So I met two people this week that have frightened me: one is someone who has lived here for two years now and still cannot hold even the most basic conversation in Hebrew. The other just finished his army service (three years), and is still basically illiterate in Hebrew. Shit. I'm afraid now that even just giving myself time in this country isn't going to make me fluent/completely literate in Hebrew. Shit shit shit!
I started talking to the one who just did his army service, and the subject of guns on buses came up. He said, "Yeah, when I was on a bus with my gun, I accidentally lightly bumped a woman with it as I got up. I told her in Hebrew, 'Oh, I didn't mean to do that, I'm really sorry.' And she heard my accent and she started screaming at me, 'Go back to America, no one wants you here!' And I'm a soldier, in Israeli uniform, and she's yelling at me to go home."
I gasped and started panicking that something similar would happen to me, but the guy continued:
"Well, as it turns out, there were four soldiers sitting in the back--four Russian immigrant soldiers. And they all stood up and came forward, and started screaming at the lady, 'EVERYONE in this country is an immigrant! If you tell him to go home, then why don't YOU go back to whatever country your family came from too!' "
I just thought this story is both appalling and sweet at the same time and needed to be shared.
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3 comments:
They probably didn't get better at hebrew because they didn't put the effort into it.
You don't have to worry- if you try your best and really want to get better (as I obviously see you do), you definitly will.
Ah, see that's the problem: I was hoping I could get lazy again after this ulpan. Sigh.... This Australian lady I was talking to told me that it took her 7 years to become fluent in Hebrew, so I guess I have a solid 6 years ahead of me where I'm gonna sound like a total dumbass. Oh well. Maybe if I work REALLY hard I can cut it down to only 4 years of sounding like a dumbass or something.
I agree with Oz wholeheartedly. You're already moving along swimmingly at Hebrew, and you have the rules to language acquisition down pat. Also, spot on to the russian soldiers for yelling at the lady.
Miss you and Love,
me
escfcl
p.s. I will be updating tonight, mostly with poems, but also a smallish me-narrative.
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