The Step by Step Method of Learning Hebrew
Monday, December 29th, 2008Hebrew has 22 letters, all of which are considered consonants. In modern Israeli Hebrew, such as newspapers, vowels are not printed. The reader usually makes out each word without the vowels.
Biblical Hebrew in Torah scrolls is also written without vowels. The Massorites later added the vowels in printed texts to resolve and standardize any differences in pronunciation. An example of a Hebrew vowel is the “Patach”, which looks like a small dash written under a letter. It adds the “AH” sound to that letter.
In the software tutorial “At Home with Hebrew”, letters are taught in pairs. Each lesson teaches a pair of letters, and introduces a new vowels or two. In this way, the student is not overwhelmed with too much information too fast.
So for example, the exercises in the first lesson, if they were in English letters, would have your pronouncing practice syllables like this: BAHBAH BABEH BEHBAH, VAHBAH, BAHVAH, BEHVAH, VEHBAH, BAHB, BAHV.
The second lesson adds to more consonants (Dalet and Gimmel), then the exercises rehearse the two new letters with the vowels from the prior lesson. For example DAH, GAH, DEH, GEH, DAHDAH, GAHGAH, DAHGEH, GAHDEH, DAHD, GAHG, DAHG.
Then, slowly, two more vowels are introduced, for example the CHEEREK, which can be prounced like the “EE” sound. The same letter can then be practiced with the new vowels. For example: DEE, GEE, DAHDEE, DEED.
Finally, toward the end of a lesson, the letters learned previously return, and the exercises now mix up everything that the student knows. Example words might be: BAHBAH, BEED, GEEV, VEEBAH, GABAH, and so on.
When a new letter is introduced, such as the letter “Gimmel”, the program compares that letter to other letters that might be similarly shaped. For example, GIMMEL is similar to VAV, GIMMEL has a boot at the bottom (kind of like the country Italy). The student can see both letters side by side, and the program describes the differences so the student will not be confused.
By the end of the 13th lesson, the student will have learned all 22 letters and all the nikudot (vowels). Even though the student may not know the meaning of a word, he should be able to pronounce any printed Hebrew word. At this point, the student is ready to move on to vocabulary.
