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Virtual Ulpan: Hebrew lessons for beginners. How to learn Hebrew - on your own, in courses, individually with a teacher or online? Learn Hebrew from scratch

Updated: 01/08/2020

At first, when the topic of Israel only arose in my life, and with it the need to study Hebrew, I was sure that it was impossible to learn this language on my own. The alphabet does not look like either Latin or Cyrillic, words are written and read from right to left, vowels are not written at all, but “guessed” ... Add to this the pronunciation as if from the worlds of Lovecraft, strange grammar and some crazy word formation ... oh, everything) ))

Social networks and forums did not add optimism - as if to confirm the first impression (hello, the law of synchronization), they came across all statements in the spirit of “even if you are fluent in other languages, Hebrew will not come easily to you”, “the language is difficult, requires classes with a teacher from the very beginning, otherwise you won’t learn to read, ”etc. I believed all these horror stories and mentally prepared to find a good (and probably not cheap) Hebrew teacher. So that from the very beginning! So that everything is as it should!))

Not really believing in the possibility of an independent study of Hebrew, I nevertheless felt a sincere interest in it. I liked the incomprehensible and unusual-sounding language, it really fascinated me. I wanted to learn how to understand it, and I was just curious "how it works." Also, Hebrew was for me a kind of “piece of Israel”, an opportunity to “stay in touch” with the Country without being physically in it - because of this, I especially wanted to know the language at least at a basic level.

Ok, I thought, maybe you can’t learn Hebrew on your own ... but you can try)) So I mastered the printed and written alphabet, slowly began to read and write simple words, went through the first and second lessons from the textbook with all the exercises ... and after a couple of weeks It turned out that, well, I’m learning Hebrew on my own, and I’m even getting something.

In this article I will tell you how I did it and what result I came up with. Perhaps my experience will be interesting and encourage those who are at the beginning of the path and do not believe that it is possible to start learning Hebrew without a teacher)

How to start learning Hebrew

As I already said, at first I learned the alphabet, vowels and learned to write in Hebrew.

  1. Textbook "Sheat Hebrew" part 1.
  2. Basic Hebrew audio course in 3 parts "Pimsleur Hebrew 1-3"

There is also a good Hebrew course from scratch on the ivrit.info website - if for some reason the Sheat Hebrew textbook did not fit, I recommend mastering the basics of reading and grammar using it.

In addition to textbooks, mobile applications for learning Hebrew helped me a lot - the IRIS dictionary and Anki virtual cards for writing words.

Textbook "Sheat Hebrew" for self-study of Hebrew

I was lucky to study with the rare “Sheat Ivrit” of the first edition of 1990. The textbook, along with pamphlets about Herzl, Jabotinsky, and other founding fathers of Israel, was given to me by my father, who sorted through my grandfather's papers after his death. Most likely, this textbook was issued in Hebrew courses at one of the first Jewish communities that appeared in our city in the 90s. When I began to leaf through the yellow pages, a leaflet fell out of the book with exercises and words written in familiar handwriting ....

It seemed to me right and in some ways even magical that I would learn Hebrew for moving to Israel using this little book, once printed in a Tel Aviv printing house, brought by Sokhnut to Russia in the 90s and gathering dust on a distant shelf for 15-20 years. I just couldn’t put such an artifact on the table - I love symbolic coincidences and strange interweaving of times) In addition, I’m an oldfag and it’s more convenient for me to study with a paper textbook than with an electronic course.

I read mixed reviews about this Hebrew textbook online. Someone praises "Sheat Ivrit", and someone criticizes - they say that outdated realities are described in the texts, and the grammar is illogically constructed ... What can I say? I haven't done any other tutorials, so I don't really have anything to compare it to. As for outdated realities, firstly, it’s quite interesting, and secondly, they are not so outdated)

The first part of "She'at Hebrew" consists of 20 lessons. Each lesson includes:

  • dictionary;
  • text for reading with vocabulary from the lesson;
  • text exercises (answers to questions, written retelling);
  • grammar block - verb conjugation, other rules;
  • grammar exercises, short texts and answers to questions on them;
  • assignment for translation from Russian into Hebrew.

At the end of the textbook there are keys with answers to all tasks. The keys are numbered in accordance with the numbers and points of the exercises and are divided into lessons.

At the beginning of the textbook, an analysis of the alphabet and exercises for practicing writing are given. The same section explains the rules for reading letters and vowels.

What, in my opinion, this textbook is good for self-study:

  1. The rules of reading are explained, the alphabet and spelling of letters are analyzed in detail.
  2. Tasks for exercises and grammar rules are given in Russian.
  3. There is an audio application (Google and torrents to help)
  4. At the end of the textbook, you can find the correct answers to the self-test exercises.

Where to get the textbook

In electronic form, the book and audio files can be downloaded online.

If, like me, you prefer paper books, (the store is checked, I ordered the second part of Sheat Hebrew for myself).

Learning Hebrew Conversation Using the Pimsleur Method

Pimsleur has a Hebrew audio course for English speakers only. It is suitable for those who know English at least Pre-Intermediate level.

The Pimsleur method is based on learning by spaced repetition (words and phrases are remembered better if you repeat what has been passed through at certain intervals). The course is good because it encourages you to speak, that is, from a passive vocabulary to translate new words into an active one. You start speaking in the first lesson. As you learn new words and expressions, the speaker constantly asks you to build phrases or answer questions with words from the current and past lessons.

For example: in lesson 1 we learned the word "Hebrew", in lesson 2 we learn the word "speak". After the new word is memorized, the announcer asks to remember the word from lesson 1, and then compose a phrase from two new words - “speak Hebrew”. Thus, already learned words are constantly repeated, and the total vocabulary is constantly increasing. Throughout the course, the student is gaining vocabulary and, most importantly, is practicing the language, building phrases and sentences from a relatively small set of words. Of course, a course is not enough for fluency in the language, but as a base or a tourist minimum, that’s it.

If you study in parallel with the course and the textbook, they seem to complement each other, increasing the effectiveness of learning. The audio course is easier to follow if you know how the words actually sound and are spelled (the speaker does not always pronounce the words clearly). Using a textbook, along with an audio course, is also easier to study - you see a word in Hebrew and its translation in Russian and you know how to read it, because from the Pimsleur course you remember by ear how it is pronounced.

How I built independent Hebrew lessons

I decided to approach independent learning from the point of view of developing four skills at the core of language proficiency - reading, writing, listening and speaking. I will list what I did to develop each of them.

Reading:

  • learned the alphabet and vowels;
  • read texts from the textbook and Hebrew info course;
  • watched films with subtitles in Hebrew;
  • read jokes on Instagram in Hebrew (seriously, it works))

Letter:

  • learned the written alphabet;
  • wrote copybooks in Hebrew (2 pages for each letter) and words for the study of each letter;
  • transcribed Hebrew texts by hand;
  • did all the written exercises from the textbook;
  • took short notes in Hebrew like “thinking out loud”
  • made a shopping list in Hebrew;
  • I installed a Hebrew alphabet layout on my phone and laptop and occasionally typed in Hebrew.

Hebrew listening comprehension:

  • downloaded the audio application for the textbook and listened to all the texts;
  • took Pimsleur speaking course;
  • listened to the radio in Hebrew;
  • watched series and films in Hebrew;
  • listened to and analyzed Israeli songs with translation;
  • I watched short funny scenes in Hebrew on Instagram and YouTube.

Speaking skills

  • read texts aloud, repeating after the speaker;
  • talking to herself, describing her day, any topic that came to mind;
  • she picked and sang her favorite songs in Hebrew;
  • recorded audio and video on the phone in Hebrew - chatterboxes on arbitrary topics.

Lexicon

I started by compiling my own minilex - a list of about 500 of the most useful and frequently used words of the language in everyday life. You can search for a typical Hebrew minilex on the net, or you can, as I did, assemble your own, guided only by common sense. My minilex includes numbers, commonly used words and phrases, time, months, days of the week, vocabulary related to family, food, clothes, shopping, home, transportation, directions and travel-travel.

Also, to expand my vocabulary, I:

  • I wrote out new words in the dictionary for the lesson in a notebook - 1-2 lines each;
  • Hearing a new word in a movie or seeing it in a text on social networks, I looked up the meaning in the dictionary and entered it into Anki. At leisure she shuffled cards in Anki;
  • Completed assignments for retelling from the textbook;
  • Rewriting texts and writing exercises also help memorize words;
  • She immediately included a new word in her active vocabulary - she built sentences with it, looked for objects or phenomena in real life that correlated with the word and repeated to herself, looking at the object.

Grammar

In principle, the basics of grammar will be given by any textbook for beginners - the same "Sheat Hebrew" or an online course on ivrit.info

I also really like it - I recommend it! — how the basic principles of Hebrew grammar are explained on the site Speak-hebrew.ru — here you can find general information about binyans, roots and patterns.

My Hebrew level after a year of learning from scratch

Self-study of Hebrew to the initial level from scratch took about a year. From this time, I studied for six months according to the textbook and courses, and for the second six months I watched more films, listened to songs, wrote down and memorized new words through Anki, and everything else that I described above.

Testing your level of Hebrew is not easy. I came across either very simple tests, where you are diagnosed with “knowledge of the language at the native level” for a level like “I know the alphabet, I can read the question without vowels”, or tests that are too serious for a beginner - for example, the official Yael test or paid level testing from teachers (at "Ivriki" it costs about 6K rubles).

I have been looking for sane Hebrew tests for quite a long time, as a result I found only two options.

First, it is a distribution test for knowledge of Hebrew in the Tel Aviv Ulpan. Each Aleph, Bet, Gimel test contains 20 questions. In fact, this, of course, is only grammar and vocabulary without listening skills and without composing, but the test itself is the most adequate of all that I have seen.

Here is what they told me based on the test result:

Test result for Hebrew level "Alef"

The result of the test for the level "Bet"

I also passed a distributive test in Hebrew on the website of teacher Vladimir Sapiro for 150 questions. Result: 25 out of 25 correct answers to Aleph, 17 out of 25 Aleph Plus, 14 out of 25 Bet, then, of course, it’s already quite difficult, and I scored very few points (in total, I got 80 correct answers out of 150 for the entire test, but from -for ignorance of the words in Bet Plus and Gimel, I just randomly clicked places).

Now I rate my level as "alef". According to the official definition, knowledge of Hebrew at the Aleph level corresponds to the following skills:

  • listening comprehension of short stories, dialogues;
  • maintaining conversations on simple everyday topics;
  • reading simple short dialogues and simple texts in Hebrew without vowels;
  • the ability to write or verbally voice a short story about yourself or on a given topic (shopping, food, family, etc.)

In fact, I have these skills. Yes, I write with mistakes, I am not very confident in using the future tense - but it seems that this is normal for many graduates of Alef ulpans in Israel as well. In fact, of course, I have uneven knowledge: as the tests showed, I may not know something from the aleph, but at the same time it’s good to answer some questions of the “bet” level.

Oral speech:

With the available vocabulary, I can quite communicate on everyday topics, get to know and tell about myself, clarify how to get somewhere. I know the numbers and designations of time in Hebrew, I use and recognize in the text and by ear the past tense of verbs known to me. I am familiar with jargon and set expressions (I already picked up more of this from the cinema). I don’t know the future tense enough and sometimes I get confused in the plural. Listening to the radio, I still don’t understand everything that is being said, but I can often understand what it is all about.

Listening comprehension:

Here is an instructional video for continuing (without subtitles) - I understand 95% percent minus individual words:

Of course, video conversations are easier to understand, as the picture suggests the meaning of what is happening.

To test pure listening, I went through the first 6 lessons included in this beta-level audio course - in principle, all the stories are clear to me, minus some words.

Conclusion

From my own experience, I was convinced that learning Hebrew at a basic level on my own is quite feasible. However, for the sake of objectivity, I consider it necessary to clarify with what kind of input data I managed to do this.

Age: 30+

Other languages: English B1

Experience of self-study of languages ​​up to Hebrew: eat

Attitude towards Hebrew: the language is interesting and pleasant to the ear

Language skills: eat

Leading channel of perception: auditory

Need for guidance and support: not needed, I normally work alone.

I will not draw any conclusions, let everyone make their own. I want to note only two important nuances for understanding:

  1. For self-study, there should be minimal sympathy and interest in the language and in Israel. If I didn’t like Hebrew, I would either not study it at all, or structure my classes in some other way.
  2. My example does not mean that you can learn Hebrew on your own only with knowledge of English and a pumped auditory canal. It only shows that you need to build classes based on individual characteristics and rely on your strengths.

That's all, I'll be glad to talk and answer questions about self-learning the language in the comments.

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I have no idea. But I’ve been living in Tel Aviv for three weeks now (no, I’ll be home soon), and when the voice in the electronic queue says “mispar arbaim e homesh”, and I have just the forty-fifth number, without raising my eyes to the screen I understand that my the turn came up.

I knew a few words in Hebrew since childhood: thank you, please, excuse me, good morning, good night, bon appetit, birthday, head, air conditioning, okay. How will "hello" everyone knows.

And I could count from one to nineteen. The easiest way to remember how it will be six - shesh. It's also easy to remember eight - shmone. As a child, I had a friend named Petya Oliker, and he said: “In Israeli prisons, the shmon always starts at exactly eight.” How can you forget?

Now I know more words and have learned to read the ones I recognize by ear. I didn't even try to read the first week. In a note, I wrote that "in Israel, words are perceived as just unknown squiggles." There is no chance of deciphering such a text:

However, when you are surrounded by signs on the streets and packs in stores long enough, you begin to notice that some of the letters are different. From the alphabet, I knew only the letter א (aleph). This is not number 36, but 36a:

When I opened the whole alphabet, I was horrified, remembered ב (bet) and closed it, having managed to notice by chance that the letter ש looks like w and it seems to read the same way. And for some reason I also realized that ל is l.

Of course, when you know at least some letters, you try to find them everywhere. It helps a lot that the street signs are duplicated in English:

Oh, so that's how Rothschild is spelled? OK, w And l I knew, and when I saw, I realized that d also knew from somewhere. It's nice that R similar to lowercase English r, only looking from right to left - this is also easy to remember. I also remember that And is a single quote above. The main thing is not to confuse with an apostrophe:

Here I already know d, about, l- Naturally, I remember m And from.

Well, then you walk like this down the street, you see the word:

And rejoice: "Discount!"

It starts with sh-, it ends with -arma, it smells like shawarma:

Or here (forgive me for blocking the letters with a pillar):

At first it may seem that "supr shnkin" is nonsense. But this is a supermarket, and it's on Sheinkin Street. Perhaps it says "Super Sheinkin"?

However, who the hell knows, because Sheinkin's street sign reads differently:

If not super-Sheinkin, then mini-Alenby should be correct:

Or, here's another sign:

I have no idea what it says here, but it looks like Bazooka. But maybe not.

And here is the coolest sign:

It's a difficult word, but luckily this falafel maker has wifi called akosem. Look what a cool font. By the way, do you know what it is?

The most difficult thing was to deal with these “pps” on electronic screens in buses:

See the word at the beginning? Too much the same three letters. And two of them read the same (to my ears). It is written "hatahana" (more precisely, xthnh; this is "stop"). Later it turned out that “hatahana hub” is the next stop, it seems to be written here.

Dear friends! We are starting to publish Hebrew lessons for those who, for one reason or another, cannot attend the ICC ulpan.

Lesson #1 - Differences and Similarities Between Hebrew and Russian

Hebrew is written from right to left. The covers of books and magazines are on the reverse side for us. Page numbering goes from right to left. The exception is numbers and numbers - they are written and read in the usual way for us.

The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters and the Russian alphabet has 33. This is one of the reasons why Hebrew is an easier language to learn.

In Hebrew, there are no capital letters either at the beginning of a sentence or at the beginning of proper names and titles. For this reason, it is a little harder to read the text at first - it is more difficult for the eye to catch on to the place where a new sentence begins, but you quickly get used to it.

There are practically no vowels in the Hebrew alphabet. Vowel sounds are expressed by special signs: dots and dashes, which are called vocalizations or “nekudot”.

Neither in written nor in printed type, the letters are connected to each other. In rare cases, due to the speed of writing, they still touch.

Five letters have double graphics, i.e. at the beginning and in the middle of the word they are written in the same way, and at the end of the word they change their appearance.

Each letter in Hebrew means a certain number. An entire science is based on this - gematria (disclosure of the secret meaning of all words).

For centuries, Hebrew has been a dead language. This is an isolated case when, after so many years, a language is revived and begins to actively develop. For this reason, most modern words that did not exist two thousand years ago are invented or borrowed from other languages.

Hebrew is dominated by dull and hissing sounds, so some may think that Russian sounds more sonorous, but Hebrew, like any Mediterranean language, can sound very soft.

Two different letters of the Hebrew alphabet can convey the same sound.

There are no sounds [s], [u] in Hebrew. But there are a few unfamiliar to our ears:

ה (similar to the Ukrainian letter "g" or the Latin "h")

ע (guttural sound "a")

ח (glottal "x", rustling coming from the larynx)

In modern Israeli society, it is customary to burr. However, scientists argue that the “R” in Hebrew should sound exactly the same as the Russian “R”

The letters "א", "ה", "ח", and "ע" convey a guttural sound unusual for Russian. In order to pronounce it correctly, it is necessary to activate the larynx, raise its tone, since it is more relaxed in Russian speakers.

In Hebrew, the sound "l" is softer than in Russian, but not quite hard either. The correct "l" is something between "le" and "le", "la" and "la", "lo" and "le", "lu" and "lu".

One of the rules of Hebrew grammar is that the noun always comes before the adjective. In Israel they say: “the house is beautiful”, “the person is smart”, “the car is fast”, etc.

In every language, stress (semantic accent) sets the tone for the entire sentence. In Russian, such emphasis falls on the first part of sentences, and in Hebrew on the last.

The arrangement of words in sentences differs from the Russian language, for example, in Hebrew they say: “He is happy because he has a family”, “His sons wanted to congratulate him”, “They were born in the year 1985”

In Hebrew, the literary and colloquial language is like earth and sky. For example, if someone on the street tries to communicate in high Hebrew, others will think that he is a writer, a poet or an alien.

Some prepositions in Hebrew are written together with the following words after them.

In Russian, most of the words are formed with the help of suffixes and prefixes. In Hebrew, the main way of word formation is the change of vowels inside the root.

In Hebrew, there are word-formation models unusual for the Russian language:

1. Mishkali (for nouns and adjectives)

2. Binyans (for verbs)

Knowing them, you can easily conjugate verbs and determine the semantic connotation of a word by its root.

In Hebrew, there is such a thing as “smikhut” (a conjugated combination of two nouns). For example, the word "cafe" (beit-cafe) in Hebrew consists of two nouns: "house" (byte) and "coffee" (cafe).

Unlike many languages, Hebrew has pronominal suffixes. For example, with the help of such a suffix, the phrase "my house" can be said in one single word.

Unlike Russian, in Hebrew the same adjective or verb, even in the plural, has both feminine and masculine forms. For example: the adjective "beautiful" - yafot (zh.r.), yafim - (m.r.). The verb “we speak” is medabrim (m.r.), medabrot (f.r.).

There is no respectful form of “you” in Hebrew, so even complete strangers address each other with “you” from the first meeting.

All pronouns except "I" and "we" are gender related. For example, "you" in the masculine gender will be different from "you" in the feminine. When referring to the female team (“they / you”), feminine pronouns are used, but if there is at least one man among them, then the masculine gender is used when addressing.

A masculine word in Russian can be a feminine word in Hebrew, and vice versa.

In Russian, there are only two numerals that take masculine or feminine gender: one / one, two / two. In Hebrew, all numbers can be either masculine or feminine. The gender of the numeral depends on the gender of the noun in conjunction with which it is used.

There is no neuter gender in Hebrew. Russian neuter words in Hebrew can be feminine or masculine words.

When writing this article, materials from the site http://speak-hebrew.ru/ were used

1. Find the right tools
If someone has already told you that Hebrew can only be learned in Israel, don't believe it. In the end, not every native speaker knows how to teach (although in the process of working on our textbook, we, of course, attracted Hebrew-speaking consultants, native speakers read educational texts and the editor was also Hebrew-speaking). There is such a thing - language specificity. For example, Russian-speaking students do not need to be explained what a grammatical gender is (you already know this very well), but they need to know what an article is and where to put it. In Hebrew, by the way, there is only one definite article, always in the same form - very nice of him, right?

2. Get yourself prescriptions
Often students are afraid of incomprehensible letters (and some even know that printed and handwritten Hebrew are two big differences). Do not worry! Firstly, there are relatively few letters in the language, and secondly, we first learn the most difficult - the handwritten font. So you can read what the waiter in the cafe wrote to you on a piece of paper when you asked for the bill, and leave a note for the neighbors, and make out the cute graffiti. Thirdly, we still start with writing and reading endless syllables and writing Russian words in Hebrew letters: we are specifically waiting for you to get so tired of doing meaningless nonsense that you yourself want normal words to begin.

3. Read everything you see
How to read words if they do not have vowels? It's very simple: in Hebrew there are rules about this; not that any vowel can be inserted anywhere. We first teach to write (and read) international, borrowed words without vowels, and then words from Hebrew. Do you know why? Because the most difficult thing that can be read in Hebrew without vowels is foreign borrowings. And suddenly bam - and you already know how. After such "native" words, which obey the internal language logic and are arranged according to understandable models, you will be able to click like nuts.

4. Listen to native speakers, learn to understand dialects and accents
Let's say you were told about various cunning Jewish sounds and even frightened by "ayn", a complex guttural sound - so don't be upset, Ashkenazim don't pronounce this good, and you don't need to either. And about the sounds denoted by the letters “hat”, “reish” and “hey”, the textbook describes in detail (and it’s not for nothing that we recorded an audio course with native speakers). By the way, remember this: unlike Russian, consonants in Hebrew are not stunned at the end of words, but are pronounced in all their glory.

By the way, we had a student who always tried to pronounce the sound [l] (“l”) firmly, although in Hebrew it is semi-soft. Israelis define this style as an American accent; This student spoke “American” because he had only one experience in learning a non-native language (just English), and he was convinced that in general all foreign languages ​​should be spoken in this way.

5. Approach the same topic from different angles
In traditional textbooks, the text is usually given first, and after it, new words and rules that are introduced in this text. We do the opposite - first the words and rules (gently, one at a time), and then the text. Imagine: you have just started to learn the language, and suddenly you can read a two-page text and immediately understand everything there! Large texts in the textbook consist mainly of dialogues, and then we suggest reading all the same in prose (by the way, an excellent exercise is reading for a while, with a stopwatch) and retelling on behalf of different characters.

6. Don't be afraid to repeat the material, but turn it into a game
Much in the study of languages ​​is based on the repetition of the same words and structures. Performing endless identical exercises, a person usually feels like an idiot and falls into some despondency (if you studied languages ​​at school, you understand what we mean). In our textbook there is a trick against this: through heroes, some of which are shlimazels and bores. They keep doing the same things, repeating the same things, making mistakes and redoing them. But the student, while reading all this, just manages to learn the necessary topic - and at the same time he considers the hero to be an idiot, and not himself.

Hebrew has a conjugation of prepositions (for example, "from you", "from me", etc. - forms of conjugation of the preposition of the direction "from"). Instead of repeating endless conjugation tables, we propose to act out an old baroque play about a wandering hero, whose name is (suddenly!) Kolobok. The idea, we think, is clear.

7. Be aware of the difference in styles
You may have heard that there is a "high" and a "low" Hebrew. The story here is this: in Israel there is a Hebrew Language Academy, which publishes rules, regulates conjugations and officially introduces new words. There is also an idea of ​​how the “correct” literary Hebrew should look like (such a language is spoken, for example, in the news). The official modern language inherits the biblical and Talmudic - if there were no constructions there, they cannot be in literary Hebrew. The spoken language is very different from all this (including, for example, stresses - in the literary language they usually fall on the last syllable, and in the spoken language - on the penultimate or even the third from the end), but there is good news: you are with this and so you already come across every day, because colloquial Russian is also different from literary.
Our textbook is the very first level of learning Hebrew, so it's quite conversational (don't worry, you won't sound archaic). Of course, you will not be able to discuss philosophy or politics on the basis of his material, but for the first year of study, this is probably a small loss. But you can buy peaches and pomegranates in any shop on the corner and calmly, without nerves, get from Acre to Jerusalem (for some reason, stops in Israeli are not announced in English). In addition, we are preparing for publication the second part of the textbook, where the phenomena characteristic of the official Hebrew will be considered.

8. Use familiar cultural codes as a method of remembering rules and vocabulary
So that you won't be bored, we have added cultural codes to the textbook that are familiar to every Russian person. For example, the verb "to do" is illustrated by Chernyshevsky's book, and the preposition of the direction "to" is illustrated by Chekhov's three sisters ("To Moscow! To Moscow!"). There is also Venichka in the textbook, and the cat Behemoth with Margarita, and other sudden surprises.

9.Deal with difficult topics consistently
By the way, about verbs. At first we give the system of binyans (which you, probably, have already been scared too), without theory, we just ask you to remember the verbs. Then slowly and carefully add a handful of infinitives, then mix everything together and ask them to sort the verbs into groups. You do it like Cinderella with rice and lentils - and then we jump out of the bushes and say: “And this is such and such a binyan! And you already know him by sight!

10. Start watching movies and cartoons in Hebrew as early as possible
Let's be honest: after the textbook of the first stage, you still won't be able to read Meir Shalev in the original. But you can watch Israeli cinema and. And although this is a textbook for universities, and not a tutorial in its purest form, it is quite possible to study it on your own. Good luck!

Well, the most important thing. This textbook (as well as many other useful and interesting publications) can be purchased in the mobile application JKniga: for iPhone and iPad and for Android tablets.

Why do we need a new Hebrew textbook? There are excellent traditional textbooks that provide excellent material, but there is one problem: Modern Hebrew is no longer spoken that way. That's why publishing house "Knizhniki" is proud to present the first edition of a textbook designed and approved by Moscow State University for teaching Hebrew at the university level. Approved by the UMO for classical university education as a textbook for students of higher educational institutions studying in the direction of HPE 032100 "Oriental and African Studies".

This textbook is the first in the Kanevsky family publication series, but not the first in a series of books and teaching aids created at the Department of Judaic Studies of the ISAA Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov and published at the expense of the Kanevsky family. Among these books and teaching aids are the collection of essays "The Talmud, Plato and the Radiance of Glory" (2011) and the study guide "Hermeneutics of Jewish Texts" (2012).

If you want to live in Israel or are going to visit it, then you cannot do without knowledge of Hebrew at least at the everyday level. And even more so if you like to feel like an independent person, and are also going to get a job in Israel. You understand that you need to learn Hebrew, but what is the best way to do it, where to start? Which way to choose? And is it too late to start?

Many people think that it is possible to learn a foreign language only in childhood or at a young age, since memory works well only at this age. This is an absolutely erroneous opinion. According to our many years of experience, people who start learning Hebrew at 20, and at 40 - 60, and even at 70 successfully study and reach high levels. So age does not matter, the most important thing is your desire to learn and willingness to practice.

Our main advice for those who are planning to move to live in Israel is to start learning Hebrew before leaving as early as possible. This is the most valuable baggage you can take with you. Many people hope to learn Hebrew in an ulpan upon arrival, but later on, most people are disappointed with this idea. Firstly, the state of Israel finances only the development of one of the six levels of Hebrew, and this is absolutely not enough for life in the country. And secondly, the teaching system and the intensity of studying Hebrew in ulpans is not suitable for everyone. Therefore, having mastered Hebrew at least at the Aleph level before coming to Israel, you will already have a language base and will be able to continue your studies at a higher level.

So how do you choose the right way to learn Hebrew? Consider the main ways of learning Hebrew, their advantages and disadvantages.

Learn Hebrew on your own.

There are many positives in this method: you can practice at any convenient time and in any convenient way. There are many free resources on the Internet for learning Hebrew on your own: textbooks, audio lessons, films. To help the self-taught, we also constantly publish useful materials and simulators on various topics. You study at your own time and at your own pace. And of course, self-study is free and will save significant amounts of money. But is this way of learning so perfect? Perhaps not everything is so simple, because with self-study there will be no one to correct your mistakes, and then it can be very difficult to relearn. Yes, and it often turns out to be difficult to motivate yourself to exercise regularly and fruitfully. Therefore, only if you are a truly purposeful person and are used to coping with all the difficulties yourself, your studies will be successful. However, we are often lazy and can not always force ourselves to do. The modern rhythm of life sometimes absorbs us so much that classes become irregular, and it’s simply difficult to competently build the learning process yourself. Agree that not each of us can motivate ourselves to work productively without a mentor who would constantly guide and control the process. Well, someone still needs the notorious spirit of rivalry that can be felt in a group, someone needs a competent teacher who will direct the learning process in the right direction. And yet, the main problem of self-taught people is that colloquial speech develops with difficulty - after all, without a company it is difficult to pronounce everything and use it in practice. And without the active application of knowledge, many remain passive. It is because of this that it is scary to start talking. And this is logical - a person feels confident in what he is used to doing, and if he does not speak and does not participate in the conversation in Hebrew during the study, then the well-known "language barrier" arises.

Learn Hebrew with a private tutor

Many consider this way of learning Hebrew one of the most effective. Here are its advantages: the teacher will take into account only your interests and pay all attention to you, you will be able to study at a pace convenient for you.

However, such pleasure is not the cheapest if you want to learn from an experienced and good teacher. And finding a truly qualified specialist is not so easy. Not all Hebrew teachers speak the language at a sufficiently high level and have good methodological training. You can meet a teacher who works according to an outdated methodology, devotes a lot of time in the classroom to doing exercises from the textbook, which you can do yourself at home, so as not to waste valuable lesson time on this. It happens that even in individual lessons, students speak very little Hebrew, and mostly read texts and exercises. As a result, the effectiveness of such classes can be very low, despite the fact that the cost is high.

learn hebrewin a course group.

There are many courses and ulpans around the world. And until recently, this was perhaps the most popular way to learn Hebrew. There are such advantages in studying at the courses: the classes are held according to the developed program, and it is usually known in advance how long the course lasts. organize the learning process and discipline the student much better than individual lessons, and even more so self-study. Studying in a group, you will communicate a lot, and this will definitely help you to talk, as well as develop the skill of understanding Hebrew by ear. Of course, we are talking about small groups of 4-8 people. With such a composition, the teacher manages to devote a lot of time to each student. By the way, for many students, competition in a group is very useful, it encourages them to achieve better results and makes them try harder. And what is very nice - a lesson in a Hebrew group, even with a good one, is cheaper than individual lessons.

However, this way of learning Hebrew has its drawbacks: in big cities, travel time can be significant. Traveling by public transport isn't much fun either. As a result, it may happen that you have to study tired, hungry and overwhelmed, which of course does not contribute to the effective assimilation of the material.

learn hebrewonline in a group

Modern technologies allow you to learn Hebrew in an even more convenient way - in an online group, without leaving your home in a familiar and comfortable environment. This is a huge savings in time that we usually spend on the road. But it can be directed in a much more useful direction - to watch or have time to do homework. In an online lesson (if you are studying on a modern platform), all the teacher's explanations are accompanied by diagrams and images that help to better visualize what is being studied. An online lesson takes place in the same way as a regular face-to-face lesson, and it is possible to view video clips and listen to audio recordings. The professional online platform allows the teacher to pair students for dialogue in separate rooms and enter those rooms to help when needed. Another great advantage is that when traveling on a business trip or vacation, you can view the recorded lessons and work through everything on your own in order to keep up with the group. Thus, online Hebrew classes have even more opportunities and convenience for successful learning. Everyone who has tried it speaks of an extraordinary feeling of delight from the fact that after the lesson there is no need to go anywhere - just close the window with the online class on the computer and instantly “come back home”.

So let's sum it up:

Independent study of Hebrew is the most time-consuming and slow process, it requires great willpower. Individual lessons with a teacher are very effective, but the cost of lessons from a good and experienced specialist is quite high.
The most effective and at the same time quite economical way is, and studying Hebrew in online courses allows you to save time on the road and enjoy the benefits of modern Internet technologies.