Speak Hebrew ? An Interview With Addam Corre, Street Hebrew Founder

Wolff: I’m here today with Addam, the owner of the Street Hebrew Website. Street Hebrew offers an innovative, modern way to learn to speak Hebrew. Hello Addam, tell us a bit about yourself and your background in teaching Hebrew.

Street Hebrew: I have lived in Israel as a new immigrant for 2 years now but i also lived here when i was younger hence the fact that i speak Hebrew. Before i made Aliyah (emigrating to Israel) I found a niche in the UK for people who wanted to learn modern, everyday Hebrew. I gave private and group classes on an informal basis and developed a system for teaching what I came to call….Street Hebrew

Wolff: That is quite interesting. So you were actually teaching Hebrew in the UK before you became an Israeli? Is there a great demand for people outside of Israel to learn Hebrew?

Street Hebrew: No, not really. The UK model was really just a prototype for the much bigger project here in Israel. Although there is a reasonable market of Jewish people in UK who are interested in emigrating to Israel one day and want to be prepared with the language before they come to Israel.

Wolff: So it seems that the majority of people learning Hebrew are those who are planning to make Aliyah to Israel. What about other people who might want to learn Hebrew such as Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah students?

Street Hebrew: Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah students actually learn Biblical Hebrew as opposed to modern Hebrew. And even then, they only learn to be able to read Hebrew from the Torah. This quite different from “Street Hebrew” which focuses only on understanding and being understood in useful, modern Hebrew.

Wolff: That brings up an important point. We understand there is a big difference between what is known as classical Hebrew and what you refer to as Street Hebrew. Tell us about the difference.

Street Hebrew: Indeed there is a great difference between classical or Biblical Hebrew and modern or “Street Hebrew” I guess the best way to explain this is with the example of Shakespearean English. English spoken during Shakespeare’s times was similar to the English of today, but if you heard someone speaking old English today, you would find it most strange! Words like: thou, thus, hast etc. are certainly not used in our day and age. Similarly with Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, the Hebrew of the Bible is similar to what we speak today in Israel but just old fashioned and, well; Biblical! Street Hebrew is the kind of language that is spoken in the modern state of Israel; in coffee shops and restaurants, taxi cabs and buses. So in short, although modern Hebrew is based strongly on Biblical Hebrew, it is also different.

Wolff: The history books tell us that the creator of Modern Hebrew, the late 19th Century Jewish Pioneer Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, was very aware of the need to incorporate some of the phonetic and linguistic concepts of the new Jewish arrivals to Israel and felt that it was important to modernize Hebrew for them.

Street Hebrew: That is true, and although Ben-Yehuda was from Europe and spoke Yiddish, from the moment he set foot in Israel with his family, he insisted on speaking ONLY Hebrew with them. In fact it was Ben-Yehuda who adapted the Biblical Hebrew from the ancient books into modern Hebrew for the new state of Israel. In essence, he wrote the language, vocabulary and grammatical rules for modern Hebrew.

Wolff: In addition to the vision of one great man, it shows us all how important the concept of a modern everyday “Street Hebrew” is to building the nation of Israel. Just how essential is it to learn to speak Hebrew for new arrivals to Israel. Don’t almost all Israelis speak English also?

Street Hebrew: This is a good question. Learning to speak Hebrew and being able to navigate your way around Israel is vital to any new immigrant wanting to experience an easy and effective absorption in Israel. Even though many Israelis do speak good English, it is no alternative to being able to speak the language of the natives. Remember we are in the middle east here, not the mid-west! One has to be able to get around comfortably and speak to Israelis in their mother tongue.

Wolff: This brings us to the heart of the matter. How difficult is it to learn the Hebrew language? After all, there is a brand new alphabet to learn and the pronunciations are very different than English.

Street Hebrew: Yes indeed, it is no small feat learning a whole new alphabet as well as a whole new language. There are different sounds, intonations, diction and of course Hebrew reads from right to left unlike English and most other languages which are left to right! Although i must point out that you can learn the spoken, everyday language without the Hebrew alphabet.

Here at Street Hebrew we help many people who, for whatever reason, don’t read or write the Hebrew alphabet but live in Israel and want to be able to speak. We achieve this by ensuring that ALL of our material and learning aids are provided to clients in phonetics. This essentially means that anyone can learn Hebrew as we simply transliterate the Hebrew words into their equivalent in English.

Wolff: Take a moment if you will describe for us some of your teaching methods?

Street Hebrew: The first thing we do is to offer all new clients, whether face to face or via Skype their first lesson free of charge. During this first free lesson, we explain in detail how we work and the best way to achieve success in learning to speak Hebrew. We then assess the level and needs of the client and are able to then tailor make a course for them specifically according to their needs.

The main basis of our teaching method is that we offer a tailor made program. Therefore we teach basically whatever it is that the client requires. For example: Recently a newly arrived chiropractor contacted us as he wanted to improve his Hebrew with a view to getting a job in a chiropractic clinic. We immediately set about the task of designing word lists and exercises specifically to do with the Chiropractic profession. We began with teaching detailed Hebrew words for anatomy. We then went onto teaching the words for the organs of the body in Hebrew and words like “strain, stretch, pain, tingling etc”- i.e. words to do with that specialized area of medicine. Once the client began learning the words, we would actually conduct role plays with them; pretending to be a patient with a bad back and get them to actually use the material that they had learned in a realistic situation.

Wolff: So instead of just learning by repetition and memorization, you actually use real life situations to teach the specific needs of the Client?

Street Hebrew: Absolutely, learning by rote and by repetition is the old fashioned method that only ever gave limited success. When you are set specific exercises and actually have a realistic role play with a facilitator who understands what you are saying in both English and Hebrew, it is far more effective and less frustrating than repeating words or phrases from a tape.

As well as the specialized word lists that we compile interactively with clients based on their needs, we also have other teaching tools that we like to use. We have color coded work sheets, by subject, containing useful phrases in Hebrew. These are accompanied by professionally recorded MP3 audio’s that allow you to see and hear the materiel simultaneously. The work sheets deal with things like: taking a taxi, going to the airport, grocery shopping, speaking to teachers, slang phrases, at the beach and riding the bus. We also have pre-recorded, telephone conversations; recorded live by us with actual call center representatives dealing with: electric, telephone, gas bills, making a doctors appointment and the like. We then slow this phone conversation down and take clients through it step by step. It’s a great way to learn how to navigate your way through challenging phone menus in Hebrew and how to get the best out of call center representatives.

Wolff: You have developed a great variety of very well thought out teaching techniques. It seems to us that you have really made an effort to give each client very personal instruction that can be adjusted according to their individual pace.

Street Hebrew: This is true. The specific techniques that we use at Street Hebrew to help and encourage clients to improve their spoken Hebrew are varied. Some clients wish to spend most of the lesson speaking and learning Hebrew; spoken slowly and clearly to them. We also set exercises for homework that help clients improve their Hebrew quickly. For example: we would provide them with a list of words split into nouns, adjectives and verbs and ask them to put together a short story using just those words. As we constantly monitor our clients progress, we are able to provide feedback on an on-going basis and tweak and adjust the program according to each client’s needs.

Wolff: Well it sounds like you have all the bases covered for anyone who wants to learn everyday spoken Hebrew quickly and easily. Do you have any last thoughts to share with us before we say goodbye?

Street Hebrew: Learning Hebrew doesn’t have to be a scary, big mountain that people are afraid to climb. At Street Hebrew, we take a fun and non-judgmental approach to learning the Hebrew language and teach relevant, everyday situations via small and digestible bite size pieces. When you learn by the “Street Hebrew” method, you don’t feel overwhelmed and want to despair! We believe that anyone has it in them to master the Hebrew language; we just help you to get there and to speak Hebrew.