Learning the language

Hi Letitiat,
I'll move your topic to Tel Aviv's forum for a better visibility
Cheers
Arlette

[moderated: off topic + ads]

I'm just 4 days away from moving to Barcelona and compared to the number of actual words in both the Spanish and Catalan languages I barely know either!

What I have found from previous visits to the city is that being constantly surrounded by a language, both written and verbal, gives you a better chance of picking the language up quickly as (although difficult at first) you are forced to work things out for yourself, then the repetition of the language in daily life cements it in your mind - for example: the first time I visited Barcelona, just by taking the train round the city for two days I learnt the Spanish and Catalan for "destination" and "next stop" and I've never forgotten them since!

What makes it harder for you though, is the fact that with Hebrew you cannot associate a spoken word with the written version. All I can suggest is looking online to try and find a Hebrew-English dictionary that provides you with phonetic spellings of words so you can look them up? Hopefully being able to associate the phonetic to the script will help.

With regards to age, although it is true that the younger you are the easier a language is to learn, it isn't impossible. I'm 33 so in the same boat as you, but as long as you accept you will have to try harder and persevere, it will come. Even at our age it shouldn't take more than a year to be able to hold a decent (if basic) conversation with someone. I've been told that within five years it is possible to become a native speaker and actually start dreaming in your new language!

Looking on the bright side though, just be grateful you weren't me in Germany a while back - the only German phrase I could remember translated into "Your mother is a grocery store". It was very helpful

We are possibly moving to Israel in the next few months and I'm nervous about the language as well, since everyone I've spoken to says there is not as much English spoken as they expected. Our entire family is going to take immersion classes, maybe you can see if those are avail for you? And yes, an English/Hebrew/vice versa hand held device might help some. You are not the only worried one here!!