Re-learn Hebrew

My Aramaic classes have been amazing. 1 class left, then the exam, and I’m going to try to set myself a reading schedule afterwards so I don’t lose the skill. Once I get it down a bit more, re-learning Hebrew should be fairly easy.

My Vocabulary is still weak, but should only get stronger.

I spent our flights to and from Mexico working on my Hebrew, and got through re-doing the first 10 or so lessons in Kittel. My Aramaic class starts next Wednesday, which I’m quite excited for. It feels wonderful to be re-learning how to read even simple passages, and I look forward to being back at the point where I can read larger passages, with only the need to look up some vocabulary.

I’m particularly excited about the Aramaic class as it is my first opportunity to takea class my father is teaching, which I have wanted to do for a long time.

for the Easter holidays-an 11-hour trip from Portsmouth-I did an intensive revision of Hebrew. I have only done a basic revision, but it was enough to bring a lot of it flooding back.

When Suzanne returns the Hebrew course she borrowed from me, I will do a proper re-learning of Hebrew.

Having grown up with the Bible, and having a keen interest in Biblical studies, Kaballah, and Western magick, Hebrew is a language I find both beautiful and powerful. A long time ago I took 2 years of biblical Hebrew, and absolutely loved it, but since then I have let what I knew slide.

I want to get to the point where I can comfortably read both biblical and medieval Hebrew.

I’d love to learn modern conversational Hebrew as well.

• Re-do the lessons in my Biblical Hebrew textbook
• Regain a vocabulary of at least 200 words

I learned Hebrew to a fairly good standard, but it was ages ago so I feel like I’ve forgotten everything now. When I start studying it again though it will probably come back quite quickly. Hopefully :)

I’ve laid the groundwork for getting back into my study of Hebrew, and now I want to make my goal more concrete. I’m going to try to read something in Hebrew (a poem, an article, a story) at least twice a week. Dictionary by my side, making notes on the page. Starting tomorrow morning.

...and I’m not sure where to go from here. I feel good about my current level of ability, but I’m not sure how to maintain it. We need to move to Israel.

even though I was sick and stressed out, was good. I had to do a little presentation and I brought in a poem to talk about, which people seemed to like. I found myself really enjoying leading the discussion, too—made me think (someday, far far in the distant future) that I might need to reconsider teaching (ADULTS).

Also, I got there early and had a few minutes conversation with my teacher which felt totally comfortable. Part of it is that she’s really good at staying on my level with vocabulary, and that she speaks very clearly, but part of it too is that I really haven’t lost as much of this as I thought. Hooray!

My class started on Monday and I’m very pleased with how comfortable it feels to be speaking and listening in Hebrew for a couple of hours at a time. The reading on Monday was wicked hard, but today we worked on a story and it was much better. Yay!

Talked to someone about taking classes this summer - the way they place you is that you have a chat with the director of the program over the phone. Fun. Except by fun I mean “makes my heart beat a million times a minute with anxiety.” Anyway, I fooled him with my accent again and he thinks I should be in an advanced class, but it’s not clear if there will be one at a convenient time this summer. We shall see - I don’t mind being at the bottom of a hard class.