Customer Reviews

Mastering Hebrew: Book and 12 Cassettes (The Foreign Service Institute Language Series)

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The problem with this set is that it is 11 years old, and much of the language is simply out of date. Not just the slang, but many grammatical points are no longer currently in use. The tapes are also muffled -- with the new technologies available and the changes in Hebrew, the publishers should produce a new version.

tapes sound like copies of copies of copies. I bought this with great disappointment. What a waste of money. Also, the people speaking sound like hebrew is the most boring language on the face of the earth. Don't be suckered into this one. It genuinely stinks. This is poor, poor, poor. At least make the recording off the original copy.

It is commonly believed among linguists that, if you plan to learn a language that has a radically different writing system like Hebrew or Arabic, it makes far more sense to learn to speak and understand it first using a phonetic transcription.

Then, after you can manipulate the language with reasonable skill, that's the time to learn how the sounds are represented in the script. Otherwise, it's too overwhelming to be trying to tackle it all at one time, and it definitely slows down your progress (which was my experience). It amazes me that this is still really the only course available that takes that approach.

Yes, the course was written some years ago -- but is there a newer word for "man"? Or "table"? Is there a "more modern" way of expressing plurals, or future tense? Do we really want to learn "current" slang that will be out of date by next year anyway? When I was at the "ulpan" in Jerusalem, I asked about the feminine plurals ending in "-na" that are taught in this course, and was told that they are "correct, but not used as often in speech". Not a problem.

And the tapes in my Mastering Hebrew course sound plenty clear to me. Maybe some people need to clean and demagnetize their tape heads....

I bought this years ago before my first trip to Israel in 1995. It of course got buried and not used. A couple of years later I studied Hebrew at an ulpan here in Los Angeles. I've supplemented ulpan studies with tapes, videos, and lots of books. The Pimsleur series is very good. "Aval" ... this Barron's series is a disappointment for many reasons.

The biggest is: It's on tape. Good grief ... with technology where it is, why is anything being (re)produced on cassettes anymore? Oy! The recording quality is "kacha-kacha", and the grammar and choice of words is very different than what I learned in ulpan and what I'm continuing to imbibe.

Parts of the tapes ARE semi-helpful, where the grammar/vocab are near up-2-date .... it does help with my listening skills.

Overall, get the Pimsleur set (but let them know we all want a Level 2).

I was interested in learning Hebrew to converse with the suprising numbers of Hebrew speakers in my neighborhood. (Upper East Side of Manhattan). I looked at Encounters in Modern Hebrew series, but there was no indication of stress for each of the words. So I bought this set... I did the first dialogue and wanted to show off to my Israeli primary care doctor... boy was I embarassed!! The language presented here is way too old to be respectable any more. Pimsleur is a good alternative,but they only have one level.

I used this book and cassette course after I had completed Eliezer Turkiel's 'Everyday Hebrew', which was fun and entertaining. THIS kit, however, is not fun and entertaining. It is dry and technical, and the focus is on memorization of and participation in dialogues, and production/conversion drills. But the course is very well structured, and if you stick with you will learn a lot of Hebrew. But, I have to be honest, sticking with this course requires balls and nerves of steel. You've got to have your eyes set on truly mastering Hebrew and be internally motivated, because this book is just too tedious to motivate you. I stuck with it and completed the entire course, but I remember sometimes being on my 15th set of conversion drills for that evening or whatever and literally counting down the minutes ("Ok, only 10 minutes left, then your 2 hour study time will be over. Only 10 minutes! You can do it!").

Unlike what other people have said, though, I didn't find that the Hebrew taught was out of date. I only remember 1 single phrase from this book that raised any eyebrows in Israel (it was "lavetach" in place of "betach", though lavetach only appeared once I think, in "Ze lavetach chamsin"). Everything else seemed to be in order, and for God's sake at least it doesn't teach the imperative form bevakasha + infinitive like some courses do! Nobody on the face of the planet ever says "Bevakasha lehakir et Mar Williams". Never. Ever. Any course that teaches bevakasha + infinitive should be sent back to the publishers. At least this one would stay on the shelves.

After a few months of listening to the tapes while driving, I am happy enough with this book. Unlike the few weeks I spent with another course, I feel like I'm learning how to speak/write/read a language -- not, simply, to be a tourist. If the text and tapes are out of date, so be it. I cannot image they are that "off."

I do have one large concern, however. It's the poor quality of type in the textbook. It appears to be a copy of an old manuscript. Worse, one that was done in a font that does not lend itself to reproduction. As a result, its difficult (for me, at least) to tell the difference between the dalets (D's) and the reishes (R's), as well as between the bets (B/V's) and kafs (Kh's). It may be that after more time, I'll get used to it.

As to the tape quality, it sounds fine to me. True, the enunciations could be clearer. But, in the real world, that's true too.

I bought this set because I am a polyglot; however, I think my set was missing a decoder ring or something! The Hebrew spoken on this set is not only muffed at best, but also out of date. Just like the Standard American English of today is much different than that of 15 years ago, so is the Israeli Hebrew in this set. If you're someone that already speaks Hebrew, this might help refresh your memory. To those trying to learn Hebrew, I suggest using this series only if you have a native speaker of Israeli Hebrew on hand to bring you up to speed on where the vocabulary and grammar are currently.

I know Hebrew and I used the tapes (and just them) to refresh my memory. The book in my version was copyrighted 1988.

On the positive side, the speakers are native Israelis, and the texts and cassettes are VERY extensive. Also, I had no problem with the sound quality of the cassettes. They were VERY clear!

On the relatively minor side:

0 The dialogues require 2 men and 2 women, so that the male-to-male and female-to-female forms can be properly practiced, not just the male-female forms. Unfortunately, only one man and one woman are used. Another anomaly is that the woman sometimes refers to herself as a male, and vice versa for the man. The results are bizarre when they happen.

o The speakers often slip into a peculiar singsong with arbitrary emphasis on particular words or an intonation that expresses irritation or impatience. God forbid that learners should pick up this bizarre pattern.

o The text was a bit obsolete (e.g., the currency was still the lira, not the shekel).

On the MAJOR negative side:

o the texts lack diacritical marks, essential for beginners. The font is often faded, making the text harder for the beginner to make out (eg. it may be difficult or impossible to distinguish visually a "bet" from a "kaf").

o The course focused almost exclusively on conjugations. There were no translations from English to Hebrew. There was little attention to vocabulary buildup. One has to be VERY motivated to endure 12 cassettes of conjugations.

Unfortunately, I don't know of any alternative Hebrew course of a comparable scope, so the serious learner may have no choice; but that does not make the Barron's course good.