You can’t.

I’m sorry if that title led you on. Get use to it though because that’s all people seem to do in this world. Lead you on. It’s pretty funny actually. No, actually, it’s horrible.

Well, that’s not the point of this post. The point of my story today is to talk about my experience learning Hebrew. Yes, I’ve lived in Israel for a month now, and I’ve made a commitment to myself to become conversational in Hebrew by July. Now when I say conversational, I don’t mean full on philosophical debates with professors at Tel Aviv University. I just want to be able to do some basic things, like order food, and talk to cab drivers, and come up with neat pick up lines that win over everyone’s hearts. The pick up lines will be the easiest for me because I’m already so suave.

So I am determined. I am on a mission, and I cannot be stopped. And let me tell you something, it’s a very frustrating journey to embark on. This isn’t like learning Spanish. I use to live an hour away from Miami, so I heard Spanish all the time. Ask me how many times I heard people speaking Hebrew throughout my life. I don’t know, on Birthright for ten days? This is all so new to me. So picking up on the words, and the accent has been a struggle. Another part of the struggle was that I missed the first week of my Hebrew classes, or my Ulpan.  So not only did I just jump in; I jumped in a week behind with no experience. And I’ll tell you something, it was overwhelming.

Ironically though, jumping in is the best advice I can give to someone trying to learn a new language. You need to just go for it. You need to be overwhelmed and put on the spot. If you’re not, then you don’t grow. When you’re forced to understand and respond in a language you barely understand, your mind works differently. And eventually, you start picking things up. It’s a process, but it happens.

And when you finally start catching on, you need to just speak it. When you remember a word, use it. I don’t know many, but anytime I can use a Hebrew word or phrase instead of English, I do it. And eventually, it all starts coming together. It’s kind of creepy actually. But also rewarding.

A fun strategy that I have used to pick up on the new vocabulary is making stories out of words. Let me give you an example. The word excellent, in Hebrew, is mitzuyan. Well, that’s what it sounds like using english letters, but you get the point. I wanted to retain this word, but simply saying it 25 times was not helping me out much. So I decided to see what it reminded me of. I broke the word into three parts: mitt, zoo, and yan. Now, obviously, zoos are just excellent, so my story had to take place in one. Then, I thought of Mitt Romney, who is not excellent, but hey, it works.

I imagine myself walking through the excellent zoo and looking at all the animals. It’s a bright sunny day filled with cotton candy and happiness. Then, suddenly, I come across a very gloomy exhibit. Inside the cage, is an animal that goes by only one name: the Mitt Romney. And the Mitt Romney is literally just sitting in the middle, doing nothing exciting. 47% of me wants to walk away, but I decide to stay and watch. And as I do, I can’t help myself from yawning. Yan sounds like yawn, right?

So I put Mitt, the zoo, and yawning together, and there’s my word, mitzuyan. And you might ask, do I have to think about Mitt Romney every time I want to use the word excellent? Thankfully, no. Now, it just comes naturally. But that story helped my brain retain it. And the more you make stories, the easier they become to make. The more imagery and comedy you use, the easier the vocabulary is to remember. And it’s pretty entertaining to do it this way too. Just ask me my story for how I remember the word for paper towels. Due to explicitly, I will save that story for another time.

If you want to learn a new language, you need to have a passion for it. You can’t learn it because you need the credits to graduate. You can’t learn it because it will make you more marketable for a brand new job. Those are all secondary, and while you can pick things up with that motivation, you will never fully grasp it. The reason that I am picking up on Hebrew so fast is because I have a passion to communicate. That passion can take you a long way.

Have passion, have fun, and don’t make it like a class. You are not learning a language. You are becoming one with a new way of life. This is not like studying calculus. This is building a foundation to communicate with a whole new array of people. Think of it like this, and suddenly, the task does not seem as daunting anymore.

By Garrett Krivicich, current WUJS participant

When talking to my friends back in the States, I am always delighted to hear the questions that they have about Tel Aviv. Usually, the question has the following framework: “Do they have __________ in Tel Aviv?!?” Yes, if i had a shekel for every time I was asked this question, I would have a lot of shekels. When converted to dollars, though, that’s not much, so I may have just disproved my point.

Regardless, people love to know how Tel Aviv life compares to the States, and usually, they are surprised to hear how similar it is. We do have supermarkets and gyms here. We even have wifi. Yes, before I came, someone pondered if I would have access to wifi, or if internet usage would be limited. The good news is, while the wifi does feel a bit slower than what I’m use to, we still have it. And it works. So far, the only thing I couldn’t find here that we had in the states was Netflix, but even that you can access if you use a proxy.

Tel Aviv has it all. But I will tell you, the mentality and the way people act is very different. Things are just more chill. No one takes their job too seriously. I got this vibe by simply going to get a haircut.

Yes, it had been nearly two months since getting my haircut so I felt it was about that time. I was definitely nervous. While Israelis mostly speak English, there’s still that language barrier, and I did not want a stylist to think I said “cut it all off” as opposed to “cut a little off.” That would be horrible.

There are so many salons in Florentin, the neighborhood that I live in, so I had to choose. I found one five minutes down the road from where I lived, saw there was no wait, and went for it. A young guy stood outside the doorway, drinking a diet coke, eager to cut my hair. He immediately welcomed me, told me to sit so he could shampoo me, and offered me a drink. I said “lo toda” which translates to “no thank you,” so in return, he handed me a whiskey and coke. Yes, the hairdresser served me liquor and it wasn’t even noon yet.

The experience was very relaxed though. He asked me where I was from, I attempted to answer in Hebrew, and all went well. When I said Miami, his eyes lit up, and he talked about how he will come and stay where I live. Why wait to be invited when you can simply invite yourself? He also talked about how he owned this salon and particularly put it in Florentin because he loves the neighborhood. He lives in another city called Holon, a city that nearly everyone I have met on this trip seems to live, which is on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. Supposedly, it’s pretty boring, so he said if he can’t live in Florentin, might as well open a salon there. I agreed with his logic as he buzzed my hair off.

In the middle of the haircut, he received a call on his cell phone, but instead of stopping, he just answered his phone and continued the haircut. This was a trend I noticed. In many businesses around here, when people get a phone call, they just take it. It’s amusing actually, but not as amusing when you are getting your hair cut off of your head. Usually, with that, you like to have the person’s focus.

Even so, the haircut was a success. I wanted to go a little shorter actually, but he refused to cut off anymore because he loved my hair, and said it would be too short. He shampooed me another time, while trying to tell me a story about Romania and gambling. I still have no idea what he was trying to tell me, but laughed anyway, and in the end, the haircut only cost 50 NIS, which is like 13 dollars.

No matter the experience, everything in Tel Aviv is so much more laid back. Even my first yoga class, which was instructed in only Hebrew, felt more laid back than usual. For the most part, I had no idea what was being said, but I just followed the moves of people around me, and somehow got through it. And let me tell you, completing anything in a language you barely know feels like winning a triathlon.

This laid back lifestyle is something I can really get use to. As someone who is naturally anxious, to be surrounded by people who just don’t care as much is refreshing. And it’s also somewhat surprising. Think about the challenges Israelis face. They are surrounded by hostile neighbors, who for the most part, wish for their demise. They literally just came out of a war last summer. But living here, you could never tell. It’s just that Tel Aviv mentality, and I’ll tell you something, it’s pretty contagious.