Elementary Hebrew Course
Instructor: Dr.
Yaakov Levi
Phone
number: (952) 381-3335 (Office), (612) 920-7771 (Home)
Email
address: Ylevi30355@aol.com,
Levix004@umn.edu
Meetings: By appointment
Room: L17
Website: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~levix004/
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- Welcome to our Elementary Hebrew course!
Here
is a short review of the course:
This
course introduces students to the basics of Modern Hebrew. It is designed to teach spoken and written Modern Hebrew
that is the ordinary, informal speech of educated native Israelis.
Communicative skills are essential components of this class. The class will
provide participants with the opportunity to use and integrate the newly
acquired skills of Hebrew and 'bring it to life'.
In each class session, participants will learn new
vocabulary and increasingly some grammatical concepts, by working through
Hebrew materials and by reading selected texts. Participants will work on
exercises designed to further their knowledge of the taught materials. The
standard for pronunciation is Sephardic (Israeli) Hebrew.
Participants will be able
to use basic conversational skills, display comprehension of high-frequency
language uses, and be able to formulate basic responses to them. Participants
will have a vocabulary of approximately 300 words. They will be able to
translate English sentences into Hebrew, write 120 word essays and comprehend
simple reading passages.
Throughout the
class sessions, emphasis is on conversational spoken Hebrew, though reading and
writing skills are acquired. We will use variety of materials and activities,
to hopefully make this both fun and informative.
I am aware of
the different levels and expectations. Some are more advanced than others. To
accommodate the different levels, we will schedule time for different groups to
come 30 minutes earlier and focus on materials for that group. This is not a
substitute for class time.
The more exposure one has to the
language, the better one will learn it. Since the class meets once a week, it
is essential that you work on the language outside of class. Students are encouraged to raise questions
about any aspect during sessions, and also after reviewing learned materials.
The course plan is flexible to encourage the students to bring their own ideas
into the discussion.
Attendance at all class sessions is
encouraged to provide for maximum exposure to the language and prevent
gaps. If for any reason you cannot
attend a class, notify the instructor in advance and obtain all materials and
assignments from a classmate.
There will be regular assignments.
Please
visit this website on a regular basis to check for assignments and information.
It
is my privilege and responsibility to make this an optimal learning
environment. I will help you increase and strengthen your Hebrew knowledge and
skills. I will try to answer any question you may have and clarify any
difficulties you may encounter. I will be available to assist you outside the
class. Please let me know in advance of any concern or wish you might have.
Assignment #1: Please practice
Hebrew writing For the writing drill click here.
·
Also, please download the free version of
Smart Notebook to be able to use Smart Notebook files we create for you.
Please click below link to download
SMART Notebook Express software
It is free version of Notebook
software, but it has limited edition.
Notebook Express can open, save and
edit Notebook files.
If you have Mac OS, here is what you need to do to make this work.
1.
Download SMART Notebook program from website given, go through
installations etc.
2.
Download the file you want from the Legacy Heritage Smart Board
Project. Try to choose a location.
3.
Move the SMART Notebook program out of the applications folder
(which is probably on your desktop. It works from there).
4.
Click on the SMART Notebook program to launch it.
5.
The blue button asks if you want to open an existing notebook
file. That's what you want to do.
6.
You must then go and find the file you want in #2 above.
Then it will open the file.
If you have any further questions
or concerns, please contact Smart Technologies (see below).
Software Technical Support
SMART
Technologies
Phone 1.866.518.6791
Phone 1.403.228.5940
Mail to support@smarttech.com
Web www.smarttech.com
Please let your instructors know when you downloaded it.
Assignment #2: Please go over
the handout “Basic Verbs in Hebrew,” complete the assignments, and mark what
you would like to be explained again in class. For the
handout click here.
Assignment #3: Go over the handout “Basic Infinitive forms in Hebrew,” finish the assignments, and write (10, or as many as you can) sentences of your own with infinitive forms we used in class. Also, please go over the list of impersonal expressions. This will help you with the infinitive forms. For the Infinitive handout click here. For the list of impersonal expressions click here.