...

Easy as ABC

Or, easy as אבג! Yesterday, I had my first Hebrew lesson and I must say - against all my negative prejudice - it was quite fun! Alright, we only had time to scratch the surface of the alphabet and half of the time got to know each other in class and listened to Israeli music. But somehow I got the feeling like... I can beat this thing.

After class I came home and as a diligent Finn started practicing the letters again. In fact, it is like learning 44 new letters since we're learning also how to write them by hand. My notebook is full of "irons", "fish hooks", "curly hairs" and "ears". How fun to come up with tricks how to remember how each letter is written! (Note to self: keep this attitude when going forward)

Beautiful samples of my "hand writing": the fish hook, ear etc.

It was also fun and in a way comforting to be in a class of 20 people who share your interest one way or another. People had various reasons why they had enrolled in the class: some had lived in Israel, some were half-Israelis, some had found out they had Jewish family roots, some had traveled in Israel and fallen in love with the country, some were married to an Israeli and some were studying it for work. I'm none of these, by the way :).

Next week in class, we're going to talk about Rosh Hashanah - the Jewish new year. I'm really looking forward to it and this is exactly the counter weight outside the office what I've been missing!

Still struggling to remember that the book opens the other way :).

 

Lost in translation

Since I got into the language topic in my previous post, I thought I'd write some more about it.There are two languages that can be associated with the Jewish people. First, there is age-old Hebrew – the language we know the First Testament was written in. Then there is Yiddish, evolved from a cocktail of languages in Central Europe around the 10^th century. Yiddish also uses a Hebrew-based alphabet but interestingly enough, it is not an official language in Israel: Hebrew and Arabic are.

When learning about Judaism or talking with Israelis, you quite often run into words that can't be translated. You just need to know what they mean. I am not entirely sure from which language these words come from, but there are a lot of them.

To name a few examples... Menorah does not translate to candlestick. Mezuzah is not a doorpost case. Yarmulke/kippah is not a small hat. Hamsa is not a hand. Kosher is not fit/permitted. Rabbi is not a priest. Shiksa is not a non-Jewish female. Ke'ara is not just a plate. Mikvah is not just a bath and freier is much more than just a loser. All of these items, people or concepts need to be referred to with their original word – they just don't translate into your local language. The original words carry so much more meaning than any other foreign word could begin to describe.

In Finnish, we also have words like that. But I can only think of two at the moment: sisu and perkele.

I've had quite a hard time memorizing what everything means and there are plenty more words out there. But I am getting there. One day I will ask my boyfriend to throw me a pop-quiz on these special words. I'll let you know my score.

Mind you, to make things a little more interesting, Israelis often swear in – yes – Arabic! Just see the below example by Natalie Portman...

The ultimate challenge

I was always the kind of good student at school. Always a great average, never had to re-take a test and the best marks I got in:

• Finnish (because I was a splendid writer)
• English (because of Cartoon Network and sister's Scottish ex-boyfriend),
• Swedish (because it is so dang easy)
• German (because I have relatives in Switzerland)
• Spanish (because I have relatives in Spain).

Later on I learnt Greek (because I lived in the country) but French I gave up in college. I figured champagne and Chanel is all the French I'll ever need to know in life. But you could say I'm somewhat of a whiz at languages.

So now later, later on life, I signed up for the ultimate challenge in languages. I'm starting a beginner's course in Hebrew next month. Yes, I decided to grab the bull by its horns, no reason to sit at home and whine about it. Usually in languages, there is something you know how to say. You just catch up on phrases, learn them from people and so forth. In Hebrew, I only knew amen and hallelujah. Not much of a conversation piece there. I have a feeling this is gonna be a picnic...

It wasn't too easy to find a Hebrew course, by the way. The University of Helsinki teaches a course in Biblical Hebrew, but I'm sure that wouldn't help me understand what my boyfriend is talking on the phone when his decibels soar off the charts. Chances of finding a Hebrew language course in other places than Helsinki in Finland are slim to none, so I was blessed to find Kalliola Settlement next to my office (what are the chances!?) giving adult education also in this language.

So, Heb-heb-hoorew! Wish me luck and someone buy me bag of patience. I'm gonna need it.

No clue what the cover says. Am I purchasing the right book?

Vav, nun kof tet mem shens!

No, I have not gone crazy even though the headline is probably jibberish to you. I just realized you can write "wow, none of that makes sense" in those Hebrew letters.

It is no wonder why we in the Finnish language have the saying ”it's all Hebrew to me”, meaning when you simply don't understand anything. The English speaking world doesn't know what they're saying when it's all Greek to them. I know how to speak, read and write Greek, but it's the Hebrew cat that got my tongue.

Visiting Israel is in one aspect like going back to those childhood times when you couldn't read. Remember? Flipping through just the illustrations in a comic book, or not fully being able to follow a super-interesting American movie because of the subtitles? The Hebrew alphabet will make you feel like that again. It made me illiterate - literally.

Fine, I'll be honest. I haven't actually taken a Hebrew course (yet?) and just studied the alphabet from a cheap postcard I bought in Eilat. But unlike Greek or even Russian, there are no safe havens in the Hebrew selection of letters since none of them are the same as in the Latin alphabet. There's nothing to begin guessing with.

I wouldn't know even where to start reading – it goes from right to left, combinations of letters can mean different things than they actually seem, and sometimes even the Israelis themselves guess how something they read is pronounced. And numbers you do read from left to right, if I have understood correctly.

So, what does this leave me with? As I've only managed to memorize alef and shin, for the time being, I will leave the reading and writing and concentrate on the talking part. There's a bigger chance your message will go through to the Israelis anyway if you open your mouth (and be loud), lo?

 Guess which one of the letters I named "the broken Menorah"?