Omer Genosar
Reflection Paper #2
My Hebrew learning has definitely given me a chance to re-connect with my Israeli background. I would definitely look at the Hebrew language and Israeli culture and say that the two are symbiotic; this is mainly due to common sense and geographical reasons. Israel is the only country in the world with a majority Hebrew speakers. That means that as Israeli society develops and grows, so does the Hebrew language. Of course, one might think that Hebrew is not that connected with the State of Israel but with the Jewish people. Yes, Hebrew has been written in the different Judaic sacred texts for thousands of years (I would suggest looking at the Sarajevo Haggadah in the library first floor). I think because of the long use of Hebrew in Judaism, we tend to discount how modern Israel affects the language. In fact, the last (almost) 70 year history of Israel has probably brought upon a larger change in the spoken language than the previous thousand years. The main reason for this is that Hebrew only began to be spoken again at the turn of the 20th Century. Basically what I am trying to say, is that the more spoken Hebrew I absorb and learn, the more of the Israeli culture I am embracing.
That being said, the more I reflect on my language learning the more I begin to see the impact that Israeli culture has. Most of the words that I am missing from my vocabulary are fairly new words (in terms of when they began being spoken) with some having older roots and some having younger roots. Another problem I see that keeps recurring is that when practicing conversations, my main problem is figuring out more complex words. An example of this is if I wanted to say International Studies or hierarchy; instead of saying international studies I can say worldly learning and for hierarchy I could say top to bottom and the meaning is relatively the same. But in order to take my language to another level, I need to know how to really say those words instead of substituting simpler words. This is one of my more important learning goals if I am to move up in my Hebrew speaking and be able to sound truly native to the language.
Before I began the class, I thought that I would focus on reading and writing. Since I have started class, I have focused much more on being able to speak what I think and do complex tasks such as analyzing and summarizing articles. I thought that these tasks would induce my reading skills, and while they have done that, I find that what has grown is my ability to turn my thoughts into words. This has probably been my main motivation for taking this class. Being able to discuss my thoughts and feelings with my family or another Israeli has been my main goal and I feel as though that goal is getting closer and closer to being achieved. In retrospect, spending a few weeks in Israel would do much more for my speaking skills than any class, but this class has really allowed me to hone in translating thoughts into words.
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