I want to share with you some tips that will help you to learn Hebrew. Number 1- have a small notebook in your pocket. You’ve got to begin to write down the words that are valuable to you…even if you don’t intend to learn them right now! Ideally you should have two sections in your notes, one for those words that you sense/guess are most relevant for you, the other for those words that you hope to learn sometime in the future, but which are not immediately relevant. In a prior blog titled “Learning Hebrew Vocabulary 2” I go into more depth on this concept.
If your goal is to speak Hebrew then you must learn the skill of translating what you hear into the written word. Even if you make a mistake- and those are natural- as time goes on you’ll get better at this. In classes that I teach I never spell words for students, I always ask them “how would you spell it?” I witness every day that students get better at this.
If you’re learning a text and you want to develop Hebrew or Biblical literacy than once again you have to sense/guess what’s a valuable word for you to know or to begin working on. I can’t give you an iron clad rule. In any case once things are written down, you can start to work on your 3 words a day as I explained in the above mentioned blog entry.
It’s going to be really helpful to you if know whether you’re looking at a noun, verb, or adjective. In the upcoming entry I’m going to share with you some of those practical skills.