Ever wondered why some kids hate Hebrew school? Why their parents that now "force" them to go to Jewish School/Hebrew school/ Sunday school, had bad memories?
I spoke to many parents about their past experiences and I spoke to students who left Jewish school to be tutored privately by me. They all had the same answer: "it was boring" "I didn't understand what I was saying" "I memorized the text because I didn't have certainty reading Hebrew." I felt for these people as my students always had fun learning Hebrew and preparing for their Bar/Bat Mitzvah. What differentiated me from other teachers?
It was easy to find out from all the "thank you" notes and verbal appreciation: "I enjoyed learning with you." "I had fun" "I understood what I was saying," "I felt confident reading" "I learned so much from you not just about reading Hebrew but about the history, the Jewish customs and holidays and even some spoken Hebrew" "I didn't feel like a robot" "I knew what I was saying" and on and on.
In my teaching I used different text books. I was not happy with most of them as they lacked important aspects. The least problematic one was a book that was published many years ago. I liked the review of previously taught letters. I liked the fact that the letters were big and clear. Any beginner student should have such text book regardless of how old they are. One of the main issues I had with that book was that you could ONLY use it with a teacher. There was no telling if the student reading/decoding the written words knew whether he read it correctly or not. He needed a teacher to be by his side to reassure him when he read it correctly and correct him when he did not. Such book and many like it creates too much dependency on the teacher. Another issue with the above is that there is no use practicing at home; as a matter of fact, it is better that one did not practice at home as he/she might adopt bad reading habits.
Another problem with Hebrew text books is that most Hebrew books out there contain words without their translation. Imagine how you'd feel if you had to read sounds that meant nothing to you and you had to do it for one hour every week.
A language COMMUNICATES concepts, name of things, actions, etc. Reading words without knowing their meaning is like having served the bone of a stake without the meat. I am sure you'd want to flee to a different restaurant. Chinese perhaps? But sure thing is that you would not like to keep sitting and staring at the plate before you. Hebrew books that do not provide translation of the words defeat the whole purpose of learning how to read Hebrew.
Do not purchase books that do not provide translations of every single world you read.
Learn How to Read Hebrew for Real solves the two aspects I talked about in this article. In the next article I will tell you about other issues and their solutions.
