Tonight I went to Kikar Rabin, the central square in Tel Aviv, and watched the annual Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) ceremony. It was quite moving.
I'd heard for years about the sirens and how they're played only three times a year: Holocaust Day, the night before Memorial Day and the morning of Memorial Day. As the sirens wail the country comes to a complete standstill and everyone is quiet for a minute. In a land that never stops and people that don't have patience for anything, witnessing 100,000 people shutting up and stopping is very meaningful and illustrates the importance of the moment.
The ceremony itself was beautiful. The army and deaths caused by defending the country are a constant part of life here (this is something that I will one day write a much longer piece about) and everyone knows someone personally or knows someone who knows someone that was killed in a war or in a terror attack. The ceremony was a mix of videos, speeches and live music. I appreciated the videos the most. Each video was of a surviving family member of someone that was killed defending the country in the many wars over the last 60 years. The one that touched me the most was a mother talking about her son who was killed on March 1, 2008. That's only two months ago and serves as a reminder of the situation we're in here and how defending our country is always on the mind.
On Thursday, Israel will celebrate its 60th birthday and I plan to take part fully in the celebrations all weekend long:-)
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
Trouble learning Hebrew in the Holy Land
Here I am 10 months after I made aliyah and my Hebrew is only kacha-kacha (so-so). Before I came to Israel I established that my number one goal was to learn the language. If I had to give myself a grade on my progress with the language, it'd be a C-.
If learning the language is so important to me then why is it so hard to do? There are many factors that contribute to this, although I still feel like I'm simply making excuses. Israel is a Hebrew based culture, but has a very strong English component to its nature. Having met people from all over the world throughout my life, I'd say Israelis rank as one of the highest levels as a collective group with English as a second language, behind the Dutch and on par with the Germans. Israelis learn English from age 8 (used to be 10) and must pass a somewhat difficult language exam in order to graduate from high school.
Also, English is everywhere! Half the television ads are in English, many written ones are as well. Products are marketed and branded with English tag lines, just the same as stores. The big Israeli clothing stores are named Golf, Zara, Fox and Castro, just to name a few. People relish tv series from the US and Israelis are accustomed to reading their tv via subtitles and listening to the English programming. (side note: I've met dozens of Israeli girls who have a decent grasp of Spanish simply from watching the telenovelas, Spanish soap operas!) As has been popular for decades, English music and movies are everywhere.
So, basically, you can live here without speaking the language. The problem I'm forced to confront is that pretty much everyone my age speaks my native tongue far better than I speak theirs. Also, many people want to practice their language skills with you and try only to speak English.
There is only one way for me to thrive in learning Hebrew and that is to insist to speak only Hebrew and by putting myself in situations where I can listen to Hebrew. I am trying to watch more Israeli tv now and involve myself in activities where I speak or listen to Hebrew. Working all day in English does not help with this process, but I've got a great job so I'm not complaining.
I have a new goal for myself and that is to be fully fluent in a year's time. I think it is an achievable goal and one that I will have to devise some sort of reward/punishment for my progress (or lack thereof). For now, I fool people with my accent (it's better than my vocabulary) and they think that I speak more than I do :-) I do realize, however, if I don't master the language, I'm only fooling myself and I'm determined not to let this happen. Learning Hebrew is a greater challenge than I originally thought it would be, but it's time to say "Bring it on!"
If learning the language is so important to me then why is it so hard to do? There are many factors that contribute to this, although I still feel like I'm simply making excuses. Israel is a Hebrew based culture, but has a very strong English component to its nature. Having met people from all over the world throughout my life, I'd say Israelis rank as one of the highest levels as a collective group with English as a second language, behind the Dutch and on par with the Germans. Israelis learn English from age 8 (used to be 10) and must pass a somewhat difficult language exam in order to graduate from high school.
Also, English is everywhere! Half the television ads are in English, many written ones are as well. Products are marketed and branded with English tag lines, just the same as stores. The big Israeli clothing stores are named Golf, Zara, Fox and Castro, just to name a few. People relish tv series from the US and Israelis are accustomed to reading their tv via subtitles and listening to the English programming. (side note: I've met dozens of Israeli girls who have a decent grasp of Spanish simply from watching the telenovelas, Spanish soap operas!) As has been popular for decades, English music and movies are everywhere.
So, basically, you can live here without speaking the language. The problem I'm forced to confront is that pretty much everyone my age speaks my native tongue far better than I speak theirs. Also, many people want to practice their language skills with you and try only to speak English.
There is only one way for me to thrive in learning Hebrew and that is to insist to speak only Hebrew and by putting myself in situations where I can listen to Hebrew. I am trying to watch more Israeli tv now and involve myself in activities where I speak or listen to Hebrew. Working all day in English does not help with this process, but I've got a great job so I'm not complaining.
I have a new goal for myself and that is to be fully fluent in a year's time. I think it is an achievable goal and one that I will have to devise some sort of reward/punishment for my progress (or lack thereof). For now, I fool people with my accent (it's better than my vocabulary) and they think that I speak more than I do :-) I do realize, however, if I don't master the language, I'm only fooling myself and I'm determined not to let this happen. Learning Hebrew is a greater challenge than I originally thought it would be, but it's time to say "Bring it on!"
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