Zach Gottlieb's Posts

A bit of culture

Posted by Zach Gottlieb on February 25, 2010 at 4:09pm

Last week,I attended a Hillel sponsored lunch & learn with Neil Lazarus, a well known expert on communications specializing in mass media and Israel. The talk centered on the Israeli military action in Gaza in early 2009 and the way that the media portrayed. The general idea behind his talk was that people's perspective on the situation is determined almost exclusively by the exact way that the media wants to portray whatever it is that they are presenting, rather than actually allowing the viewer to gather facts and make their own conclusion on their own. Mr. Lazarus then showed us a video to illustrate this phenomenon (link provided below).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47LCLoidJh4

The general point that he made was that as the video says it is easy to miss something that you are not looking for, or furthermore, that isn't even shown. Essentially his whole point was that we cannot allow ourselves or others to make decisions about the Israeli situation or other situations without trying to gather as many facts as possible.

some things i've done

Posted by Zach Gottlieb on February 25, 2010 at 3:59pm

so far the resources that i have used have been rosetta stone and the eurotalk CD, both of which seem to be helping me. The Eurotalk especially is very good as it emphasizes repetition and i plan on using much more of it in the coming weeks. Also, as spring break is approaching i will look for resources that i can use while home for the break. Hopefully i will be able to find something that allows me to continue to grow my vocabulary and also helps me with comprehension as well.

Here we go...

Posted by Zach Gottlieb on January 20, 2010 at 7:30pm

So I'm trying to learn Hebrew...finally...The first thing that I need to think about when looking at my past language learning experience would have to be 6th grade. I was in a French class in school that was probably the worst taught class ever. The teacher would walk in, turn off the lights, put Muzzy in the VCR, and it play. I know about 3 and a half words in French.The next year I began taking Spanish and was fairly quick in picking up the language, as we had an excellent teacher who taught his class in an immersion environment which enable me to excel. I also enjoyed Spanish and would take classes and travel to Spanish speak countries as often as I could. The time when I had the most growth in my Spanish ability was the two weeks I spent in Cadiz, Spain after my sophomore year of high school, where the complete immersion in the language (living with a family that spoke no English, living in a city that spoke little English, etc.) was crucial to my further development. I still speak Spanish periodically, though rust has definitely set in.After taking the two learner evaluation tests suggested, the learning styles that stood out the most for me were bodily/kinesthetic and logical. For learning a language I think that the bodily/kinesthetic will be the most effective considering both the tests and my previous language experiences, particularly spending time in Spain. One result of the tests that particularly drew my interest was the idea that I do not do well with aural learning. This definitely makes sense as I have some Hebrew songs on my iPod by HaDag Nachash and have barely been able to pick up a few words from them.