Thursday, May 10, 2012

My Head Won't Stop - HaRosh Sheli ......

Today we had a day off from Ulpan since it was Lag B'Omer and schools are closed (the Ulpan people follow the school schedule).

We had a nice day at the beach in Rishon LeZion.  We drove there with no problems, it is a beautiful place, the weather was perfect, I got to watch Tani and Amichai play and be cute, etc.  The problem was that after almost 3 months of Ulpan, my head will not stop thinking about Hebrew words.  I kept listening to people on the beach having conversations and trying to translate them.

It's kind of like when little kids start reading and you take them on a road trip and they say "What's that say, Mommy?"  "What's THAT say?"  and it drives you crazy, but you're pleased because after all it means the little kid is learning to read and is curious.

So indeed I am pleased that I am learning Hebrew but I would like to find a way for my brain to take a rest for a few hours.  Everywhere I go now I am looking at the words and trying to figure out if it is paal, hiphil, hitpael, pilpul, liplip, dipdip, hoophoop, etc. 

I am trying to figure out its shoresh (root) and then figure out what the word means from that.  I am trying to "use it in a sentence" like we do in Ulpan every day.  I am taking it from present to past to future.  Help!

I guess when you are learning a (relatively) new language for 4 hours 5 days every week it gets so deep into your head that you can't stop.  As I am falling to sleep, almost every night, I hear phrases in my head that wake me up.  "Wait, what was that?  I KNOW that word!  We learned it!"

And then sometimes a word just comes into my head and I don't know what it means.  I am usually driving at the time so I can't pull out my phone and ask Mr. Morfix.  It drives me crazy until I figure it out. 

Then there are those groups of words that kind of sound alike and you know you learned them but you don't know which one to use - like l'hophia and l'haphria - very different, but so similar sounding!

And I find that I started talking to myself.  I keep saying phrases that I've heard or trying to figure out how to express something in Hebrew. 

Granted, my mumblings have become more advanced - why just the other day I used a "hitpael" that I didn't even knew I knew.

So all in all it's good but sometimes I feel like I'm going out of my mind.  Yotzei min harosh?

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