I will meet with my language partner for the first time this coming Tuesday. Unfortunately the times didn't work out so this is the earliest meeting available, but I have taken this weekend to do my own preparations to make the meeting easier and more effective for me and my partner. For the first couple weeks what I hope to focus on is basic phrases and pronunciation, because I feel like I will be more motivated to continue with the language if I feel like I already have some ability to just speak. Also, I want to impress my dad over the phone with what I can say, and I hope to understand whatever inane cursing he yells back. To that end I have been splitting my preparation time between the app Drops and various sources online that list common and useful Hebrew phrases, such as "how are you?" and "im good, thanks." One of the questions I plan on asking my language partner is if these phrases that I have reviewed actually see much use in Israel. I know from seeing some ESL textbooks that the English they teach kids first learning the language can come off stilted and awkward if said in an informal context. I guess the reasoning is that its better to be accidentally formal in an unfamiliar situation rather than accidentally informal with people you shouldn't be casual with, but since I will most only be talking with my father and my friends for the time being I would rather learn to speak like a native 21 year old - for instance, saying whats up as a greeting and not expecting an answer I think is a good example of a native American habit that might seem odd to foreigners even if they speak excellent English. I hope my language partner will be able to help with those kind of questions.
On Drops the first chapter is all about food. I think that is a pretty good category overall because it contains words that you will always need to use regardless of who you are. So far I have learned words like lechem (bread), maraq (soup), mazleg and kaf (fork and spoon), and the very difficult to pronounce aruchat boqer (breakfast) and perot (fruits). What makes these quite difficult is the ch and r sound in Hebrew that are pretty distinct to how how we say things in English. The ch is a gargling sound from the back of the throat, and though I can make the sound I have trouble doing it consistently. It helps if I have recently taken a drink of water or a smoothie or something though. What makes aruchat particularly difficult is that you must slide into the ch from a vowel sound, u. It is a tricky word to make sound natural but I think I am making progress. The r is more like the french r I believe, and I have no hope of doing this correctly as of now. Hopefully by my next journal I will be doing better!
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