So why Duolingo doesn't work for many people? Frequently, I meet people who have tried to learn Hebrew by using Duolingo. They are frustrated by their experience and cannot understand why they are unable to speak Hebrew. The reason is simple. Just as you cannot learn to speak English by learning or memorizing a list of words, you can’t learn Hebrew that way, either. If you want to speak Hebrew, learning vocabulary must go hand-in-hand with learning to formulate sentences. Of course, initially, these sentences will be very simple. Nonetheless, you are learning the building blocks of the language, its structure, its DNA. You are beginning the process of internalizing its format. As time goes on, you will formulate more complex sentences and you will also be able to predict where sentences are going, both your own and those you hear from other speakers. You will absorb bits of the language – words, but also two and three-word phrases that become part of your repertoire, both for listening and translating as well as for speaking.
To foster this process of building your reservoir of language bits, I employ Hebrew language videos. Students listen to them to pick out vocabulary, but also to hear the rhythm and sequencing of words, how grammar and syntax adjust words and phrases. That allows the student to absorb the grammar and rules of the language while engaged in a much more stimulating task – decoding and translating a video in Hebrew. And, it means that they are picking up the grammar as it is currently employed in spoken Hebrew today, instead of memorizing a list of seemingly arbitrary rules. I then ask them to utilize these language bits in different sentences and contexts. This requires the student to adjust the phrases for gender and number. The result is that instead of having a memorized language bit that the student can only parrot, he/she can independently formulate and adjust language bits to create their own sentences and express their own thoughts.
All of my lessons are based on these two foundations – practice speaking Hebrew and translating videos. For beginner students, I use educational videos. As the student progresses, I employ Israeli videos that I find on YouTube. I search for interesting videos with presenters who speak clearly on a variety of subjects. There are videos marketing a service as well as television interviews of political figures and videos of conferences and lectures. As more people recorded personal videos during the Covid epidemic in America, they did so in Israel, as well. This variety of subjects provides the opportunity to gain exposure to vocabulary in all areas. I send the video to the student prior to the lesson together with a vocabulary list with the difficult vocabulary translated. The student has the opportunity to listen to the video both prior to and after the lesson, in addition to using it during the lesson. And, the student can likewise return to the vocabulary list as he/she grows their repertoire of language bits.
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