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Nevertheless, after struggling with this book's relentlessly silly approach I ended up selling it to a secondhand bookshop and acquiring a couple of books on Biblical Hebrew (by J. I don't think that that's worth the money.I am still keen to learn Modern Hebrew, but the only people I can recommend this book to are those who have never been exposed to any language other than American English. I am perhaps unusual in that I'm interested in learning Hebrew although I'm not studying the Bible, nor am I planning to travel to Israel, nor am I Jewish, nor am I marrying into a Jewish family. In this respect, "Hebrew for Dummies" sucks. This book may teach you how to order a coffee in Jerusalem, but you will probably not learn how to read the menu in the coffee shop. Jewish (or at least closely related to someone Jewish) and c). I suppose the last one is kind of the point of the "For Dummies" series, which as a series I've never found very helpful.
The student of Hebrew who is not put to work straight away at deciphering the alphabet is, to put it bluntly, screwed. Perhaps this has been fixed in subsequent editions.The final problem is that Jacobs does not solve the huge problem of teaching the student to read the Hebrew alphabet.
American, b). I noticed, too, that the conversations on the accompanying CD of my edition did not always correspond to the transcripts in the book; I am enough of a linguist to be able to tell when what I'm hearing is not what I'm reading.
I am interested in learning Hebrew for the sake of learning a rich and difficult language which will open up a huge amount of literature to me. Weingreen and John Dobson), both of which were far more packed with information than this gee-whiz compendium of empty chit-chat.
Even then, I think they would be better off taking lessons. It assumes that the reader is a).
learning-impaired.
Just with english transliteration.I think it was a loss of money. I really like the "for Dummies" series, however, this volume does not fulfill my expectations. The chapters focus on practical sentences in Hebrew, however they are not so practical that you can use as a traveller guide and not so good that you can learn some hebrew.Also, but for the first chapter, it does not deal with hebrew characters.
Then check with your local community college or university.Not using the Hebrew alphabet is the worst way to learn Hebrew. If there is a synagogue in your town, call them up and see if they offer Hebrew classes. You WILL say some words wrong and anyone who knows Hebrew will have to correct you so much that you soon realize that you've been ripped off by buying this book. I got this since I know the basics of Hebrew but this book doesn't use a single Hebrew letter. Everything is Latinized and that is a terrible way to learn Hebrew and it is forbidden in an actual classroom.Do yourself a favor.
These are easy to identify, but annoying nonetheless. Don't expect to learn anything about the written language. There are also inconsistencies in the romanized spelling of certain terms.
This book is completely based on phonetic spelling of Hebrew. One re-enforces the other. Absolutely useless. When i learn a language, i want to learn to write it at the same time i learn to speak it. It makes little sense to just learn to talk and not to read or write.
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