Ulpan

Today ended my first week of ulpan, the two months of intensive Hebrew that come before a semester--or a year--at Hebrew University. I'm really bad at leanguages so I've been joking for a while about it being "two months of torture," but it really isn't bad. In a way, it feels more like CTY camp than actual school. We're in one class for four hours a day, and then we're free. The only difference is that here they give us homework, whereas homework wasn't allowed at CTY.

My class is small, hovering around fifteen people, but I'm amazed at the range of students we have. At least half of the students are older, in their thirties or higher. We have students from Holland, Spain, France, Germany, and a couples places that I don't remember. It's interesting because it means that Hebrew really is our common language; although most of us can speak English, at least one girl can't. It's also a nice break from being around some of my fellow students who are making good use of the fact that the drinking age here is 18. Julia, a 31-year-old German woman, is my first friend here.

Surprisingly, I'm not drowning in my Hebrew class. I have to wonder whether I should be in level gimel (3) instead of level bet (2)--where I placed after forgetting four years worth of barely-learned Hebrew last year--but I like not feeling lost all the time. I may know most of the grammatical concepts we're doing, but I don't think I have enough vocabulary to survive level gimel right now. I do think I'm learning something, though, even if this probably isn't the right level for me. There's a big difference between a Hebrew class where speaking English is allowed and one where there's only Hebrew. We're not memorizing vocabulary based on translation; we're learning it by concept. I think it may actually stick this way, so I'm reluctant to even put words on flash cards as I normally do.

The worst thing about being in level bet is knowing that I will never be able to take a class in Hebrew. You have to be in level hey (5) or vav (6) to do that, and even with ulpan and two semesters in Israel, I won't be able to get that far. There's a class on Israeli children's literature during the spring semester; maybe I can convince the teacher to make an exception. Children's literature's got to be in easy Hebrew, right?