Hi all. Even as I lazily try to work toward greater Esperanto proficiency and fluency, I now am also trying to work toward learning/re-learning Hebrew (there's a vague plan underfoot in my family to form our own "tour group" and visit Israel, hopefully in the fall of '12).

I actually maintain my reading fluency (more or less) just by attending synagogue regularly--although comprehension is very poor (but comprehension is not really the point when Jews pray congregationally, anyway). Further, I was fortunate enough to be able to take Hebrew as my required foreign language in public school, back in the 70s (I date myself here, I know). I started off well, but as I progressed through the 3 1/2 years of study, my grades gradually slipped, as I found the illogicalities of the language to be more and more annoying, and I was lucky to pass (just barely) the state Regents exam.

Anyway: I would desperately like to regain some fluency in modern conversational Hebrew, especially assuming the family trip concept becomes a reality--and I'll be damned if I'm going to be one of those ugly Americans who stays at the King David, and allows some tour guide to just let us hit the usual tourist locations. I want to be able to spend at least part of my trip moving among the real people, and being able to interact with them as somewhat "equal" lingusistically.

There do appear to be more than a few online Hebrew sources, some free, some for pay--naturally, each touts themselves as the best, so it's hard to know which ones are worthy of consideration. In addition, given my background it's hard to tell where I fit in with any given online class--I'm not a beginner, since I know the letters and pronunciations--I do retain some smattering of vocabulary, although my grammar retention is mediocre at best (especially when dealing with issues of "gender" and similar). I'd probably be too far advanced for a beginner class, but not quite able to hold my own with intermediates.

I'm inviting the lernu community to hopefully steer me in the right direction here. I know enough to stay from stuff like Rosetta Stone, but that's about it.

IIRC, Erinja is a member of the "tribe", so I hope she has some good recommendations/advice to offer--but all of the rest of you are welcome to post your own thoughts as well.

Thanks. Dankon. Todah.

I've tried learning bits and pieces, and forgot them quickly (most of what I remember is due to loans in Indonesian from Arabic.. So really it's more that I know bits and pieces of Arabic!).

However what I did was find heaps of free web resources and trawled through them all, seeing what the angle of each was and trying to pick up the important info from there.

Otherwise, there's always skype, which'd probably be easier - from what I've seen, spoken hebrew is probably easier to get the grips of first, then use that knowledge to know how to write the language.

(I believe in Hebrew the latter can be made easy by writing in the most phonetic form possible, but I forgot its name)

I don't want to undermine your interest in studying Hebrew. But I just wanted to remind you that Esperanto is a great way of getting to know locals. I think it's very likely that if you learn Esperanto to a decent level, you'll easily find local Esperanto speakers who can show you around and talk about life in Israel. I definitely support studying Hebrew before you go, and it's nice to be able to read the signage etc, but between now and the time of your proposed trip, unless you spend some very serious time studying, you're unlikely to achieve a level of Hebrew where you can do very much. However with Esperanto, you ARE likely to be able to reach a good level in that time. So I hope you will think about that, and maybe when you have fixed the dates of your trip, start contacting Israeli Esperanto speakers to ask whether they'd be willing to show you around their town for a day, or meet up with you for a meal. lernu.net is a great way to find Esperanto speakers from all over. I frequently use the user search system and the private messages before I travel, to find people that I can meet up with abroad.

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Having said all of that, here are some suggestions for Hebrew:

A Jordanian lernu! user who speaks Hebrew fluently recommended to me the following links when I spoke with her about studying Hebrew:
List of useful(?) links

Newspaper for beginners in Hebrew

Some exercises on vocabulary

Honestly, I never found a lot online. I only ever learned to a very basic level. But I think you're going to have to spend a little money if you want to improve your Hebrew level, and I think it will be mainly through books and CDs.

I have studied mainly using books. I have a book that my friend gave me, she used it in her level Aleph ulpan in Israel. I like it fairly well, and it must have some popularity here because I've seen it in university bookshops, as a course text.

I have this book, which I bought myself, and haven't much used. The story is boring and I don't feel like the course does a good job at holding my attention, but the Amazon reviewers like it.

I thought I'd like to try the Assimil method for Hebrew, but it's only available in French. I recommend it if you have a basic level of French (you don't have to be fluent to understand what's going on in the course).

Lots of people like the Pimsleur method. Many libraries carry it, so I would definitely check with your local library (and if they don't have it, they may be able to get it through inter-library loan). It's very expensive so I wouldn't actually purchase it unless you're sure you love it. The early Pimsleur lessons focus on tourist situations. It's a lot of active talking but not a lot of listening.

Look on your local library's website and see what they offer for electronic resources. I think you'll be surprised. My local library system offers free online access to Mango Languages, a paid language-learning website. I just put in my library card number and my library pin, and I can access it from home. Hebrew is one of the languages offered, and I think that a lot of libraries subscribe to Mango, so you should take a look.

Also take a look at the FSI Hebrew course, here. It's a bit dated and the text is not very nice to read, but it's a complete course, with text and recordings, designed by the US government for its employees.

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The FSI courses in particular are available in a ton of languages, so anyone who is interested in language study should take a look.

Thanks erinja, for the FSI link. What a cool resource, and you can't beat the price!

It's surprising how many people are interested in langauge learning but unaware of the FSI courses. They don't come up if you search for free language learning materials; you almost have to know already that the page exists, since it doesn't seem to do much to promote itself.

The materials are all available for free because they were paid for with public funding. Your tax dollars at work! It's nice to have a resource that is not only free, but also available for legal download.

Awesome stuff, that FSI resource repository. I downloaded the courses for Japanese and Polish, should be an interesting read.

The FSI courses are cool to know about. Thank you! (Although the audio is... odd. They're kind of shouting at me.)

Anyway, you may also want to try livemocha.com. They have free resources for a wide variety of languages, including Hebrew. You may also be able to use Mango Languages through your local library. They have a number of languages, but I don't remember if Hebrew is one of them. (Mango has a strong focus on tourist vocabulary and situations, but since you're going to Israel as a tourist, that may not be such a bad thing.)
I'm told that most of the signage in Israel is bilingual English and Hebrew, and that a large chunk of the population speaks English. Still, some Hebrew (and Esperanto) has to be helpful.

I think the LiveMocha courses are awful.

Sorry. I can't imagine learning a language to any level of proficiency with one of their courses.

I think MangoLanguages is not bad, though. It gives you a lot more explanatory notes that are completely lacking in LiveMocha.

Does your Temple offer any Hebrew courses?

Mine offers courses for every level from beginner to advanced. If yours doesn't and you live in a decent sized city there should with any luck be another that does.

In any case, for online sources the following is fairly comprehensive:

http://www.hebrew4christians.com

/

Mike:Hi all. Even as I lazily try to work toward greater Esperanto proficiency and fluency, I now am also trying to work toward learning/re-learning Hebrew (there's a vague plan underfoot in my family to form our own "tour group" and visit Israel, hopefully in the fall of '12).

I actually maintain my reading fluency (more or less) just by attending synagogue regularly--although comprehension is very poor (but comprehension is not really the point when Jews pray congregationally, anyway). Further, I was fortunate enough to be able to take Hebrew as my required foreign language in public school, back in the 70s (I date myself here, I know). I started off well, but as I progressed through the 3 1/2 years of study, my grades gradually slipped, as I found the illogicalities of the language to be more and more annoying, and I was lucky to pass (just barely) the state Regents exam.

Anyway: I would desperately like to regain some fluency in modern conversational Hebrew, especially assuming the family trip concept becomes a reality--and I'll be damned if I'm going to be one of those ugly Americans who stays at the King David, and allows some tour guide to just let us hit the usual tourist locations. I want to be able to spend at least part of my trip moving among the real people, and being able to interact with them as somewhat "equal" lingusistically.

There do appear to be more than a few online Hebrew sources, some free, some for pay--naturally, each touts themselves as the best, so it's hard to know which ones are worthy of consideration. In addition, given my background it's hard to tell where I fit in with any given online class--I'm not a beginner, since I know the letters and pronunciations--I do retain some smattering of vocabulary, although my grammar retention is mediocre at best (especially when dealing with issues of "gender" and similar). I'd probably be too far advanced for a beginner class, but not quite able to hold my own with intermediates.

I'm inviting the lernu community to hopefully steer me in the right direction here. I know enough to stay from stuff like Rosetta Stone, but that's about it.

IIRC, Erinja is a member of the "tribe", so I hope she has some good recommendations/advice to offer--but all of the rest of you are welcome to post your own thoughts as well.

Thanks. Dankon. Todah.