Cultural Post 1

[David R. Stevens]

I am interested in learning Hebrew because I have plans to study abroad in Israel.   I grew up learning the Hebrew alphabet and Jewish prayers in Hebrew.   I learned to pronounce the language fairly well in Middle School, but I was never interested in actually understanding the words I was reading, because there was always an English translation nearby.  Now, I want to be able to learn Hebrew vocabulary as I learn to speak in Hebrew.   This semester I hope to get a broad picture of Hebrew in General and create a wide foundation and slowly strengthen that knowledge.   However, in addition to  learning the language, I am very interested in learning more about the culture where I will be spending eight months of my life.   I do not want to accidentally offend someone by doing something or not doing something.   Last month I spent ten days in Israel and I feel as though I only got to know the very edge of the iceberg of Israeli culture.   My end goal of this semester is to be able to carry on a short conversation about a variety of topics and be able to write simple sentences about a plethora of subjects from food to medicine and health.