All about אולפן (Ulpan)!

So I thought I would write a little bit about אולפן (Ulpan - aka Hebrew classes)!

We were divided into 2 classes in the first couple of weeks based on previous knowledge and skill level.  We were split about 50/50 and clearly, I was put in כיתה א. That is the first class and it is definitely where I belong.  At first, I was admittedly a little bit bored.  I knew the letters already (although not the script) and I knew the vowels so it felt like it was starting off kind of slow.  I think it is interesting that although block letters are used most commonly in signage and newspapers, no one writes in block letters - only script.  It is also interesting that there are never any vowels used in anything, you have to just know the words by the context.  

In class we learn many new words every day.  We are learning present tense right now but hopefully soon we will be starting to learn the past tense.  Hebrew is a very interesting language and I am loving it!  I am truly surprised by my ability to communicate in Hebrew.  Its hard for me to put sentences together, but I can understand a decent amount as long as I can convince Israelis to speak slower.  I think that is one of the things that I say most often. "speak slower please!" and "one more time, more slowly."  

At this point, we have learned about 25 verbs and more nouns and adjectives than I can count.  Its hard to let go of the fact that many things don't have an exact translation into English.  For example, instead of saying "I have" in Hebrew they say "there is to me".  I think a lot of people in the class struggle with that, but Hebrew has been around a lot longer than English so... I don't know what else to say about that. 

In Hebrew, just like in Spanish, nouns have a masculine and a feminine form.  Adjectives have both feminine and masculine and plurals of each.  I thought it was absolutely hilarious when I found out that milk is a masculine word.  It just BOGGLES MY MIND.  Clearly, milk should be masculine.  Duh.  Because milk comes from men, right?  Ok... moving on.  

So about once a week we get to watch a movie in Ulpan.  So far, we have watched 3 - 2 of which were pretty awesome.  However, the room we watch in is the childrens classroom so you have about 34 adult size people sitting on childrens chairs for several hours and its really not that comfortable.  Additionally, the speakers on the TV are broken so everyone sounds about 3 octaves higher - A LOT like chipmunks which makes it hard to take what they are saying seriously and it makes it a bit harder to understand. 

The first movie was Beaufort which is an award winning movie made here in Israel.  Here is a link to the trailer on youtube with English subtitles: Beaufort Trailer. Its about a young commander in the army and his troops in the months before the IDF's withdrawal from Lebanon.  It is an emotional story that I thoroughly enjoyed, even with the sound being awful.  There is a song in the movie that is quite beautiful.  Its called Shpitz's song. I would highly recommend checking this movie out if you have the interest.  

The 2nd movie that we watched had no subtitles and was about a former convict who turned religious and was broke and got lucky and got some money and bought an etrog to try and get his wife pregnant.  I wasn't really paying close attention that day and the movie really didn't do it for me.  

Yesterday we watched "Nina's tragedies".  It was a very bizarre movie but I enjoyed it thoroughly!!  Its about a messed up family and involved a lot of cursing, sex, perverts, peeping toms, a very creepy child and lots of death.  Oh, plus a birth.  Afterall, what good is a movie without a few deaths and a birth?  Oh, and nakedness and sex.  and curse words.  Hooray for Ulpan!

We also finally got our books earlier this week and I copied the audio CD's from the teacher today.  I am hoping that I can make progress because its REALLY important that I am able to speak Hebrew when I get to Ofakim.  They don't speak much English there and the better I can do, the more I will be able to help!  I have been trying REALLY hard to practice my Hebrew.  It helps that there are plenty of cute Israeli boys that are willing to talk to me and help me practice.  Of course, they also teach me bad words and I have made a few pretty bad mistakes as a result so far, including accidentally telling the director of Beit Canada that "I suck too much".  Clearly not what I meant to say!! Luckily, she knows that I am a student in ulpan and she corrected me and warned me to be more careful.  Oops. Several people have also made mistakes about the word "cup" which, pronounced incorrectly, means something else entirely.  Therefore, a couple of people have asked "do you have a pussy" instead of "do you have a cup".  Oy!  

The other thing that we love to do in Ulpan is SING!  I will see if I can post a lovely rendition of the song "Yachad" that I recorded today in class.  It was classic!  I'll see if i can post it later.  For now, I need to just go to bed.  Its 3:24 am and silly Erin took a 4 hour nap today.  Tomorrow should be fun.  Goodnight blogger.