It’s Time to Learn Hebrew
By Ziva Schapiro, OTR
In the “old days” when olim moved to an Israeli neighborhood, the motto of “keeping up the kids' English” had a valuable place. After all, these Anglo olim parents were in a unique position of giving their child a second language (English) in addition to the Hebrew that they were naturally acquiring in their new environment. It was generally thought (and this is still true in some areas of the country) that the children would automatically learn Hebrew in school and from their friends while an extra effort had to be placed on maintaining the English that the parents were speaking at home. Hence, the development of English chugim, to teach reading skills to children from English speaking families and English pre-schools for children who did not yet learn Hebrew.
However, the reality of the Anglo communities in Bet Shemesh/RBS (and other similar communities) is very different from the one described above. New olim often move onto blocks where there are NO native Hebrew speakers. The children attend gan where well over half of the gan is English speaking (actually one year my daughter’s gan was 80% English speaking) and as a result the children no longer automatically pick up Hebrew. Very often, the only exposure to Hebrew that a child has is the frontal learning in class, as the rest of the day they spend in the company of fellow Anglos. Even in school, they work in small groups of English speakers and play games in English at recess. After school, they play with their English speaking friends who live in the neighborhood. This leads to serious educational difficulties as well as challenges in klita.
Interestingly, new olim children are now offered ulpan classes which can give them a strong base for developing Hebrew language skills. However, when they are mainstreamed in the regular classes and hang out with only Anglo friends, they don’t have an opportunity to use what they learned. Other kids, even those born here in Anglo families, never even get that ulpan class but could really use it!
As the director of Mercaz Rakefet, a large child development center located in RBS, I encounter this issue daily. Very often, Anglo children are referred to speech and language therapy because they have not picked up Hebrew after being exposed to a year or two of gan. However, because of the reality described above, the speech and language therapists struggle to differentiate between the children who suffer from a specific language impairment and those who simply suffer from lack of exposure and practice in Hebrew.
When Anglo children undergo psychoeducational testing in the junior and senior high years we often see a gap between their Hebrew language skills and their performance skills. Often parents are surprised to learn that their child’s Hebrew language skills are not up to grade level, as they themselves do not speak Hebrew and therefore have no means to gauge their child’s Hebrew. These students have difficulty reading textbooks and novels and writing papers on a high school level. They may have difficulty getting accepted to top programs in Israeli universities, yet because of their strong English language skills get into US university programs. Ironically, some of these students were even born in Israel, but having spent their lives in the Anglo enclaves of BS/RBS, they never had a chance to develop their Hebrew language skills.
A further ramification of this phenomenon is in the cultural sphere. When a child is not comfortable with the language, they will have difficulty socializing with native Israelis. When large groups of Anglo kids consistently socialize with other Anglo kids this leads to difficulty later on when they need to leave the nest of the Anglo environment of BS/RBS. This phenomenon has been seen already in other Anglo enclaves like Ramot, Efrat and other such areas. The majority of the children in the Anglo community in BS/RBS are still young, but without dealing with this, the results will be the same. Some of these kids avoid serving in the Israeli army, limit sherut leumi options to avoid more Israeli environments and may even leave the country to attend university in chul where they feel they will have a better chance of succeeding socially and academically. Is this really why we made aliya?
My intention of this article is not to chas v”shalom scare or offend new olim. It is to suggest that we all open our eyes to this phenomenon in our communities and think of creative solutions. I believe that the Anglo communities of BS have so much to offer in terms of chesed and Torah. Let’s think together how to help our kids have a better chance acclimating educationally and socially in Israel.
Here are a few suggestions:
- The message starts from us, the parents. I know that many adults have difficulty learning a second language. Many of the adult olim were not exposed to Hebrew reading and writing in their youth and therefore learning it now is very difficult. I highly recommend that you take an ulpan shortly after your arrival- even if you think your Hebrew is OK, take a higher level ulpan and increase your proficiency. If you don’t, you may send a subconscious message to your kids that learning Hebrew may be important for them (because they go to school) but not for you. If your children never see you attempt to read in Hebrew, why should they? Take the newspaper as an example. Buy a Hebrew paper once a week- start off reading the headlines, slowly pick an article that interests you, use a dictionary if necessary. If the paper is in the house, you might just find your son looking at the sports section.
- Encourage Hebrew reading even at the expense of reading English. Yes, I know this is difficult for some of us to bear, that our kids will not read the English classics that we grew up with but remember we brought our kids HERE. They need to read the Hebrew classics. It has been shown that improved reading comprehension greatly increases a child’s academic ability. Since they go to school in Hebrew, we need to build up their reading comprehension in HEBEW. They need to be able to read Hebrew texts in high school and take the bagrut exams.
- There are many media out there for building Hebrew language skills. Listening to stories on tapes, children’s songs in Hebrew, videos and even cartoons are all avenues to increase a child’s language skills. TV time can even be educational (sometimes!).
- Encourage building relationships with non English speakers. For younger children this is easier, as the parents often decide who to invite for a play date. If you are not sure about the kids in the gan, ask the ganenet who she recommends that you invite as a potential friend. The kids may need your intervention at first- take them to the park or find some other activity that is not language based to keep them together. Be persistent; try another friend if the first ones are not appropriate.
- There are many wonderful chugim run in our neighborhoods in English. I would like to suggest that you balance the number of chugim your child attends that are run in English and that are run in Hebrew. Sometimes the informal learning at an art chug can be a great opportunity for developing language skills. They will gain vocabulary words relating to the topic that they may not encounter anywhere else. Remember, there will not be any Hebrew speaking kids for your child to talk to at a chug that is in English.
- I would also like to suggest to the women who run ganim and playgroups in English to attempt to introduce some Hebrew into your program. Introduce the kids to some of the classic Hebrew pre school songs and teach them basic concepts like colors in Hebrew as well as English. This will help the children bridge the gap when they move into a Hebrew speaking gan the next year. Parents, when deciding on a private English speaking gan for your child, look for one that also introduces Hebrew, even on a very basic level as described above (in addition of course to providing the warmth and nurturing environment that you are seeking).
- Encourage your children to attend youth movements- find the one that meets your family’s hashkafa (there are many to choose from in BS/RBS) and literally push your child to attend. This is much easier done in 3rd or 4th grades, so start early. Membership in these youth movements, even if many of the kids attending are fellow Anglos, exposes them to Hebrew in an informal environment and will help them feel more “Israeli”. Youth groups are also national , so when they participate in an activity out of BS/RBS they will meet more Hebrew speakers as well.
- Many parents tell their children that at home they must speak in English (in an effort to develop/preserve their English skills).A modification of that rule, if you feel strongly about your children speaking English to you at home, would be to try the following rule for your kids.” We speak English with our family, but Hebrew with our friends” (even if they are fellow Anglos). If you start this at a young age, they will incorporate it and may even speak Hebrew at their Anglo friend’s house.
If we begin to pass the message on to our children that learning Hebrew and becoming Israeli is an important goal we will start to make a change in the social environment of the youth in BS/RBS.
In conclusion, I would like to welcome all of this year’s new olim and wish you a klita tova!!
Ziva Schapiro, OTR, director of Mercaz Rakefet, made aliya with her family 19 years ago. Her four children as well as she and her husband are proud to be Israelis! Ziva can be reached at ziva@mercazrakefet.org.
