# Where must I start?



## Baccalaureus

Hello,
I wish to study Hebrew and I am specially interested in Biblical (Masoretic) Hebrew and Modern Hebrew too. I tried to begin a couple of months ago but I was not able to find out the straight way in order to do it. I am a 17 years old autodidact and the languages which I can manage are various (but it is not any advantage, because they are not semitic, but Indo-European languages). 
I have an Accidence of Hebrew Grammar with exercises by Henry Coffey (1918, available from _Google books_) but it deals with Biblical Hebrew. If I finished this sort of course, which I want to do, what might I do to get knowledge of Modern Hebrew so as to be able to speak it?
I make you known I cannot write a Hebrew letter either, i. e., I start *from zero*. 
I have been reading your discussions for a long time and I wanted to know your opinion or your advice to a beginner. 
 Many thanks in advance.


----------



## Erán

¡Hola y bienvenido! 
Veo que eres de España y por eso prefiero contestarte en tu idioma.
Creo que si quieres aprender el hebreo para poder hablarlo, es mejor que busques alguien que te enseñe. Si hay una comunidad judía por donde vives, talvez allá tienen lecciones de hebreo.
Conocí un chico en Ecuador que estudiaba el hebreo moderno usando un libro que tenía las palabras escritas en letras latinas para enseñar como se pronuncian, pero la pronunciación de este chico era muy rara y difícil de entender...  Por eso no te lo recomiendo estudiar así.
¡Suerte!


----------



## Baccalaureus

Hi,
Thank you very much for your advice. I live in a small village and here where I live, unfortunately, there is no -as far as I know- such a Jewish community (or Hebrew speakers). I had said I wished also to learn Masoretic Hebrew. 

Regards

P.S.: Thanks for your effort and consideration. I can see you are learning Spanish. Well, because of there are more English-speakers than those Spanish, I answer you in English.


----------



## tFighterPilot

All in all, you should remember that Hebrew is one of the hardest languages to learn if you're not a native speaker. Learning it can take years, especially if you don't live in Israel.


----------



## Baccalaureus

I am aware of what you've referred to, but I think essential knowing Hebrew culture, and one of the subjects which it includes is the Hebrew language (and I wish to learn both Biblical and Modern Hebrew or Ivrit).
I've downloaded a basic course from the U.S. Foreign Service Institute (Washington D.C.,1965) and its correspondent audio files. 
I cannot post the link here but maybe you already know about which course I am talking about. Might anyone tell me if this course is good (on grammar, pronunciation, &c.)? 

Thanks

P.S.:fsi-language-courses.com/Hebrew.aspx


----------



## tFighterPilot

The problem is that there is no such thing as basic Hebrew.


----------



## scriptum

tFighterPilot said:


> All in all, you should remember that Hebrew is one of the hardest languages to learn if you're not a native speaker. Learning it can take years, especially if you don't live in Israel.


 
Let's not discourage the new learner. In some respects, Hebrew is much easier to study than English; it has much less words than any European language, and its tense system is really very simple. 
Good luck, Baccalaureus!


----------



## Baccalaureus

scriptum said:


> Let's not discourage the new learner. In some respects, Hebrew is much easier to study than English; it has much less words than any European language, and its tense system is really very simple.
> Good luck, Baccalaureus!


Thank you for your advices and encouragement. I don't wish to spin out more this thread. I've decided to start from Modern Hebrew, because I have more on-line resources (such as podcast servers, digital newspapers, magazines, this forum, &c.) and my *last question* is about that course which is offered by the FSI. 
If you've taken a look at it: Might you tell me if it's correct in its oral part, its grammar explanations, methodology, &c., &c.?

Regards


----------



## Erán

I took a brief look at FSI course and I have a few comments.

1. I see that they teach the feminine plural conjugation in the future and imperative - פתחנה, תפתחנה. Although you should be familiar with this conjugation if you want to learn Biblical Hebrew, you should be aware that these conjugations are archaic and you should not use them.  Use the masculine conjugation instead - פתחו, תפתחו.

2. The woman in the recording (I only listened to unit 1) has some foreign accent. I couldn't decide if it's a German or an American accent, but anyway she doesn't sound like a native speaker to me. The guy sounds perfect though.

3. One word that appears in unit 1 that I would like you to be particularly careful about is the word *איך* (how?). The woman in the recording prononces it as *eij* (I use Spanish transcription). You should be aware that native speakers pronounce this word as *ej*, not pronouncing the *i*, although the letter *י* which is paralel to the latin *i* does appear in the word. Pronunciation of the *i* is typical to immigrants from eastern and central Europe, such as our president Mr. Peres who was born in Poland. I prefer that you don't adopt this way of pronunciation. 

4. It's too bad they don't use "nikud" - the points above or below or inside the letters that stand for the vowels. It is optional in Hebrew, but it's much easier for beginners (as well as native speaking children!) to read text with "nikud", because otherwise the vowels in hebrew are often not written.

I do prefer the idea of learning from recordings rather than from a book.

Feel free to ask more questions if you have any doubts.


----------



## Baccalaureus

Erán said:


> I took a brief look at FSI course and I have a few comments.
> 
> 1. I see that they teach the feminine plural conjugation in the future and imperative - פתחנה, תפתחנה. Although you should be familiar with this conjugation if you want to learn Biblical Hebrew, you should be aware that these conjugations are archaic and you should not use them.  Use the masculine conjugation instead - פתחו, תפתחו.
> 
> 2. The woman in the recording (I only listened to unit 1) has some foreign accent. I couldn't decide if it's a German or an American accent, but anyway she doesn't sound like a native speaker to me. The guy sounds perfect though.
> 
> 3. One word that appears in unit 1 that I would like you to be particularly careful about is the word *איך* (how?). The woman in the recording prononces it as *eij* (I use Spanish transcription). You should be aware that native speakers pronounce this word as *ej*, not pronouncing the *i*, although the letter *י* which is paralel to the latin *i* does appear in the word. Pronunciation of the *i* is typical to immigrants from eastern and central Europe, such as our president Mr. Peres who was born in Poland. I prefer that you don't adopt this way of pronunciation.
> 
> 4. It's too bad they don't use "nikud" - the points above or below or inside the letters that stand for the vowels. It is optional in Hebrew, but it's much easier for beginners (as well as native speaking children!) to read text with "nikud", because otherwise the vowels in hebrew are often not written.
> 
> I do prefer the idea of learning from recordings rather than from a book.
> 
> Feel free to ask more questions if you have any doubts.



Thank you very much, Erán. I have noted down what you refer to. I've read some time ago about nikud, the vocal points, not? Well, do you recommend to learn now the alef-bet? How would you recommend to learn it? I want to begin from reading Hebrew letters rather than from transcription and I know it'll take time. I prefer start a regular and systematic study but I've been planning how to organize my study of Hebrew and when I've been looking more carefully the course I realized there's a reader (p. 463). Would it fit well as a first reader?
Regards and thanks again.


P.S.: Don´t answer to the aleph-bet question, I am learning it now. Thanks.


----------



## Erán

It does make some sense to learn to speak a language beore you learn to read and write it. I think it's easier that way, because spelling presents an extra difficulty which you don't have to deal with right at the beginning. I think that's the reason why the FSI course doesn't start with the reader. The alphabet is not the problem, spelling is.

The reader looks fine. I just disagree with the opinion they express about the nikud on page 465. (They translate "nikud" as "vowel points" or "pointing".) Israeli children of the 1st grade start to learn how to read with nikud. IMHO if it's good enough for Israeli children, it is good enough for beginners from foreign countries too. Especially that foreigners do not omit the vowels in their own languages, and will probably have a difficulty with the absence of vowels in Hebrew.

One thing I forgot to mention is that we have 2 types of letters: "dfus" which means "print", and "ktav" which means "hand writing". The FSI course uses only "dfus" letters. If you want to be able to read people's hand writings, you should know the "ktav" letters too. IF you plan to read only printed and online material, you're OK with "dfus" only.


----------



## Baccalaureus

Well, I think it's all what I should know at the moment. I had already  read about Hebrew handwriting letters. Since I'll need to write, I think I need to know those letters but at this time it isn't involving a lot of troubles for me writing "dfus" letters.
I'll ask about my doubts in this forum, as I am advanced in the course.
Thank you very much.
Regards


----------

