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Directory of Lesson Threads
• Lesson 1 - The Hebrew Alphabet
> Writing the Hebrew Alphabet
> Supplement: Phonetic Exercise
• Lesson 2 - Regular Nouns
• Lesson 3 - Irregular Nouns
• Lesson 4 - Adjectives
• Lesson 5 - Noun Phrases and Verbless Clauses
Participant Notebook Threads
• Tish's Notebook
• Marie Lynn's Notebook
• Malia-Belen's Notebook
• SwordoftheLord's Notebook
Please Read
Hey, everyone. Tish has asked me to take up leading the Hebrew study here. I wanted to create this thread for two purposes:
(1) To serve as the directory of assignments and participants in this side of the study (I will also have participants from another forum involved); and, (2) to lay out some of my lesson direction (what I want to do with this course) and what you can do to be engaged in the study.
My Lesson Direction
I'd first like to remark that I have read through the directories that already exist on this forum, and I notice that a lot of time has been spent in trying to master the fine points of the Hebrew alphabet. Questions go back and forth about the how and the why. In the end, people tend either to get stuck and confused or just walk away completely. The system that the Massoretes invented for marking internal features of the Hebrew language is really complex, and it's not our purpose here to master the fine points.
That said, we're going to spend very little time on the alphabet. I will not put together more than one thread on the subject, and questions as to the finer points will be directed to Hebrew grammars (Seow and Gesenius), where the interested student can investigate them in detail. We do not want the study to get bogged down in such things.
So, what is our study to engage in? We are going to learn Hebrew as simply as we can. We'll start with the alphabet presented in a concise manner (see Lesson 1 below). From there, we'll go on to learn some basic noun patterns, how to make nouns plural, about Hebrew grammatical gender, and then we'll get to adjectives and how they agree with nouns.
Once we get to the point where we can recognize how nouns and adjectives are manipulated, we will start to look at how we can combine them to create not only noun phrases (NP > N Adj; NP > Det-N Det-Adj) but also how to turn them into verbless sentences (S > Det-N Adj) and how we can recognize the difference between a noun phrase and a nominal (verbless) sentence.
At that point, we will get into a bit of the verbal system. Specifically, the goal is to cover the basic forms of the Qal verb, bringing in some examples also of the Piel and the Hiphil.
To accomplish this, vocabulary will be pulled from the story of Joseph beginning in Genesis 37. Fake sentences will be created to teach vocabulary and structure. Only at the end of the course will we get into short unmodified annotated biblical quotations from the story of Joseph.
What can you do?
First off, it's important that Hebrew not remain something that is copied and pasted. One error of the previous courses on this forum (in my opinion) is that there was too much copy-and-paste from one thread to another. I have created PDFs so that the option of copy-and-paste does not exist. It is important that you begin to write the Hebrew out yourself, either by hand (I will find a way to give examples of how to write Hebrew by hand, both in cursive and in print) or by computer. There will be a thread on how to type in Hebrew, either installing the language support software on your computer or using an Internet-based typing program (and doing cut-and-paste).
My goal is that you will not only type up the answers to the exercises in English but that you will even learn to type up the vowels on the words. I believe that language acquisition flows from three steps: present, practice, produce. The material is first presented to the new student, then it's practiced, and then it's produced. If you don't practice writing it yourself, you will never get to the level of production, and without production there can be no preservation.
So, do lots of Hebrew writing in your notebooks. Type up the vocabulary (we'll talk about how to get the vowels in there), review it, repeat it, memorize it. The more that you get into your daily life, the stronger the Hebrew language will take hold and never let go of you.
It is my hope that you enjoy the study and that you feel free to participate and ask questions along the way. I'm here if you need any direction, and I can also be reached at yonah@thehebrewcafe.com. Best of luck!
Yonah
• Lesson 1 - The Hebrew Alphabet
> Writing the Hebrew Alphabet
> Supplement: Phonetic Exercise
• Lesson 2 - Regular Nouns
• Lesson 3 - Irregular Nouns
• Lesson 4 - Adjectives
• Lesson 5 - Noun Phrases and Verbless Clauses
Participant Notebook Threads
• Tish's Notebook
• Marie Lynn's Notebook
• Malia-Belen's Notebook
• SwordoftheLord's Notebook
Please Read
Hey, everyone. Tish has asked me to take up leading the Hebrew study here. I wanted to create this thread for two purposes:
(1) To serve as the directory of assignments and participants in this side of the study (I will also have participants from another forum involved); and, (2) to lay out some of my lesson direction (what I want to do with this course) and what you can do to be engaged in the study.
My Lesson Direction
I'd first like to remark that I have read through the directories that already exist on this forum, and I notice that a lot of time has been spent in trying to master the fine points of the Hebrew alphabet. Questions go back and forth about the how and the why. In the end, people tend either to get stuck and confused or just walk away completely. The system that the Massoretes invented for marking internal features of the Hebrew language is really complex, and it's not our purpose here to master the fine points.
That said, we're going to spend very little time on the alphabet. I will not put together more than one thread on the subject, and questions as to the finer points will be directed to Hebrew grammars (Seow and Gesenius), where the interested student can investigate them in detail. We do not want the study to get bogged down in such things.
So, what is our study to engage in? We are going to learn Hebrew as simply as we can. We'll start with the alphabet presented in a concise manner (see Lesson 1 below). From there, we'll go on to learn some basic noun patterns, how to make nouns plural, about Hebrew grammatical gender, and then we'll get to adjectives and how they agree with nouns.
Once we get to the point where we can recognize how nouns and adjectives are manipulated, we will start to look at how we can combine them to create not only noun phrases (NP > N Adj; NP > Det-N Det-Adj) but also how to turn them into verbless sentences (S > Det-N Adj) and how we can recognize the difference between a noun phrase and a nominal (verbless) sentence.
At that point, we will get into a bit of the verbal system. Specifically, the goal is to cover the basic forms of the Qal verb, bringing in some examples also of the Piel and the Hiphil.
To accomplish this, vocabulary will be pulled from the story of Joseph beginning in Genesis 37. Fake sentences will be created to teach vocabulary and structure. Only at the end of the course will we get into short unmodified annotated biblical quotations from the story of Joseph.
What can you do?
First off, it's important that Hebrew not remain something that is copied and pasted. One error of the previous courses on this forum (in my opinion) is that there was too much copy-and-paste from one thread to another. I have created PDFs so that the option of copy-and-paste does not exist. It is important that you begin to write the Hebrew out yourself, either by hand (I will find a way to give examples of how to write Hebrew by hand, both in cursive and in print) or by computer. There will be a thread on how to type in Hebrew, either installing the language support software on your computer or using an Internet-based typing program (and doing cut-and-paste).
My goal is that you will not only type up the answers to the exercises in English but that you will even learn to type up the vowels on the words. I believe that language acquisition flows from three steps: present, practice, produce. The material is first presented to the new student, then it's practiced, and then it's produced. If you don't practice writing it yourself, you will never get to the level of production, and without production there can be no preservation.
So, do lots of Hebrew writing in your notebooks. Type up the vocabulary (we'll talk about how to get the vowels in there), review it, repeat it, memorize it. The more that you get into your daily life, the stronger the Hebrew language will take hold and never let go of you.
It is my hope that you enjoy the study and that you feel free to participate and ask questions along the way. I'm here if you need any direction, and I can also be reached at yonah@thehebrewcafe.com. Best of luck!
Yonah
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