Hebrew letters, which students are learning in Associate Professor of English Patricia Bart’s informal class on the Hebrew alphabet at her home.
Wikimedia Commons | Courtesy
Associate Professor of English Patricia Bart has invited 15 students to study the Hebrew alphabet at her home in downtown Hillsdale on Sundays.
At the beginning of the semester, Bart asked students she knew had gone on the winter break Israel trip with the Philos Project and others she thought would have interest in studying Hebrew to attend the informal study. Bart is on sabbatical this semester but was looking for students who could join in her ongoing study of Hebrew.
Bart said she has just over a dozen students attending and with any more students it would be hard to have a back-and-forth discussion about and interaction with the language. Instead of inviting more students to join, she encouraged students to get together in small groups with someone from her informal class and, eventually, take Assistant Professor of Religion Don Westblade’s Introduction to Hebrew class.
She said her informal study should act as a springboard, not a replacement, for his formal course. Students learning the alphabet with her will arrive to Westblade’s class with a comfort level they might not otherwise.
At this time, Bart said her class looks like home schooling first graders. Students are learning the Hebrew alphabet through songs, and Bart said she hopes by the end of the semester they will be sounding out words.
“Because I’m a widow with no children, this is my chance to do home schooling,” Bart said.
She said she hopes students won’t get frustrated with or be intimidated by Hebrew.
Bart said it takes the average person all of kindergarten and most of first grade to learn to read and write English, so students shouldn’t be surprised that it takes a while to learn Hebrew.
Westblade said he usually sends students who preregister for his class help with learning the alphabet, but “Pat’s home school” gives extra help.
Westblade has taught his Hebrew course about six times over the years, typically around the time when students start asking for it. Right now, the class is scheduled for 9 a.m. in the fall of 2017.
“The biggest difference in studying Hebrew compared to Greek or Latin is there are almost no cognates,” Westblade said. “Students know ‘Shalom,’ and that’s about it.”
Thus, Westblade said, students must use brute force to memorize words, and the grammar, albeit simple, is inflected differently from romance languages.
Additionally, students must learn to read “backwards,” or from right to left. Westblade said the point of his class is to teach enough vocabulary and grammar that after students leave the class, they can work through everything in the Old Testament.
He said he first learned Hebrew in seminary and then again before graduate school.
“I take it again every time I teach,” Westblade said. “I have a good memory; it’s just short.”
Bart said she learned the Hebrew alphabet four times before it stuck.
Senior Claire Lewis said she, too, has struggled to remember the foreign language.
“I took it a couple grades ago and promptly forgot everything,” said Lewis, who took Westblade’s course and is also in Bart’s informal study. “This is my chance to get back into it and refresh it.”
Lewis said the study with Bart is fantastic.
“She’s been teaching us to learn,” Lewis said. “She’s giving students the tools we need to continue on our own and not be intimidated by the language.”
Bart said she grew up in a neighborhood with a large Jewish population, so she had many Jewish friends who were learning Hebrew in Saturday school.
She first delved into the study of Hebrew while she was in graduate school and has continued her casual study ever since. She said she has studied Hebrew for, on average, five minutes every night for more than 20 years. Her brain is just as sensitive to learning languages today as it has ever been, but it is not like that for everyone, she said.
Bart is proficient in German and Latin and can understand Italian and French very well. She said she loves languages.
“I am a complete dork. I don’t care what people think,” Bart said. “I’m not afraid to sound stupid.”
Lewis said she shares Bart’s enthusiasm for language and has taken a course or more in every language Hillsdale offers, except German. Like Bart and Westblade, Lewis feels attracted to studying Hebrew so that she can read the Bible in its original language.
“Nobody wants to go find a translator for a love letter,” Westblade said. “You want to read it yourself, and the Bible is God’s love letter to us.”
