Last week was my host brother Michael's birthday. Let me tell you a little bit about Mike. He is a former Communications Officer in the IDF, mainly organizing hundreds of troops during moves in between bases. He now is on his last semester of University, studying programing and is supposed to be finished with his studies in about two weeks. For the majority of the time that ive been in Israel, he has been stuck in his apartment in Be'er Sheva coding for his final project. But last weekend, he came home. In the time I get to see him, he tries to help me with my Hebrew. Every now and then he slips a work of Hebrew into an English sentence and asks me if I know what he said. Most of the time, through context, I understand the general meaning but not the exact word.
His birthday plans were as follows: sit in the backyard with a bottle of his favorite liquor and a handful of his closest friends discussing random shit that wouldn't appeal to anyone but these geverim. Topics ranging from funny army stories to problems with stingy roommates and the future of the movie industry.
Now what language do you think these friends spoke around the table? If you thought English, you were wrong. Although the majority of Israelis speaks English, the priority is obviously Hebrew. As I started to become more and more a part of this friend group over the past few months, the frequency of English around the table has dropped to nearly zero. At the beginning I noticed that I could not understand a thing. But as we sat more and more, I began to understand what the conversations were about. I can only speak about 10 words of Hebrew, but I can understand hours and hours worth of conversation. HOW?
Re-read the title of this blog
So what is the answer? A sponge. Thats right, I feel like a sponge, soaking wet, waiting to be drained all over Israel.
It all goes back to 5th grade when I was learning Spanish. My teacher, the first day did not speak a word of English to us. At the end of the class, he said that the best way to learn is to immerse yourself in a language and start to think in that language without translating it to a language you already know. 10 years later, I am trying out his theory and it seems to be working.
I hear it everywhere and subconsciously have been taking it in. It would take a lot of skill to avoid Hebrew here on a daily basis. As with any language, it consists of much more than just words. Immersing yourself is great when you have a foundation of vocabulary, but for now, all it is is repeating patterns, changing tones, and a representation of a history that can be heard in every word.
I am patiently waiting for my Ulpan course (Learning Hebrew) in the army to give me that foundation of vocabulary in context so I can drain everything that is in my sponge without thinking about it.
My favorite part about soaking up Hebrew like a sponge is Spongebob in Hebrew.
Gud Shabbos!
7/1/2016