ISRAEL - JERUSALEM

Already a couple of months before I flew to Israel, I started to learn some Hebrew with Duolingo and started to ask myself whether I should have chosen a country with a more familiar language for my semester abroad. The characters and the reading from right to left were very confusing form e at first. But after some practicing I got used to it and it was even fun, because it was a bit like learning a cryptic code. With the letters I had learnt I flew to Israel, where I also took a Hebrew course to get to know my first words and phrases in Hebrew. Though there I encountered a very big problem: the Hebrew alphabet consists only of consonants. And for some reason I didn’t realise that before. So that means that you have to know the words already in order to know where to insert which vowels. Otherwise you are quite likely to pronounce everything wrong.

 Thereafter, I gave up my hopes of learning a completely new language and instead contented myself with the basics the way I had learned them for every holiday so far. And I managed surprisingly well with these in the first few weeks. For the first trips or when doing some grocery shopping, my Hebrew and, of course, GoogleTranslate were enough. Besides, most Israelis speak at least a little English. In the Academy, too, practically everyone speaks English and all exchange students received a list of all courses taught in English. This meant that communication was no problem at all and I got the chance to refresh and even improve my English. Especially in class, I often reach my limits because I still lack the subject-specific vocabulary. With every presentation, however, it gets a little easier and everyone is understanding when I'm lacking a word. I also realised that not every sentence has to be perfect for others to understand me.

 What I hadn't considered was that in a quite large part of Jerusalem, Arabic is spoken instead of Hebrew. Although the language is also read from right to left, it is a completely new alphabet in which the position of a letter in a word can mean a completely different sound. And in fact, I found my final home in Bab A-Zahara, an Arabic quarter, which presented me with new challenges when I only wanted to buy some stuff. Fortunately, one of my flatmates speaks some Arabic, which made things a little easier. However, I have hardly learned anything so far, for which I feel a bit sad. But since I have very little contact with the locals, there is no real need for that. Besides, I'm usually spoken to in English right away, because in the supermarket I either stare at a package for too long or fall off the grid purely because of my appearance.

 Because of where I live and the location of the Academy, I hear a mixture of Hebrew and Arabic almost every day. And both are also spoken at the Academy, yet I speak English almost exclusively. Even though that's good too cause it will certainly help me in later situations, I think it's a pity that I probably won't manage to learn at least one of the two languages a little better. After all, they are also an important part of a culture and society that I will only get to know in some