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Friday, June 30, 2017

Learn A Little Hebrew

Problem
I am travelling down in a gondola at a resort in Romania and I ask a couple of ladies what language they are speaking. Hebrew. Alas, I struggle to red Hebrew, despite attempts to learn the alphabet (which is slightly similar to both Greek and Russian).

Answer
However, I have five minutes confined to a cage with them. If they are willing I can learn ten, twenty, even thirty words of common, everyday conversational useful Hebrew.

Story
I decided learning a few words was a great idea. It was too good an opportunity to miss.

Besides, it is much more interesting to engage one or both in a session about language, than for me to stay silent.  I hate standing like an unwanted idiot whilst two strangers converse together in a language which I do not understand.

Here are my results at translating:

Hebrew - English
(ch is a harsh ch sound like Scottish loch, or clearing your throat.)
Arochat boker - breakfast
boker - morning
boker tov - good morning
litrahot - goodbye or see you soon
maher  - hurry
layut-layut - slow down
kamer - how much?
Anglia - English
Ivrit - Hebrew

The Israeli girl told me: "The quickest way to learn a language is to be in the country and hear people speaking the language. If you want to learn Hebrew, volunteer to work on a kibbutz."

I'd heard of working in a kibbutz as a way of earning a free holiday, or learning about life on a kibbutz. Now there's a much better reason. To learn to speak Hebrew.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have written other posts on learning Hebrew,  Greek, Romanian and  RussianPlease read and share links to my other posts.

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