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December 30, 2011 | Hebrew
Language Games on KLM Airplanes
On seatbacks, you can compete in Hindi, Japanese, Greek, and many other languages.
Yesterday Brandt and I returned to New York from Genoa. I studied hours and hours on the way home, trying to get back into the Hebrew groove.
Bus from Genoa to Milan. No Flash, Because I Didn’t Think That Would Be Well Received by Fellow Passengers.
In the pre-dawn hours, I did Pimsleur lessons on a bus from Genoa to the Milan airport.
I did Pimsleur lessons while we waited for our flight in Milan.
I studied from Milan to Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, working my way as quickly as I could through Modern Hebrew: An Essential Grammar by Lewis Glinert.
This grammar is published by Routledge and last month was totally inaccessible to me. For it to make any sense I needed to know some Hebrew.
Now I can do okay with it, even though it is still too advanced, I would say. I had one of this series for Polish, too, and it is just not my favorite series—not for my purposes. These are responsible and careful books, and I like the design, but there are few exercises and much explanation.
It’s all about the exercise-to-explanation ratio! I need a really big one!
Seeing Hudson News in Milan Amused Me
Therefore, I am still without a Hebrew grammar and exercise book I like. Which is significantly impeding my progress.
By the way, I find Pimsleur impossible on airplanes. The noise of the engines makes me have to turn up the volume so high that I get headaches—which is why I stick to grammar books when I am flying.
At Schiphol I dedicated myself to eating rather than studying.
On my KLM airplane from Schiphol to JFK, I kept reading Glinert’s book, for hours, until I needed a break, at which point I discovered Berlitz games on the back of the seat in front of me.
I tried some basic games in Greek, Japanese, Russian, Hindi, Arabic, and I think Korean. The technology is pretty low-rent, but it was entertaining nonetheless.
Berlitz Word Traveler
Russian Dialogue Game
My Hindi Is Hopeless
Reading Greek Again Was Fun
Comments (4)
Nick Buijs • Posted on Fri, February 10, 2012 - 8:55 pm EST
So nice that you have been to Schiphol Amsterdam. There are many nice things to do on that airport, they have a casino, a church, a libary and a museum division of the Rijksmuseum (state museum).
Did you understood some Dutch?
Greetings from a Dutch student in Berlin
A. J. Yolofsky • Posted on Fri, May 18, 2012 - 1:43 pm EST
Your language adventures are a joy to read. I have learned quite a bit about language study from you. You really should get something from Pimsleur as it was your review that prompted me to check them out. I had previously been using Rosetta Stone, with some success, but nowhere near what I have achieved with Pimsleur. More on that later.
You have written several times about your quest for a Hebrew grammar book. There is a book Ha-yesod, available on Amazon, that while not perfect does have a comprehensive grammar review in each chapter. The chapters are relatively short and more or less present one discrete topic per chapter. I have found this book to be quite helpful in my Hebrew studies. Hope this helps.
Thanks for all your contributions and your extremely informative blog!
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Ellen Jovin • Posted on Fri, February 10, 2012 - 9:01 pm EST
I don’t remember understanding any Dutch while I was there. But I think everyone spoke to me in English. If I see Dutch in print, I can understand quite a bit (drawing on English and German). Hearing it is another story.
By coincidence, as your post came in, I was just that minute installing Dutch lessons on my iPod, so maybe I will be able to do a little better before too long!