Ulpan and HUC

So Hey I had my exam, and i am much improved not quite there yet but I am now on the main HUC Ulpan programe, which is great but I kinda miss Ulpan Or, and I really miss Reut my teacher there. Orintation was really intense at HUC but we have started the summer Ulpan and i am settling in okay, still not used to being anywhere so hot or working so hard so I am really tired nearly all the time. Its nice in the flat and most of the things i need to get sorted are getting there albeit slowly, but then i haven't been here long yet just over two weeks.
I really like almost everyone on the various programs here, and there is nobody i actaully dislike. Tomorrow we are having a mini-Jerusalem day as our ti'al (trip) and i am going on one that involves rock climbing, not that i have done that in a long time. But generally things are fun here.

Getting to Isreal, and lots of Hebrew

So I am now in Israel! The flight was ok and after a longish taxi ride I reached the apartment Naomi and Emily where already there. I was feeling rather ill after all the travelling and the heat here. The flat is lovely though and I think that Abu Tur is fantistic. The next morning I had six hours of Ulpan starting fritst thing so I headed off feeling sharted. Reut is a fantastic teach and I have made lots and lots of progress in just the few days Tuesday, Wednesday and Thrusday...tomorrow is Friday and I only have lessions in the morning. In addition to lots and lots of Hebrew I have had meetings both at HUC and elsewhere. So things are really busy and I am so tired!
But it is totally briliant to be in Jerusalem...it is so lovely...and even in the midist of my business I have found time for a few moments of enjoyment (Maybe 35 in total) but even that small amout makes me want to stay here for as long as possible. I have also been so lucky with my flatmates...Naomi and Emily are simply the loveliest people that you could ever want to meet. And I am sure that we are going to surport one and other and become amazing friends.

More on Hebrew

So I am making me an amazing amount of progress with my Hebrew. Ruet is an amzing teaching and we have rushed though and though lots of material, both book one Safer sheli kita alef and safer pu'al alef sheli (my first Hebrew verb book), I have even started reading simplified news papers. I still don't know if I will am going to have done enough to pass my exam. I have however done most of my preparations i am bouncing between really excited and horribly nervious. Up and down, up and down, up and down. Its very tirying. But whatever happens I have learnt a lot of Hebrew and am looking forward to going to Israel and meating Naomi and Emily in the really world and being in our flat.

Modern Hebrew Vs. Biblical Hebrew

Although generally speaking my ability to learn Modern Hebrew is added by my really rather good Biblical Hebrew there are times when it is not a help and may even be a hindrance. For example when I am struggling to form a sentence and pluck a word from the Tanach (Hebrew Bible) or the Siddur (daily prayer book), this can be wrong and funny enough to make my tutor laugh out loud this happened when i wanted to say return, or more prosaically came back and I used the word HaShoove, this did indeed make the native Hebrew speakers laugh, although I should say that they know what I meant. I caused more confussion with PoKard for visit, again after a short pause they know what I meant.
There are also constructions of the Verb that seem to have fallen by the wayside. I think the effect of all of this on my Hebrew must indeed be funny, kind of like a six year old who suddenly switches into Shaskpirian English. It does cut the both ways as i find things like Toshafot meaning side orders, rather than comments on Rashi's comments on the Talmud rather funny too.

Hebrew

So I am now in the middle of my Ulpan-Or (Hebrew at the speed of light) course, only the skype one I don't actually do the intensive one2one course until I am actually in Jerusalem. My GDL teacher is called Ruth, or maybe I should say ^morah shi korim reut.^ anyway she seems really nice and I am making progress but I am still not sure that i am going to be able to make enough progress in the time that i have. Everybody else seems more sure than I am. But I keep making my afformation statemate and we shall see what happens in the end. I still have lots of things to organise and lots of goodbyes to say.

Up date post exam

Sorry about the long gap in posting but things have been "busy and interesting", I got the results of my Hebrew exam which were around 50%, in a way I was quite pleased about that i thought it a tribute to my exam technique if nothing else. Sadly, however, this was below the pass mark so I had a bit of a problem. And it coursed me to really lose a lot of self-confidence, I had never previously failed any examination before.
I am now feeling a somewhat more sanguine I have booked on an Ulpan-Or course via skype, which will run before I go to Jerusalem, and then a two week intensive when i get there. All this happens before my HUC Ulpan program can start. It is not quite the gentle start to my stay in Israel that I would have chosen but I guess I wont have any time to feel scared. :)
I am more or less sorted out now, although I still have many things to get finalised before I can head off with a clear conscience. My A2 student visa has come, and the flat thing is all but sorted out too. When plus side of all this little problems is that I have become friends, and I would say good friends with my two flat mates to be Naomi, and Emily. In fact now that Emily has gone out to Jerusalem ahead of schedule its going to be sad not to be able to chat with her.

General thoughts

I really, really, really dislike the word training. I am prepared to tolerate its use in the context of computer training at university (where I am not really learning to understand how computers work or indeed there fully potential), however in almost all other cases of learning I much prefer education, which at least for me implies a more personal connection with the subject(s) being studied. It is a personal thing, in almost all cases I think people teach themselves. This brings me to the reason why I am posting this here I have noticed that people tend to talk about ‘Rabbinic Training’, indeed I think I have probably fallen into this trap myself. Now I know that there will be some actual training say in the area of Layning (chanting the Torah), however I frimly believe that we should talk about rabbinic education (we are after all not monkeys. I also thing that it is a process of self-education with our teachers acting as facilitators rather than as instructors who simply push facts and skills into us.