My Top Hebrew Learning Resources

Episode 6 - My Top Hebrew Learning Resources Hello everyone and welcome to the new episode of the podcast "Yalla - Learning Hebrew with Steph." Today, I will talk about some of the ways I learn Hebrew. As a learner of the Hebrew language, I know that it's hard to know where to start. There are so many learning materials and ways to learn Hebrew. For beginner learners, there are tons of learning materials, but for advanced learners there aren't many. Especially compared to learning materials for languages like German, French, and Spanish - for those languages, there are tons of learning materials for all levels, for example podcasts, TV series, and books. Therefore, it's very hard to find materials in Hebrew that match exactly the level you want to learn. So today, I will tell you about some things I do to learn Hebrew. I will talk about how I practice listening, reading, speaking, and writing. Let's start with listening, because that's what we're doing right now in our podcast! Listening: Okay, so there are all kinds of ways to practice listening in the Hebrew language: watching videos on YouTube, TV series, or movies. I highly recommend practicing listening this way because in addition to what you hear, there's also video that you can watch and that really helps to understand what they're talking about, and sometimes there are also subtitles. I have two very good recommendations for YouTube channels that I watch to learn Hebrew: The first recommendation is a YouTuber called Ben Gordon. Ben makes lots of videos about his travels abroad in the Hebrew language. His videos aren't specifically for Hebrew learners, but he speaks slowly and clearly and it's very interesting. The second recommendation is Piece of Hebrew - this is a YouTube channel specifically for intermediate Hebrew learners. In their videos they do all kinds of things related to daily life like morning routine, cooking a meal, and more. I really love their videos because they speak very slowly and also sometimes write the words they're saying in English. Now let's talk about learning materials you can listen to: podcasts. First of all, the YouTube channel I talked about earlier, Piece of Hebrew also has an excellent podcast! Another podcast channel that I really love is of course Hebrew Time, in which all the episodes are in Hebrew, and in it Nadya talks about very interesting topics and publishes a new episode every two weeks. This podcast already has hundreds of episodes you can listen to. Another podcast I love is Podcast La-Inyan - this podcast is really nice because you can listen to conversations between two Israelis. And finally, I recommend listening to Israeli singers who sing in Hebrew and have really good music, like Noa Kirel, Omer Adam, and Yasmin Moallem. I enjoy listening to songs and I'm very happy when I manage to understand what they're saying. I know that some Hebrew learners really like to learn all the words of the song and that way they get to know new words and sentences, and that's also a really good way to improve your Hebrew. The next category is Reading. Reading is my favorite way to learn Hebrew. It's very simple and easy to incorporate into my daily schedule. I usually put music on in the background, read in Hebrew, and write down all kinds of words I still don't know so that I can check them later. The best way to practice reading in Hebrew is a newspaper called Yanshuf Newspaper. In this newspaper there are lots of articles about things happening in Israel and in the world. Just like a real newspaper! But in language that is more suitable for Hebrew learners. In addition to the newspaper, they also have audio clips you can listen to in order to practice listening and hear the articles. Besides that, in every newspaper there is a dictionary with translation of words from the newspaper from Hebrew to English. What I really love about Yanshuf Newspaper is that they keep using the new words in several different places and in different articles. That's really nice because you can see how the new words are used in several different ways. The newspaper of course costs money but I think it's really worth it. I'll put a link to the newspaper on my website. In addition to the newspaper that I like to read, I also like to read books in Hebrew. There are lots of children's books that are very nice to read, or even comics. In my opinion, it's much nicer to read comics because the sentences are usually short, and there are always pictures that help understand the text. Comic books that I read and really loved are called "Bein Le-bein" (In Between) and "El Atzmi" (To Myself). So now let's talk about how you can practice speaking. There are two ways you can practice speaking. The first way is free, and the second way costs money. The first way is something anyone can do alone and it's called storytelling. Choose a simple question like "tell about a trip you really liked" or "describe your daily routine" and just start answering the question. When I do this, I sometimes record myself and then listen to it and write down where I made mistakes or forgot a word. This way is very good because you practice not just one sentence, but several sentences or a whole story. The second way I recommend for practicing speaking is with the help of a Hebrew teacher. This can be private lessons or together with a group. Of course, this costs money, but I think it helps very, very much. If you want to learn Hebrew fast, this is probably the best way to do it. If you feel like you're not progressing or you don't have a lot of motivation, then it also helps to know that you have a Hebrew lesson that you've already scheduled. I joined a group for learning Hebrew online and I have 2 or 3 lessons a week with other Hebrew learners at my level. I really enjoy the group lessons and it's fun to meet other Hebrew learners. Finally, the last part of the podcast: writing. I think that practicing writing can be another way to practice Hebrew. For example, answering questions after reading a story and writing the answers, or writing in a journal in Hebrew every day. Something I like to do is ask ChatGPT to give me a short story in Hebrew on some topic and also some questions about the story. For example: "Give me a short story in Hebrew at B2 level about a visit to the doctor and ask me 10 questions about the story." This way is very similar to the storytelling technique I talked about earlier. Only now instead of speaking, I write my answer. That's everything for today's episode. I really hope you enjoyed it and that you discovered new learning methods that will help you on your journey to learning Hebrew. If you have recommendations for ways to learn Hebrew, you're welcome to share them. I would be very happy to hear about them and I'm sure the other listeners will be happy too. You can post a message on my website or comment here on Spotify about the podcast. I'll put a link to my website in the podcast description. Finally, if you have questions or ideas for topics I can talk about on my podcast, you're welcome to send me a message! And of course, you can find the transcript of the podcast on my website. Thank you very much for listening to another episode of the podcast Yalla: Learning Hebrew with Steph, and until next time - take care and keep learning!