Monday, January 11, 2010

Me Speakeded in Hebrew Today

Well, folks, the second graders at the school I subbed in today seem to have survived their experience with the immigrant teacher. Yes, my accent I'm sure sounded like nails on a blackboard to the poor kids, the Hebrew equivalent of, "Cheeeldren, plez to take you seats now," and I mixed up masculine and feminine with shocking abandon. (At least one child corrected my Hebrew.) But, the children, for the most part, did the assignments, so I assume they were able to understand at least a few words of what I said. I was substituting for my friend, who teaches English to the Hebrew-speakers, so I could handle the content. (What letter does "gorilla" start with?) Also, it was the same activity 3 times, which made it a little easier.

Also, you don't need to be fluent in any language to give students The Look.

Later, after picking up the kids from gan/school, they decided they wanted to play in the park outside of Yaakov's gan. Usually, I am able to convince them that what they really want to do is go home, let Mommy change into pajamas, and then play/read/finish homework/watch videos. Not that I have anything against the park, it's just I am very much pro-pajamas. After 4:00 - barring any late-evening playdates, birthday parties, or meetings - I am all jammied up.

But today, they won. Ariella's friend was at the park, and since she hadn't seen in her a whole fifteen minutes, it was imperative that they play together. Then Yaakov's friend (I know, you're shocked, so was I, but apparently he does have friends other than himself!) showed up also. They were running around pretending to be airplanes. The park becomes a gathering place post-gan, once all the moms come get their kids. So we were all hanging out, and I had yet more opportunities to speak in the holy tongue with the fellow gan mommies. Phew! Zat eez much of Hebrew today. I sink is time for to take a breaking of Hebrew.

Question for Discussion:

1. Do schools even have blackboards anymore?

2. Most people who meet Donny compliment his Hebrew within seconds of talking with him. ("You've only been here a year and a half? Wow - your Hebrew is amazing!" And by the way, Donny's thinking of telling people he's been here "a year and a half" for many years to come. They're much more impressed that way.) When I meet people, however, their reaction is, "You've only been here a year and a half? Wow - your kids' Hebrew is amazing!" Do you think this has something to do with my Hebrew? Or am I simply meeting the wrong people?

7 comments:

MOMZWIFEOFDADZ said...

Donny gets those comments because no matter what he says, he says it with such AUTHORITY that everyone thinks he's smart. The Israelis probably think his mistakes are right, and that they have learned hebrew wrong their whole lives. Gotta love Donny.

OneTiredEma said...

I think your Hebrew is amazing, and you are an inspiration to me. In fact, I was going to have a conversation in the shabbat park last week with a gan mommy but she wasn't there! Tragedia! Now I have to screw up my courage for this shabbat.

PS Are whiteboards the new blackboard?

Unknown said...

Whiteboards seem to be replacing blackboards but they also have problems. Even the low-fume markers give off fumes. The newest thing is a Smartboard but they come with a very fancy price tag and quite a few training sessions. Saba hates whiteboards because they don't clean well. His college just got some Smartboards but he doesn't have one.

SaraK said...

One of my aliyah fears is that I will never be able to get masculine and feminine down pat. Oh well, I guess I will just have to live with Israelis making fun of me forever.

Baila said...

What Coleman said. Totally agree.

Gila Rose said...

Momz -

Tired - thanks. And yes re the whiteboards - although in the Israeli schools the teachers hoard the markers in their bags. In the 3 classrooms I was in, there was not 1 marker to be found.

Sarah - I worship at the altar of SmartBoard

SaraK - I hope that one day my Hebrew will be good enough to make fun of new olim. Just kidding, of course.

Coleman - I only did that one time.

Baila - you and Coleman are always in cahoots.

Isobel Phillips said...

In the UK we weren't allowed to refer to blackboards or whiteboards, because it's racist or something; we were supposed to call them Dry Wipe Boards. I am serious, unfortunately! However not being big on Rules, especially incredibly stupid ones, in my classroom we had a WHITE board with COLOURED markers, so there!

Now you know my secret: I didn't make aliyah, I was hounded out by the Board Monitors ...