Know Magic

by Neal Walters In 1990, I was planning a trip to Israel, but it got postponed due to Desert Storm and the Gulf War. I finally go on a tour trip of Israel in 1996. But in the late 80s, in Oklahoma, before the internet, how does one begin to learn Hebrew? That was in the dark ages before internet. Audio Forum had a language catalog, and I learned about the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) courses. These courses were created by the US government, and used to teach either military or diplomats. The cassette tapes that came with FSI were useful, but the book lacked a lot. It was designed by the government for an instructor to use in a classroom environment, NOT for an individual to use for self study. Even today, I have never gone back to complete that book. Eventually, on a business trip, I visited one of the Borders book stores, which were all huge and new at the time. I found a “reader”, a book that teaches the alphabet, and had lots of practice exercises, where the student tries to read pages and pages of syllables and words. I began learning more and more prayer book Hebrew by attending synagogue. Each week, certain tunes would stick in my mind, and I would go home and try to learn the words to go with the tune. Music and singing definitely helps with the memorization. I used Menahem Mansoor’s “Biblical Hebrew: Step by Step” to get an introduction to Biblical Hebrew. A few years later, a friend taught Biblical Hebrew to a small group using Jacob Weingreen’s “A Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew”. This is a very serious book, which we finished a couple of years later, doing one lesson every week or two. For Modern Hebrew, I remember using “Hugo Language Course: Hebrew in Three Months” and also Eliezar Tirkel’s “Every Hebrew”. Both came with a book and 3 or 4 cassettes. I like the Hugo course slightly better. A few years ago, I signed-up for two semesters of an online Hebrew course offered by Boston’s Hebrew College. The textbook was “Hebrew From Scratch - Part II” (with 5 CDs available). There was a lot of homework required, and we met with our teacher online each week for practicing conversation. Later, I took classes in Aggadic Literature and Talmud, which introduced Medieval Hebrew and Aramaic. Learning Hebrew can be very rewarding. I still can’t speak it as well as I would like, but the journey is still on going. Teaching Hebrew to others is one or the best ways to continue learning the language. Neal Walters now creates more direct paths to learning Hebrew. You can learn Hebrew faster with his courses at http://HebrewResources.com. This and other unique content learn hebrew articles are available with free reprint rights.