MY SAY: LEARNING ENGLISH AND THE ISRAELI MODEL
Any nation which has an influx of immigrants has to deal with the problems of teaching English. Our schools try to do it through a process of bi-lingual education which renders the students functionally illiterate in two languages rather than one. In the years following 1948 and the rebirth of Israel, the small nation was flooded with immigrants from every corner of the earth. None spoke Hebrew….estimates hold that about 100 different languages were the “mother” tongue of the new citizens, many with different alphabets. By instituting a system of Ulpans- similar to the deep immersion techniques of the Berlitz system, within months all were able to speak and communicate in Hebrew. I attended an Ulpan in 1956 and I witnessed the rapid success which continued throughout the entire decade after independence.
However, there is a real man made miracle related to the fact that today all Israel’s citizens, about 6 million, speak Hebrew. and that is the story of Eliezer Ben Yehuda who redeemed a language long relegated only to ritual and scripture and made it a modern language. You must see the video of Ben Yehuda and his incredible dedication and success. Please watch David Isaac’s video The Revival of Hebrew- :
“Revival of Hebrew” tells the story of how an ancient language used only for study and prayer once again became the common tongue of the Jewish people. Even the father of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, did not think it possible.
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the man who did more than any other to make the renaissance of Hebrew possible, wrote:
“It flashed before my eyes like lightning… I heard a strange voice calling within me: ‘The resurrection of Israel and its language in the Land of Our Fathers!’”
http://zionism101.org/NewestVideo.aspx
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