The second half of the semester has gone well. I think that both Emily and I have figured out what type of work we want to do in regards to Hebrew. I noticed that last semester I didn't do as good of a job working on talking/speaking and pronunciation, so that is something that Emily and I have tried to work on a lot. I am getting really good at spelling, which was one of my goals. I can pretty much guess the spelling for any word in Hebrew - that is a huge accomplishment for me!
I also have become more culturally proficient. What I mean by this is I have gained an ability, I believe, to understand the Israeli culture more than I did before. Through projects such as my cultural project on food, and research on some of the attitudes in Israel that I will post about in my cultural post, I feel more connected to the cultures that speak Hebrew.
I am impressed with my reading skills. I have become very good at reading and I rarely make pronunciation mistakes anymore. I am not sure if this is from just having more than one semester under my belt, or having a background in reading Hebrew from all my years of Hebrew school, but this feels really important. I feel that you can't speak if you don't know how to read, just as I believe that in English, your vocabulary is greatly improved by an ability to be able to read and digest a lot of information. I think it works the same in Hebrew and I am proud of myself for continuing to read and translate.
This has been a tough semester for me, I have been sick a lot and in the hospital 3 different times. I have tried to keep up as best as I can with Hebrew but I think the speaking is what has suffered the most. Even when I am sick, it is easy to look over flashcards and vocabulary, but it is harder to meet with Emily (we have obviously still been meeting) and talk about pronunciation and work on speaking proficiency.
Finally, I think that I have just become a lot more comfortable with the language. I feel that I have more confidence in speaking, reading and writing and my ability to be comfortable in Israel or another place where Hebrew was spoken (ie a city in America or another country). This was my main goal, to be able to be confident in myself and my Hebrew abilities. I feel that I have reached that! It feels good.
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