MLC 105 Journal #5

[Shir Bodner]

I have spent a majority of my self directed study in Hebrew by reading, so it has been an extremely influential tool for me in my advancement of the language. Reading has provided me not just with the opportunity to learn new vocabulary, but examples of the context in which I can apply that vocabulary, a cultural background for its use, whether it be political, storytelling, street vocabulary, or military slang etc. and has been a great source of engaging me with the process of learning. Some of the ways in which I have sought to apply what I have learned through my reading and retained the new vocabulary is through creating my own sentences with the new words that I am working on adding to my repertoire. One of the weekly tasks I have assigned myself is keeping up with news briefs in Hebrew. After catching up on the news, I write a summary in Hebrew about the article, my opinion, and my thoughts about the author's perspective. Another way I have challenged myself with understanding not only the written aspect of language but its subliminal messages is by trying to interpret political cartoons. This has been difficult because it requires knowledge of political figures and a political context from an Israeli perspective. Both of these tasks have stimulated my interest in discovering the language and teaching myself how to implement what I am learning.