Overview of the Hebrew Basic Course

The Hebrew Basic Course is designed to teach spoken and written modern Hebrew that is the ordinary, informal speech of educated native Israelis. It is not intended as a text for the study of the Old Testament or other Hebrew literature.

The course starts by training students in the sounds and pronunciation of Hebrew. From the start the Hebrew spelling is placed alongside written transcripts designed to help you to listen. Subsequent lessons incorporate guided imitation, repetition, memorization, pattern and response drills, and conversation. Other drills include vocabulary and verb, substitution, substitution-agreement, expansion, transformation, and translation.

Preface

Hebrew Basic Course was produced by the Foreign Service Institute with the support of the Office of Education, Department of Health, Education and Welfare, under the National Defense Education Act.

In its present form, the course is based on classroom experiences with Government personnel whose duties require a knowledge of spoken Hebrew. It is designed to provide material sufficient to enable the student to obtain minimum professional competence both in speaking and in reading modern Hebrew.

The linguist in charge of the project was Joseph A. Reif, Scientific Linguist on the staff of the Department of Near Eastern and African Languages. The Hebrew material was principally written by Mrs. Hanna Levison, language instructor. Tape recordings were made in the FSI language laboratory, under the direction of Mr. Gary Alley, by Mrs. Levinson, Mr. Menachem Dov Heller, & Mrs. Rivka Behiri, language instructors. The illustrations were drawn and contributed by Mr. Irving Bernstein of New York.

Mr. Heller contributed valuable suggestions as a result of his experience using drafts of the course in class. Mrs. Behiri not only typed the final version in English, Hebrew and transcription, but also contributed many improvements in style and format as the work progressed.

Introduction

Americans know of Hebrew as the language of the Old Testament. Hebrew had been a living language, that is, it was spoken as a native langauge by a community of people, at least until the First Century B.C., and possibly for several centuries after that. But even though it ceased to be a living language in this sense, a large and important body of literature has remained in constant daily use for prayer and study.

During the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance Hebrew served as a lingua franca for Jews throughout the world, and the literature was expanded by scholars and poets. Hebrew thus was kept in continous familiarity, and in the last century successful efforts were begun to revive it as a modern language.

Today Hebrew is the official language of the State of Israel. It is being taught to immigrants speaking a wide variety of native languages, and the goal is to have all the inhabitants learn to speak it.

To be sure, modern Hebrew is different from the Biblical language. The phonology (sound system) has been symplified, and new syntactic patterns and vocabulary have been developed to express concepts not dreamed of two thousand years ago. But the modern language is unmistakably the descendant of the language of the Psalms and the prophets.

The sounds of modern Hebrew are fairly easy for Americans to learn. Since only a minority of the present population are native speakers of Hebrew, foreign accents can hardly be called rare, and one should not feel the slightest embarrassment in making even halting efforts to speak it.

Purpose

It should be stated very clearly at the outset that this book is not intended as an elementary text for the study of the Bible or other Hebrew literature. It is also not intended as a reference grammar of Hebrew. Ther are a number of good books on the market to fulfill those needs. This book is intended as a training manual, designed to teach a non-speaker of Hebrew to speak and comprehend with some degree of fluency an acceptable form of the modern language. Its relationship to a reference grammar is analogous to the relationship of a program of calisthenics to a textbook on physiology. The student is not supposed to read this book in order to find out about Hebrew; s/he is supposed to work at the material presented here until he can speak Hebrew, and he will have to work hard.

The goal of this course is performance. One "knows" Hebrew in the same sense that one "knows" how to drive a car. It is not necessary to be an automotive engineer or to know the technical terms for the parts of a car in order to be a good driver. Many excellent drivers even have srong notions about the mechanical aspects of an automobile. Similarly, it is not necessary to be able to discuss accurately and comprehensively the grammar of a language in order to speak it fluently and correctly. Intensive drilling will produce the proper habits. When the student participates in conversatoin easily and fluently with a minimum of either "accent" or of conscious effort then he has achieved the goal of the course.

Emphasis on the spoken language does not mean that reading and writing are to be ignored or downgraded in overall importance for the educated speaker. These latter skills are a separate problem which in the initial stages of study are treated as secondary.

Many students who use this book will already be familiar with the Hebrew alphabet and writing system. For those who are not it is suggested that work on reading be postponed until Unit 10 is completed. Classes will of course, vary in their ability to absorb the material, and the instructor should feel free to adjust this schedule.

However, it is felt highly probable on the basis of a large body of experience with many languages, including Hebrew, that the total competence of the student will be greater if he starts with the spoken language and then adds the written form rather than vice versa. Students who already know how to read will profit greatly if they concentrate exclusively on the spoken language for at least the first ten units.