Ulpan Aleph Bet

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love speaking in other languages. I've always been a huge proponent of expanding one's horizons and boundaries through learning a second (or third) language. Since I started learning Spanish when I was 15, it has been a passion of mine and I speak it whenever I get a chance. I want to give a shout out to the greatest Spanish teacher in the entire world, Senora Clarissa Adams-Fletcher. Check out her page.

Back to the theme of "Why I made aliyah?": a huge reason was to learn Hebrew and really know and understand the language. Living in Israel is great, but it will be even better when I can read, write and speak Hebrew fluently.

Where does one go to learn Hebrew you ask? Well, ulpan. Ulpan is a time-tested method to teach Hebrew quickly. It is an intensive studies program that typically lasts 5 months. The levels range from beginner (aleph) to much higher levels (dalet, hey). I love ulpan! I am in a beginner's class (kita aleph) and study five days a week, *Sunday - Thursday. *(The Israeli work week runs Sun-Thurs. This deserves an entire post of its own and will be written soon:).

This is how a typical day begins for me: I wake up, get dressed and head over to the delicious bakery which just happens to be on my block. I get some rugala for me and my friends (see picture from previous post) and head off to class. Class runs from 8:15-1:00 with two breaks.

The ulpan itself is represented by dozens of countries and languages. The most common languages heard are Russian, French, English, Portuguese, Spanish and several others. Breaks are definitely one of my favorite parts of the day because I get a chance to talk to so many different people who are here for so many different reasons. Some are new olim (immigrants) like me, although many are not. Some are here studying for a few months, here for work, and more. I've met several girls who moved here to be with their Israeli boyfriends who they met when the Israelis were on a trip in their country. Many people at ulpan are Jewish, many are not. It is quite the eclectic mix.

Whoops! Almost forgot to write about the class itself. I have another great language teacher, Ayelet. In Israel, teachers are only called by their first names, at all levels of education, from elementary school through university. Ayelet pushes us to really absorb the language and to try and not think in our native languages. I've only been in ulpan for less than two months, but yesterday when I read a whole paragraph in Hebrew without vowels and understood it, I felt pretty good. Also, I'm following Hebrew conversations fairly well and it's only a matter of time before my big mouth gets to participate in 'em.

This makes blog post number 2. Some people have complained that I took too long to post this one. I'll try and write this weekend (which starts tomorrow night!)