Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Improve Your Hebrew with Online Videos

By Neal Walters

With the advent of online video sites, learning Hebrew is now easier than ever with free videos. The people that make the videos have been very creative and artistic. We will discuss some of the videos available in this article.

Some videos teach the alphabet. You can hear Debbie Friedman's alef-bet song with a video of the related letters. This is a "must-see" video, and you will find yourself singing along with the Hebrew alef-bet.

Some of the videos are previews of commercial products, such as "At Home with Hebrew" and "Hebrew Kindergarten" from HebrewResources.com. Ulpan Or has uploaded several videos of their Ulpan students practicing what they have learned.

Ulpan Or is a Hebrew language school in Israel. They have submitted a large number of videos. Some of their videos show current and past students demonstrating or putting into practice their recently acquired Hebrew langauge skills.

Many of the videos include music. You can often find yourself learning Hebrew faster with a catchy Hebrew song, whether it be ancient liturgy or a modern Israeli song. The melodies tend to help your remember the words, so you find yourself learning with minimal effort.

Children can also learn from the online videos. One set of Hebrew lessons are taught by "Vampire Bear". As an adult, it may sound juvenile, but children probably love it.

Hebrew prayers have also been included in some of the videos. You can learn the Sabbath candle-lighting prayers. Other have been nice enough to record the Shema V'Ahavta, and display the Hebrew letters (in both Hebrew and transliterated English).

If you are already past the alphabet, then you might be ready to just learn some vocabulary. Some videos contain simple lists of vocabulary words, pronounced with a good Israeli accent. The videos are usually just a few minutes, and organized by topics.

To summarize, free videos are one of the latest ways to learn Hebrew. Viewers enjoy the ability to hear the words pronounced, and follow along with the words displayed in the video. One of the best parts, of course, is that the videos are all free. - 15784

About the Author: