[img]96|left|||no_popup[/img] Dateline Jerusalem — When I moved to Israel, I was told I probably never would be proficient in the Hebrew language. In fact, statistics show that 75 percent of the people over 40 who go to a language school (ulpan) 5hours a day, 5 days a week, for 5 months, will be illiterate after their graduation.
I am learning the language on my own. What is lower than illiteracy? Idiocy. That is my level.
In addition to the stickers of words pasted all over my apartment, listening to Hebrew CDs, and having dictionaries and language books in every room, I decided to try a new method of learning.
I have been trying word-association. For example, the word “machar” means tomorrow in Hebrew.
In Yiddish, a “macher” is a person who can get things done. Therefore, I am able to remember the word by thinking that a person who gets things accomplished is a person with a future, and tomorrow is the future.
So, a “macher” is a person of “machar.” Okay, I realize that is really convoluted and ridiculous. But it helps!
Or, the word for night is laila (pronounced lie-la ). What do people do at night?
They “lie” down in bed.
It All Depends on How Good You Are
The major problem I have is that I never have been good at word association. Once, in law school, I tried to remember certain terms using word association for an exam. I remembered the associations and totally forgot the terms associated with them.
My latest attempt at learning the Hebrew language is to learn the meanings of the names of major Israeli cities and neighborhoods.
For example, since Tel Aviv means spring hill and ramat gan means garden heights, ramat aviv means spring heights. Gan means garden, ganei means gardens and emek means valley.
Ganei hadar means citrus gardens and emek hahadarim means citrus valley. Migdal HaEmek means tower of the valley. Not only does tel mean hill, but so does givat. Therefore, givat hatzabor is cactus hill, givat hator is turtledove's hill, givat Shaul is Saul's hill.
Everything with “beit” means house, so Beit Shemesh means house of the sun, Beit She'an means house of tranquility, Beit Oved means house of work. Kiryat means town, so Kiryat Sefer is book town, Kiryat Shmona is town of the eight, Kiryat Arba is town of the four. Yam means sea. So Yam Ha Melech is sea of salt (the Dead Sea), Bat Yam is daughter of the sea, or mermaid, and therefore Kiryat Yam is sea town. Am I getting good at this or what.
Some other cities you might have heard of: Neve Tzedek (oasis of justice), Kfar Saba (grandfather's village), Ir David (City of David), Rosh HaAyin (fountainhead) or the holiday Rosh HaShana (head of the year), Rishon Le Tziyon (first to Zion), Rehovot (wide open spaces or streets), Ra'anana (fresh), Petach Tikva (opening of hope) or the national anthem of HaTikva (the hope), Or Yehuda (Judah's light), Nes Tziyona (miracle of Zion), Modiin (information), Bnei Brak (sons of lightning), Beer Sheba (seven wells), Har Nof (scenic mountains), Meah Shaarim (one hundred gates), and Sderot (boulevards).
This week I took a taxi and was actually able to ask the cost (Kama zeh oleh?), understand the answer, respond okay (beseder), and give directions on where to turn, to the right is “yamina” and to the left is “smola., Of course, my pronunciation was so bad that the taxi driver knew I was not a native and then started speaking to me in English.
When asked about how I drink my coffee, I say “Shachor le Shachar” (black for Dawn), and everyone laughs.
L'hitraot, Shachar
Shachar is the Hebrew name of a California-based attorney and former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy who moved to Israel last year.
