Learning Hebrew - tips and course choices for absolute beginners, intermediate, advanced, teachers, travellers, polyglots, linguists, and bible readers

Duolingo

I always start a language on duolingo. In some languages, it starts with a statistic on how many learn the language, and the countries and why to learn on the sign up page. Then it fowllows with a guide at the start, which you can find again in the index on the left of your screen on a laptop attached to a desktop screen.

Hebrew

A search for the word Hebrew brings up Hebrewpod101 which seems to go quickly into groups of useful words. I assumed that this was a uniquely Hebrew website. I later realised that they are a system like Duolingo and offer many other languages including those with chalenging alphabets, such as Hindi.

Plurals in Hebrew

Back to the subject of Hebrew - I already knew that plurals end in im , as in the English word seraphim. The Hebrew plural for cherub would be cherubs in English, cherubim in Hebrew. 

If you want to meet other teachers and learners, I jointly run a Toastmasters Internationa speakers' training group, named LILT, for languages for interest, learning and travel.

It is every Sunday, lunchtimes in London and mid evening in Singapore. We have a whats app group. I know the correct spelling but am separating the words in case here or elsewhere some media deletes posts advertising a rival system.

 Contact me or Carolyn Street. You can message both of us on Face book. I, 

Angela Lansbury

Angela Lansbury, am a teacher of beginner to advanced English and French and beginner any language. I have been a home tutor for years, the longest in London in the UK (but also lived in the USA and as a travel writer many other English speaking countries so know vocabulary for the USA well as I lived there about two years. I am an aspiring polyglot. 

Carolyn was a teacher of French and German at a Singapore. She has been the Language Evaluator, sometimes called Grammarian, at Toastmasters International clubs for years.

Regarding costs, on both Duolingo and the pod system I have been able to sign up for a starter course in several languages. They hope you will later join the advanced paid for course, which might be worthwhile once you have made good progress on their system and are confident that you will make even more progress on the second system. 

for the benefit of LILT, which starts a new language every month, running alphabettically, Hevbrew in January 2023, Hindi in February 2024, 

 Useful websites

duolingo

https://www.hebrewpod101.com/

Hebrew Alphabet Flashcards, 

one letter per card

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Briston-Biblical-Languages/dp/B08FBJB6D5?th=1

Let's Look At Tamil - three easy words, mother, father and you

 

The writing is so pretty. But so complicated. How about a couple of easy words. The Duolingo course was not yet available in January 2021 so I looked at Memrise. Tamil has specific singular words for older brother and other concepts where English uses two words, but I wanted to remember just the most basic words which are used most often.

English - Tamil

mother - amma

father - appa

you - nee

Tamil - English

amma - mother

appa - father

nee - you

The words for mother and father are similar to so many other languages. 

English - mum/mummy. American - Mom/mammy . Pop. Latin - mater. pater. Hebrew ima - mother.  Papa. Mama.

Nee for you is the same as Mandarin Chinese, where a popular greeting is ni hao, literally you good.

Useful Websites

https://app.memrise.com/course/80049/100-tamil-words/1/

Useful book

Foreign Workers and Domestic helpers Language guide, published by Mighty Minds. Sold in Singapore at Mustapha's department store near Little India, and in Popular Bookshop which has several branches including one near the National Library.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, teacher of English and other languages, language evaluator at toastmasters International. Workshops on the English language and business English.. 

Learning Hebrew Memory Aids Four easy to remember words in Hebrew

 I was looking for memory aids in Wikipedia and found this handy advice for learning Hebrew words:

From Wiki

...

For foreign-language acquisition

Mnemonics may be helpful in learning foreign languages, for example by transposing difficult foreign words with words in a language the learner knows already, also called "cognates" which are very common in the Spanish language. 

A useful such technique is to find linkwords, words that have the same pronunciation in a known language as the target word, and associate them visually or auditorially with the target word.

For example, in trying to assist the learner to remember ohel (אוהל‎), the Hebrew word for tent, the linguist Ghil'ad Zuckermann proposes the memorable sentence "Oh hell, there's a raccoon in my tent".^[20] 

The memorable sentence "There's a fork in Ma's leg" helps the learner remember that the Hebrew word for fork is mazleg (מזלג‎).^[21] 

Similarly, to remember the Hebrew word bayit (בית‎), meaning house, one can use the sentence "that's a lovely house, I'd like to buy it."^[21] 

...

I have just made up one for the Hebrew word for boy, which is yeled. The boy yelled at the educator, yel-ed. 

English - Hebrew

boy - yeled

fork - mazleg

house - bayit

tent - ohel

Hebrew - English

bayit - house

mazleg - fork

ohel - tent

yeled - boy

Useful Websites

duolingo.com Hebrew

translate google English - Hebrew Hebrew-English

If you are not sure if a word is Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Russian, whatever, type in Detect language-English.

Wikipedia article on mnemonics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonic

About The Author

Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and a travel writer and photographer.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Translate For Fun - Hotel de Ville in France

After WW2 French was once of the most popular languages. In earlier times is it was German.

GERMAN

My father learned basic German at school. 

FRANCE

 I earnestly learned to sing Frere Jacques in primary school but that was not much help to us when we wanted to find a hotel in France. Frustration In France My first experience of misunderstanding languages, nowadays called Lost In Translation, was when my parents took a trip from England to Northern France by car. We drove around looking for a hotel. 

 The Word Hotel The word hotel is the same in English and French, and most of the world. Even in Japanese it is h o t e r u. (The Asians have difficulty saying the letter L.) So, in France, where the letters for hotel are identical (never mind the added accent in French) what could possibly go wrong? 

 Hotel De Ville In the centre of the town was a big sign on a large building: Hotel de Ville. it was a large place, and we feared it might be expensive, but first chance to ask somebody for help. The lights in the building were blazing but the light in the sky was fading, time to stop for dinner and find a bedroom. 

So we drove around hoping to find an entrance, with all the innocent expectation of British tourists abroad. The Hotel De Ville Had Shut Unfortunately, by the time we found the entrance, the lights had all turned off. The sign was lit but the gates were locked. Why? Was there another entrance? Had the place gone out of business? Were the lights simply to deter burglars? 

 Eventually we found a passer-by who spoke some English. They directed us around the corner to a nearby hotel. When we reached our small hotel, we asked why the Hotel de Ville was closed. 

The receptionist burst out laughing. Why? 

The Town Hall 

Hotel de Ville means town hall. 

Eventually we unpacked, found our dictionary and looked up hotel de ville. Then we started laughing. Hotel de Ville is town hall. I now watch out for words which sound similar. Are they really the same? 

If so, that's easy. I love translating: - The ingredients on chocolate bars, wine labels. - On the coach or bus or car or train, sign posts on motorways in foreign cities, graffiti. - Speeches of thanks, and toasts, at a wedding. - Newspaper headlines in supermarkets and airport lounges.

 I love stories of disasters from misunderstandings. In the last year I have been learning or learning about (alphabetically): American English Australian and New Zealand English Arabic Chinese (Mandarin) French German Greek Hebrew Indonesian Italian Romanian Russian S i n g l i s h (spaced to correct the autocorrect which inserted signalise) South African English Spanish Swedish Tamil Welsh Yiddish Borrowed Words In English I also list words in English which are derived from other languages. 

For example, yacht is Dutch. Safari is Swahili. 

 Translating French I have translated French into English at conferences and press trips in France and India. I start with fluent French, French A level. I have translated English into French for packaging - then got asked to translate the same material into Spanish and German when mockups were needed in a hurry for a presentation and no other translator could be found quickly. 

 Teaching English 

I have taught English language and literature, first in a Grammar School in England, later English language and literature as a home tutor, then to foreign parents and schoolchildren, singles and groups, ages ranging from five year old Japanese children sitting beside mother or on her lap, Sri Lankans, and intermediate English in four schools in Singapore, plus volunteering in a Singapore state secondary school coaching pupils to pass English O Level. 

 Speeches 

I visit Toastmasters International speakers' groups in Europe and Asia, speaking, training speakers, and judging speech contests. Singapore has several bilingual clubs.

Duolingo

I have been learning other languages on Duolingo, by watching foreign language films with subtitles, translating. I hope you will enjoy my posts and find them a help in learning languages and adding new words to your vocabulary, just for fun. 

 Every restaurant outing is a language trip. I pick up the takeaway menu and business card to translate. I listen to the waiters calling to each other.

 I sit in the sauna at a gym or club and ask other people about their language, their second language and what they find difficult or easy about pronouncing and speaking and learning English. Learning languages is a daily joy for me and I hope you will find my posts on language a daily amusement.

 Helpful Websites 

TRANSLATION

google translate 

translate Google

duolingo.com (free) 

 CDs Earworms: I have French, Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish. You can buy one disc or two, new or secondhand from Ebay. If buying secondhand, make sure your disc comes with the booklet. 

About the Author

 Angela Lansbury, language teacher.

Please share links to your favourite blogs and individual posts.