I never studied a language the way I did this semester. When I learned English and French, I only focused on learning the grammar, pronunciation, and punctuation of the target language. I understand that language defines the culture of a certain country or region. However, I never studied the culture of a target language. To be completely honest, I was skeptical about how studying the culture of Israel, as well as other student’s target cultures, can help my learn Hebrew. By the end of the semester, I understand why it is important to incorporate the culture into language learning.
I always understood the connection between language and culture is very important. Each country has certain words and phrases that are unique to it and differentiates it even from other countries where the same language is spoken. That is only one out of many reasons why it is important to study the culture of the target language.
In addition to learning several tasks in my learning plan, I learned a lot about the Israeli culture through my research and presentations; that is why I encourage continuing the student presentations in SDLC 105. As a sixty year old country, Israel continues its rapid population growth based on immigration. The immigrants continue to arrive to Israel from all over the world, bringing with them values and traditions that together make up the Israeli culture. In addition, the immigrants also brought with them food culture and different accents and mother tongues. Many Israeli citizens speak Hebrew as a second language, including many second generation Israelis.
Immigration also reflects on the language. As spoken Hebrew ceased to exist several centuries ago, the revival of the language in the nineteenth century included the adoption of several words and phrases from other languages, especially Arabic, English, and Russian. I learned through my research that much of the Hebrew grammar is adopted from Arabic, while the letters are adopted from the ancient Aramaic Assyrian.
As far as the language, I started the semester learning how to read and write, in addition to learning important grammar such as verb tenses and possession. I then started with my language tasks on my learning plan. I did not have those tasks planned out well in the beginning. I decided to change the order of my tasks and I removed certain ones that I did not find very useful for my learning purposes. For example, one of my tasks was to learn about soccer. I did not find that task very useful and documenting it would have been difficult too.
I enjoyed making video artifacts using iMovies to document my learning. I found it a good way to show my ability to speak the language as well as learning vocabulary. In addition, I had picture artifacts that I planned to make into movies too, but I was not able to since I did not have enough time. I wish I spent more time on learning Hebrew this semester, especially by going over what I learned before. In languages, it is always important to go over what was learned frequently. However, I only focused on the new learning tasks, which made me forget older things that I learned.
During the second half of the semester, I focused on reading from a children book with my language partner. This enhanced my pronunciation and I am able to recognize verbs based on the conjugation. If I continue learning Hebrew beyond college, I will make sure to study previous tasks and go over words to memorize them. I will also focus more on reading instead of speaking, since I learn faster when I can see the words and sentences written down.
Overall, I think I made great progress in Hebrew, and I look forward to applying what I learned this semester towards language learning in the future.
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