ערכים Ulpan La-Inyan’s Level 4 is the “upgrade” course – where students’ conversation abilities get upgraded from day-to-day to something they could use to make not-so-small talk at cocktail parties… or begin to participate in discussions in the university classroom. The central theme of the course is עֲרָכִים (ah-rah-KHEEM) – values. Our next…
מרתק In Ulpan La-Inyan’s Level 3 course, 21-year-old חַגַּי (khah-GAH-ee) tells his date, יִפְעַת (yeef-AHT) all about his trip to Nahal Yehudiya, including the heroic act he performs there. The word is a bit advanced for Level 3, but יפעת could have said, אֵיזֶה סִפּוּר מְרַתֵּק (EHY-zeh see-POOR me-rah-TEK) – What a fascinating…
הוראה In Level 2 of Ulpan La-Inyan, students enter the busy lives of Moni and Eti, a couple with a son named Rafi, who requires them to attend parent-teacher conferences more often than they’d like. You may very well know the Hebrew words for teacher – מוֹרֶה (moh-REH) for a male and מוֹרָה (moh-RAH) for a…
להכריז In Level 1 of Ulpan La-Inyan, students take on the roles of the couple, Nava and Oren. Nava is all dressed and ready to go to a party, when she walks into the living room to find Oren sitting and reading a newspaper קוֹרֵא עִתּוֹן (koh-REH ee-TOHN). לִקְרוֹא (leek-ROH) means both to read and…
לאחל Here’s how a male would say to a female, in Hebrew, I wish you a good year: אֲנִי מְאַחֵל לָךְ שָׁנָה טוֹבָה (ah-NEE meh-ah-KHEHL lahkh shah-NAH toh-VAH). Here’s how a female would say it to a male: אֲנִי מְאַחֶלֶת לְךָ שָׁנָה טוֹבָה (ah-NEE meh-ah-KHEH-let le-KHAH shah-NAH toh-VAH). You can figure out how…
להתרענן This morning teaching at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, some of my students (well, Yogi’s students – I was substituting) had some coffee or needed to get some fresh air. Truth is, so did I. We all freshened up. To become freshed in Hebrew is לְהִתְרַעֲנֵן (le-heet-rah-ah-NEHN). For example רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה הוּא זְמַן…
להעלות If you’re reading this blog, you’ve likely heard the word aliyah (עֲלִיָּה – ah-lee-YAH) before. The word refers to immigration to Israel, but means, literally, ascending. To cause something to ascend is to raise something. Hence the verb, לְהַעֲלוֹת (le-hah-ah-LOHT). For those of you who are biblically inclined, you may remember this word in the…
פיגוע This past Wednesday evening four Jews (civilians) were murdered by Arab terrorists near חֶבְרוֹן (khehv-ROHN) – Hebron. Modern Hebrew’s word for such an attack is פִּגּוּע (pee-GOO-ah). The word comes from the root פ.ג.ע., which bears the concept ofharm. May we hear of no such פיגועים anywhere in the world,…
על הבוקר I’m really tired. I’m about to go to sleep. I want to write about being tired, but I’ve already done that in prior entries. Instead, I’m going to take my roommate’s suggestion and write about the first thing in the morning. אֲנִי צָרִיךְ לָקוּם עַל הַבּוֹקֵר (ah-NEE tsah-REEKH lah-KOOM ahl hah-BOH-kehr)…
לזרום This is one aspect of a request from Izzy. לִזְרוֹם (leez-ROHM) means, literally, to flow. For example, נָהָר הַיַּרְקוֹן זוֹרֵם בְּתֵל אָבִיב (nah-HAHR ha-yahr-KOHN zoh-REHM be-TEL ah-VEEV) – The Yarkon River flows in Tel Aviv. לזרום is also used colloquially to mean to go with the flow.
לפזר פרחים Tonight I attended a concert in Jerusalem by Shlomo Artzi. The show was great, and I even saw a couple Ulpan La-Inyan all-star students. In one of the songs (the one dedicated to Gilad Shalit), Shlomo sings, אֶת הַגֶּשֶׁם תֵּן רַק בְּעִתּו (et hah-GEH-shem ten rahk be-ee-TOH) – Just give the…