Shalom (Hebrew for hello, goodbye, and peace; also the extent of my knowledge of Hebrew) people on the internet.  I bet you all have wanted to learn a second language at one point in your life.  This blog will show my seven week journey to begin learning one of the best languages in my opinion.  This langauge would be the Middle Eastern tongue of Hebrew.  From when I started Middle School, being Jewish, I went to my synagogue, Beth Or, to learn the Hebrew Alphabet.  This would come in handy when reading prayers and eventually the Torah.  That was over two years ago, and I have all but forgotten these skills.  It is time to change that.

The reason I want to learn Hebrew is the ability to speak to a new group of people.  Instead of boring England or America, I can travel to Israel, where they speak Hebrew.  I plan to visit Israel more than once in my life and I would like to talk to people directly, not through a book or a translator.  Who knows?  I might be that translator, you never know.  Also, knowing a different language looks great of college and job aplications.  Hint hint to people taking second language in school.

My plan to learn Hebrew involves two parts.  On even weeks, that is week 2, 4, and 6, I plan to use my Rosetta Stone Hebrew Program.  This teaches me the actual conversation portion of Hebrew.  This will help me in becoming not only fluent, but confident in speaking the language.  On the odd weeks, that is week 1,3, and 5, I will learn the Hebrew.  I will use this great website I found called "Learn the Hebrew Alphabet" by a Jeff A. Benner.  He lays out 11 lessons, in which he teaches all of the 22 letters in Hebrew.  He also teaches about the vowels, which are not letters in Hebrew.  They are extra, and not nessisary, but they make it easier to read.  My last resourse is the Jewish Agency webpage.  This will teach me Israeli culture.  This is important for learning and understanding language. It is also important if you are planing to visit a country.

This an aleph, the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet.  See, I'm learning already! Yay!!

Now, you might be asking yourself, "How will Ian be able to track his progress?   How will he know if he has succeeded?"  I will lay all these questions to rest.  There are three goals I have.  One is to practice four or more times a week.  I have never been able to focus on anything before for that long.  If I can do that, I will have had a personal victory.  The second goal is to have a basic conversation with someone.  I have a friend Jillian, who is fluent in Hebrew.  I plan to record a conversation between us that is in Hebrew.  My last goal is to completely learn and memorize the alphabet.  This will make learning how to read Hebrew light years easier.

This will be a very interesting journey.  I thank you all for support, which I am sure you will give me when you are actually looking at my blog.  So I say again, Shalom.

Use For Citation:

Stone, Rosetta. "Official Rosetta Stone." Official Rosetta Stone®. N.p., 1999. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.

Benner, Jeff A. "Learn the Hebrew Alphabet." Learn the Hebrew Alphabet. N.p., 1999. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.

Israel, Steve. "On Israeli Culture." On Israeli Culture. N.p., 19 July 2005. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.