Disadvantage 1: Hebrew isn't Spanish

... or, for that matter, any other language with which we Indo-European speakers are even vaguely conceptually familiar. This was a strategic decision. Hebrew is different from Spanish (so often in America the go-to "learn a foreign language" language. There's nothing wrong with this, but there are, in fact, thousands of other languages to learn and enjoy) or any other language most of us would study in school. It's also unlikely that most people have considered a study of a language as exotic and foreign as Hebrew. There are a few that are arguably as foreign (Chinese, Arabic, Russian), but they are all also far more useful than Hebrew. But back to that in a moment.

What are the most fundamental, immediately noticeable differences? For one, Hebrew is a Semitic language, and like almost all Semitic languages (aside from Maltese), it uses an alphabet entirely different from English. It is also written from right to left. Like its Semitic cousins, it does not specifically denote vowels as characters; rather, these sounds are represented by diacritics or vowel marks, which is another very foreign concept to the English speaker.

I've done a nice job of avoiding any and all study or preemptive analysis of the language, so I'm not sure how its grammatical structure varies, how they conjugate their verbs, how they handle modifiers, etc. But I do know (or seem to remember) that like its cousin Arabic, Hebrew verbs have gender (a rare concept to begin with, and dually foreign to us English speakers since hardly anything in English has gender, much less our verbs). As I recall, Hebrew also has a dual verb form; English only has singular and plural, but Hebrew denotes when the subject specifically consists of two people. Nice, but just one more unique thing. In addition to that (and this is something I think would be very useful; Chinese has it as well, but it's very rarely used), Hebrew has an inclusive and exclusive first person plural verb. This in English would be "we go" or "we are going." When saying this to someone in English, it is not clear (without context) whether the speaker is including the listener or not. Note the difference between:

"Don't forget: we're going to the movies at 7 pm tomorrow." (This sentence includes the listener, because you are speaking to them and including them in the "we." This is inclusive)

"We're going to eat. I'm sorry you can't make it." (This "we" denotes the speaker and other people, but does not include the listener. This is exclusive).

[Think of the social awkwardness that could be avoided by tactfully and grammatically saying "We're going to dinner" and clearly implying the listener is not invited.]

Those are about the only things I know of Hebrew grammar. Suffice it to say, though, that as Americans, our familiarity with foreign language does not extend much [if at all] beyond our Germanic roots or Romance neighbors. This means that many of the fundamental concepts of Hebrew will be new. This is to say that in most cases, you will have a much greater head start in your foreign language experience (learning an Indo-European language) than this project will present, and it's one area in which we've decided to stack the cards against ourselves.

The Spiel

There were a few criteria in mind for exactly which language we were going to use for this little project.

It came about as a result of my study of Italian. I was going to try to finish all 90 lessons of Italian in 90 days before I left. I leave in 13 days and am about .... 35 lessons behind. Ouch. But in my defense, there's a plethora of other study materials and things I've looked at online that have been able to pinpoint more closely what I feel like I'll need to know. I took Latin for four years in school, which serves as a wonderful foundation for any language really, not to mention one it's very closely related to.

In any case, I got to thinking about that kind of highly compressed, learning-in-a-bubble approach to studying. Instead of something 'methodical' that borders on slow, monotonous study, could one reason that a blisteringly fast, haphazard approach would in some ways work better? We will find out. I emailed Andrea and Kimberly about it, and they jumped onboard, and we finally arrived at Hebrew. Some of the other contenders were Korean, Hindi, Greek, Tagalog and Ojibwe. For a number of reasons, we chose Hebrew. Most of the reasons were because of the distinct disadvantages it would present, but there were one or two advantages to Hebrew, for the purposes of this undertaking. In the next few posts (possibly amongst others regarding various things), we'll outline what these reasons are and what strategery led us to these conclusions.

The Scoop

It's been 36 days since the inception of The Hebrew Experiment (HebEx), and it's high time I describe what all's going on.

One of the things I made reference to earlier was Parkinson's Law, which states:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

This brings up issues of goals, procrastination, motivation, determination and the like. Even with a task one would like to complete, without structure, it can be difficult to do. So we're adding some structure (and mishegas [okay, it's Yiddish]) to our approach to Hebrew. A blitz attack can sometimes be inspiring and frantic enough to be productive. We'll discuss advantages to this approach later.

In short, though, the Hebrew Experiment is an attempt to become as fluent as possible in Modern Hebrew in 60 days, using Pimsleur's first two Hebrew courses as a basis for study, and supplementing it with anything else we can get our hands on. Aside from Pimsleur as the constant with the three of us, we are all taking our own approach to what we learn and how. With only 60 days to get as far as we can, we certainly won't be fluent, but I expect enormous strides to be made. Again, more later about the benefits to this approach.

I skimmed over a few online message boards and blogs where people discussed their experience with the language. They ranged from people studying/working in Israel to people whose in-laws only spoke Hebrew to people who were ethnically Jewish and were exposed to the language from a young age. The shortest time in which someone claimed to be "fluent" [which is the vaguest of benchmarks] was about a year (a woman whose in-laws spoke only Hebrew), and she claimed to think in it. A gentleman in Israel said he'd been there about two and a half years and his Hebrew was only passable.

We picked Hebrew for a number of reasons; these will be discussed later, but suffice it to say that it's not an easy language. It certainly doesn't lend itself to be learned easily by native speakers of any language that isn't Semitic.

So there you have it.

Modern Hebrew

60 Days

60 Pimsleur lessons (half hour each = 30 hours of "instruction")

and whatever else we can get our hands on

Begins May 1, 2010.

The phantom third participant speaks...at last

"MUCH madness is divinest sense." Never has that old verse wrung truer than on the afternoon of January 21 of this very year. Picture the scene: a young man is hunched over on his futon while the strains of a melody (no doubt sung by some red-headed maiden) drift through the otherwise still air. His focus is singular; his determination is unwavering; his goal is clear: learn Italian. He clutches in his hands those ancient instruments of scholarship—pen, paper and Blackberry—as he tirelessly divines where the language of the ancient Romans connects with the tongue of the modern Romans—the living language of that linguistic motherland. Unwilling to turn away, his beard has grown in, his clothes remain unlaundered and his only vittles are head cheese and stinky tofu, nourishment completely unsuitable for the task at hand. Near fatigue, but manic, he fires off an email to his trusty cohorts almost 12,000 miles away.

Ok, I may have taken some creative liberties with that last bit, but this I know for sure: In the wee hours of the morning (my time) on January 21, I received an email simply entitled, “So excited!” Later that morning, after settling into the waking-coma I call “gainful employment,” I clicked on the little flag alerting me of a new email. Rousing a little, I wrestled through a paragraph of pure Italian (greatly helped by my own trip to Italy not three weeks prior) before learning that my dear friend, polyglot and professional enthusiast had stumbled upon a project of great interest—and I was invited to participate!

I was eager to get on board: I already speak two languages fluently, and have about three others in constant rotation. And this would be far from my first time taking up with a language on the fly. But this time, there would be rules. And, well…

I am not so much a book learner as a street (?) learner. I am supremely fascinated by the way people live with their languages. I would be remiss if I failed to mention that the theory of language actually interests me quite a bit; but my retention is directly related to how I learn the word. Flashcards…meh. Workbooks…warmer. The Holy Pimsleur...much better. But hearing two children fight over a toy? Watching on as a mother feeds her kids? Hearing two workers prattle on in a fish market? This is how language breathes, grows and moves. This is how language survives. How can I bring that living element into my experience?

Hmm…this is going to be interesting.

Calling all...

current/former/aspiring/self-proclaimed/potential/compulsory/involuntary linguists and/or language students:
I am the creator of the Hebrew Experiment.
There's something I'd like to share with you. It is Parkinson's Law. Many people don't know it by this name, but it states that Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. This principle can be true of many other resources, but we are certainly interested here with time.
The time, or lack of it, is one reason many people feel they cannot successfully learn another language. Time concerns take various forms:

• It takes too much time out of my day/week/month to dedicate to studying a language
• It takes too much time and effort before I can even use what I'm studying.
• I don't have time to continue to use what I've already studied, and I end up forgetting it.

and on and on. These are valid concerns, but do not mistake them for excuses.
I have been asking some of my friends about their reasons for not starting a study of foreign language, not continuing, etc, and there are some consistent answers. Throughout the course of the Hebrew Experiment, I'd like to see, against many intentional and preconceived disadvantages, how many of these can be dispelled. One we will certainly be addressing is time: reducing the time it takes to complete a task without sacrificing the quality of the final product.
I don't mean to stand on a soap box. I do enjoy foreign language study, and it is not my intention to flaunt anything. It has proven to be one of the most enjoyable, rewarding experiences I've ever had; that being said, instead of calling people on their excuses or sounding dogmatic or elitist about anything, I'm hoping to make it clear how it can be done enjoyably and more efficiently for those that have ever had any desire to do so. To de-foreignize foreign language. Speaking a second (or fifth) language doesn't have to be an elitist accomplishment.
That's it. I'm excited to get this going, and we're waiting on the third participant to come forward and introduce themselves, but after that I'll be sharing all the gory details of the project. We'll start discussing why we're doing it the way we are, how it came to being, etc.
I also mentioned earlier (I think) that it would be great if anyone were interested in trying to recreate the results on their own or start up a project themselves. This obviously isn't possible until you know exactly what's going on, but if you've ever wanted to learn another language, and feel like you could take a couple of months out of this year to get a good head start, then ask around and see if anyone else you know wants to play along, and look out for the details of what we're doing. They should be up within the next week or so.

One Test Subject Speaks!

It began with a burst of enthusiasm so typical of the originator of this most unorthodox experiment. It was both a unique and intriguing offer. A linguistical endeavor with very...interesting variables to say the least. Would I be agreeable? Why ever not? In fact, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I found this whirlwind of a linguistical journey a bit thrilling. However, to understand why I would jump at such an undertaking ( for which details will be later revealed) with such abandon, you'd do well to know a little about me.

The year is 2001. By day, you'll find me in a high school classroom with three others, tenacious enough (or, one might argue, insane enough) to take on AP Spanish, by evening, at the local school for the deaf and blind, studying American Sign Language with the resident interpreters, and some nights, reading books on linguistical theories at the local university library or B&N whenever I had the chance.

Fast forward, and you'll find me at my first job as a secretary, studying languages during the frequent lulls of that job and jotting down tragically unrealistic language goals I wanted to achieve by age twenty-one. I admit, if language, in all it forms were a disease, I'd be writing this from ICU.

This having been said, I also have focus problems. No, correct that, linguistically speaking I have full-blown ADD. At different points I have resolved to learn a number of languages, and these resolves can last anywhere from one hour to several years. As a result I'm not nearly the polyglot my history would suggest. I'm only fluent in Spanish. I can carry on basic conversations in American Sign Language, I'm well on my way in Arabic (but the road ahead is long and I am nowhere near fluent), and I know a smattering of salutations and phrases from various languages. Who can say where the tide will take me next? A visit to another country or a chance meeting with someone from a distant land in a random Wal-mart can set me off in another direction. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

This is my linguistical background, in my own words. Apparently it qualifies me to be a test subject in "The Hebrew Experiment." Keep following along and decide for yourself.

Fully Debriefed

As of early this morning, I have been given full disclosure of the details of the Hebrew experiment. I can't spill the beans just yet because I do need to wait for the other two participants to get up to speed. I can, however, say that they'll soon be posting their own introductions here, so look out for information about them. Back to that in a second.
What I can say, for now, is that, as some may have supposed, the project does involve a linguistic endeavor. Those of you that know me personally know that I've always got a linguistic project in the works, no matter how serious. This one will be unique, though. The other participants are vaguely aware of the nature of the project now, and it's obviously been established that we're talking about modern Hebrew.
Back to the participants. They'll be on shortly, but I'll jump in with a little information about myself (the relevant parts, anyway). I didn't take any foreign language classes until the 8th grade. I was placed in a Latin class that fed into Latin 1 my freshman year. My junior high Latin teacher was well intentioned, but not spectacular. In high school, however, I loved it. Took it for four years and it became the basis for my interest in foreign language.
After high school, I started studying things on my own, beginning with Russian. I studied it passive/aggressively for quite a while, but only in a vacuum; I never had a chance to use it much. After that came cursory studies (to varying degrees) of things like German and Turkish, and out of necessity, stretches of a few weeks to a few months studying other languages, which I've managed mostly to forget. I was encountering lots of foreigners at the time and able to make use of these opportunities to study everything from Turkish to Swahili to Persian, Urdu, Albanian, Romanian, Hungarian, Azerbaijani and Telugu. I've managed (unfortunately) to forget most of it since it was for such temporary use and such sporadic study, but some of it stays with you, mostly being the general across-the-board concepts present in so many (even unrelated) languages, along with a desire to learn more.
I've never taken any classes or had any formal training in anything I (claim to) speak. I've studied Chinese now for almost three years, and currently live in Taipei, Taiwan. I speak Mandarin with little problem, and it's given me opportunity to study and attain varying degrees of ability in Cantonese and Taiwanese as well. I was also studying Thai very rigorously last year, and plan to pick that back up in a few weeks. I'm currently trying to learn Italian within the month I have left before I arrive in Rome. After that I have a few weeks before I'm back in Bangkok and hopefully able to communicate comfortably.
In any case, I always have some kind of linguistic iron in the fire (be that good or bad), and really do enjoy those kinds of pursuits.
Aside from Chinese, though, saying I've studied or spent time with a language is by no means to say I claim fluency. I haven't such delusions of grandeur, but even a cursory study isn't fruitless. I might be able to decipher or understand written text or fight to keep my head above water in a spoken conversation. In any case, that's kind of the starting point for language.
The other two participants should be posting shortly, and we'll be talking more as we get off the ground with this. All information will hopefully be out by the end of next week or beginning of the following week.
Other participants, your turn!

86 Days remain

I'm told that as of today, all the starting materials have been collected, but that more may be introduced or deemed necessary as it progresses. Each individual participant is going to be responsible for this if and when it happens. Wondering how that will work.
The participants are soon to be briefed on the remaining details of the study. As soon as we all have everything, we'll be able to share some more with you. The other two test subjects have been added as contributors to the blog, and you'll hopefully start seeing some information from them as well.
Personally, I was quite excited about the whole thing, but starting to think now about what it may involve makes me a bit more anxious. I have my notions. Excited (but slightly nervous) to see how it goes. Once we actually have more information, we might have a little Q&A, but that probably won't be until we've started in May.