Hebrew Classes in Bais Ya'akov Highschools - how was it?

amother

Fri, Jul 10 2020, 6:05 am

Your replies will help me with a project I'm working on and are truly very much appreciated
[anonymous to keep my identity on this platform private]

Hi there

1. Did you enjoy the lessons - why or why not? [if your memory still brings up those fun days]
2. Did you graduate with a level of proficiency that satisfies your needs in real life -
were you/are you able to listen, converse, read and write Hebrew or did you just graduate with a perfunctory knowledge of the grammar rules?
3. If you were able to change anything about how you were taught Hebrew what would it be?
4. What is the one thing you wished you learned? a frustration that keeps coming up for you - or that which was a learning curve - when applying your Hebrew lessons to your actual daily life situations.

Looking forward to your responses

amother

Blonde

Fri, Jul 10 2020, 6:35 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

1. No. Didn't understand them enough.
2. No. I don't communicate in Hebrew though I can understand the gist of some conversations.
3. The focus on dry grammar was over the top. Grammar should be incorporated into a focus of speaking and communicating.
4. Classes on practicing Hebrew. The exposure we received to Hebrew, was that was the language that chumush was taught in (and all the other Jewish subjects). The only class that wasn't taught in Hebrew was Halacha. That should clue you in.

High school is too late for this. They expected you to know Hebrew already, and if you weren't proficient, you were out of luck.

Elfrida

Fri, Jul 10 2020, 6:46 am

I didn't go to Beis Ya'akov, but in case this is of any help.

I was taught conversational Hebrew daily, by Israeli teachers. Left with no knowledge of grammar rules (I didn't even know there were seven binyanim, or what that meant), but able to hold a conversation. We learnt to read and write, but the focus was always on speaking.

Fast forward to when I came to Israel. My conversational skills were rusty, and I had forgotten a lot of my vocabulary. But I came in the middle of the intifada, and wanted to know what was happening. So I listened to the radio, and found myself understanding it. That built up my vocabulary so that I could speak, and from there on it was a matter of practice.

Twenty years later my spoken Hebrew in functionally fluent. My reading is competent, though I can't relax with a book in Hebrew the way I can in English. My written hebrew still lags a long way behind. While I have an instinctive understanding of which grammatical form to use, I still have no idea of the grammatical rules behind it.

Speaking, reading, then writing. The same priorities that were taught at school impact my Hebrew thirty years later.

amother

cornflower

Fri, Jul 10 2020, 7:22 am

Less grammar, more conversation.

My high school program had units focused on topics, like taking the bus or going to the grocery store or to the doctor. And we had to memorize words, but also to have conversations. My dd's are learning a lot of grammar, and since it's tedious, there tends to be a lot of repetition. I also like the teachers who are using the now many popular songs that are in Hebrew, and having projects that use Hebrew, like "make a cooking show." And please! Let this be for both classes, not just the lower level that is seen to need the extra engagement.

Also, be careful how you use Israeli children's television. There are ways to use it well, and ways that the students will be gone.

Chayalle

Fri, Jul 10 2020, 9:30 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I went to a BY with an excellent program for Hebrew classes. We had subjects in both Dikduk/grammer and Saffa/language.

I would say the dikduk classes were stronger. And I think that's more important, because we thoroughly studied the structure of the language, which allows for speaking it much more comfortably and fluently. You can always ask someone the right word for an object, as long as you can construct a sentence well.

I had the same dikduk teacher for 4 years of high school. She was an American woman whose family had moved to Israel, and then she moved back here after her marriage. She was fun and engaging. I'm gonna base my answers mostly on her classes.

The Saffa teacher was different from year to year, but one or two years we also had Mrs. Dikduk for Saffa. This class was sometimes lists of words in a particular category (like fruits and veggies, or items in a school/classroom) as well as literary pieces (stories and poems in Hebrew, and writing in Hebrew).

1. I have positive memories of her classes. Probably the fact that I liked dikduk and didn't find it difficult helped. I think she was a great teacher.

2. I spent two years in Israel for seminary/shana bet. I was constantly told by Israelis how well I speak the language. I had an Israeli roommate, and we spent the year brushing up - I spoke Hebrew to her and she corrected me as needed, and she spoke English to me and I helped her along. So yes, I think I was proficient enough to understand, speak, etc...

We had to write all of our test papers in all Hebrew subjects (Chumash, Navi) in Hebrew, in high school I took notes in Hebrew...so I graduated being able to do this.

3. and 4. For a school in the US, I think they did a pretty good job. No particular frustrations.

ETA: I also think the reason the Hebrew instruction was so successful is because it was incorporated into all Hebrew subjects. All teachers taught in Hebrew. When we studied Chumash, Navi, Tehillim, etc...we would break down words in the Pasuk and discuss the subject, the tense, and therefor the meaning of the word. I think this focus is what had us all really learning the language.

Last edited by Chayalle on Fri, Jul 10 2020, 10:54 am; edited 1 time in total

amother

Wheat

Fri, Jul 10 2020, 10:28 am

amother [ Blonde ] wrote:

Did we go to the same by? Mine was the same. I hate dikduk and the saffa classes were a bit of a joke/ hashkafa.
But when I went to sem I was ok in class because I always answered my tests in Hebrew.