If you have been keeping up with Jason’s updates here, or on the Patreon, you will notice that he and I have been doing Modern Hebrew together in the 3rd Hour. I thought it might be beneficial for other folks to hear what all we have done and why I started learning modern Hebrew. 

The “Why”s and the “Why Not”

First, let’s talk about why I started learning modern Hebrew. The reasons are fourfold.

1. 1. I wanted to know Biblical Hebrew better. I started learning Biblical Hebrew because of my Christian faith. When I started, I took the formal education route (which you can read more about HERE), but was ultimately dissatisfied with my ability. Through different avenues like Biblingo, The Hebrew Cafe YouTube channel, and a slew of other resources I finally made some headway in gaining fluency in Hebrew. Unfortunately, the community of people who are learning Biblical Hebrew with natural language-learning methods is small (but growing). I wanted to have more opportunity to practice, so it seemed natural to jump to the modern dialect of the language to broaden my community.
   2. It was an easy transition. I had laid all of this ground work learning Biblical Hebrew, and it seemed like an (relatively) easy step to close the gap between the ancient and modern dialects. Looking back from this vantage point, I don’t think I was wrong. I find that the modern dialect is actually easier in some ways. To be clear, the ancient and modern dialects do differ in some substantial ways and there is an initial knowledge gap that I had to bridge. I don’t feel like that bridging process took too long, nor was it too demanding with my Biblical Hebrew background. 
   3. It’s fun! I love learning languages! I have been studying Hebrew (Biblical and Modern), Greek (Ancient), Aramaic (Ancient), German, and most recently Latin. I get a sense of accomplishment from doing it. Plus, it allows me to step into new (or old) places and learn from those contexts. There is also something fun about being able to talk to a particular person or group that others can’t understand. It is like a secret code or an inside joke with your friends.

Continue reading “Why Learn Modern Hebrew?” →

ִApologies for the clickbaity title! I have really enjoyed learning and writing about Second Language Acquisition (SLA) in these blog posts, so I am going to continue to build on one of the concepts from the last one I wrote.  One of the language-learning tasks I mentioned in that previous post was fluency development. When we hear the word “fluency,” most of us think of “complete mastery” of some target language. While anyone who has a complete mastery of a language would in fact be fluent, I am not sure such a person exists. Needless to say, there are a few issues I have with this approach to fluency.

Continue reading “Are you Fluent or a Flunky?” →

The Beginning: 2012-2015

Central to any journey is the motivation to begin. Like many people who study Ancient Hebrew (and Greek), I wanted to learn the scripture better. When I learned that there were other languages behind the English translations, I HAD to find a way to learn them. I loved studying the Bible, and I knew that the languages of the original texts were the gateway to knowing it better. I had taken a particular interest in the Old Testament and then a great fascination with Hebrew was birthed. I am not sure why I preferred the Hebrew Bible, but I definitely did.

College: 2015-2019

Fast Forward to college, I spent my first 2 years of undergrad taking classes about the background and literary features of the Bible, but I still hadn’t learned Hebrew.  Then, my academic advisor (Duane Smith) told me he was going to be teaching Hebrew for the first time since I had been a student at the college, I was STOKED. The following three semesters working though Thomas Lambdin’s Introduction to Biblical Hebrew officially began my journey with Hebrew. Though it was frustrating at times, I managed to make it through Lambdin’s exercises. My last semester of college we didn’t have an official class, but I would occasionally get together with Dr. Smith to read Hebrew together, while I tried to keep up on my own. 

Continue reading “Why I Started This Journey” →

Four Strands of Language-Learning

In the last post, we talked about productive and receptive language skills, but there are more skills involved in language learning than these four. Paul Nation talks about “four strands” of language learning. He labels them: meaning-focused input (receptive skills), meaning-focused output (productive skills), language-focused learning, and fluency development. We have already talked about input and output here. This post, then, will focus on what Nation calls language-focused learning and fluency development. Continue reading “There Is Still More Learning To Do!” →