One great thing about making aliyah is connecting with friends who you haven't seen / socialized with in years - lots of our friends have made aliyah over the years and of course we've sort of lost touch. Maybe we'd see them when we'd come for a visit, but to be honest when you've come to visit with your kids and grandkids any millisecond spent away from them seems like a colossal loss.
So now we are starting (yes, we've been here two years and yes, we are just starting, so deal with it) to re-connect.
Bern, through various odd circumstances, found two of his old friends from YU - one was his dorm counselor there, who'd been here for many years, and one just made aliyah 6 months ago.
We were invited to dinner at the home of the new olim in Jerusalem. I was expecting a lovely dinner with conversation, in English, about aliyah, our kids, grandkids, etc. WRONG.
When the second couple arrived, our hostess greeted her in Hebrew. Uh oh. Wait - is she Israeli?
Yes, she was Israeli. And guess what - the language of the evening was Hebrew. I mean it's only polite that when one person is Israeli, the rest of the guests speak in Hebrew. So I greeted her as well and my head started pounding.
And then the unthinkable happened - the Israeli wife and I found ourselves in the living room by ourselves. NO! Now I have to speak in Hebrew! HELP! SOS! Well, help did not arrive, so speak I did.
I actually was OK. At one point, Hebrew words were flowing out of what I think was my mouth and the woman didn't give me looks like, "Oh my God, she's been here two years and she still speaks like a 2 year old" At least I didn't think so, because she asked me questions and I answered them, so I believe what we were doing was considered having a conversation in Hebrew.
We were there for 3 hours, and spoke Hebrew the whole time. I even waxed eloquent at one point about how we love having Friday as a "get ready for Shabbat" day instead of a work day and how that makes Shabbat an entirely different experience than outside of Israel.
At one point I could not think of how to say a phrase in Hebrew, so I just said it in English and Israeli wife nodded.
Wait a minute. You understand English?
But, no matter, I'm sure she was more comfortable trying to figure out what the heck I was trying to say in my broken Ulpan Hebrew, than trying to understand my English.
Now, having said all that, I don't know if, as they were driving home, the Israeli-wife couple was laughing themselves sick over my grammar/botched vocabulary, and saying things like, "Did she say ____? Please tell me she did not use that word!" But I'll never know, will I?
As for me, I THINK I did ok. All I know is that I was exhausted by the end of the evening.
I mean, that's a lot of grammar to remember, put in the right context, and get out of one's mouth the right way.
So now we are starting (yes, we've been here two years and yes, we are just starting, so deal with it) to re-connect.
Bern, through various odd circumstances, found two of his old friends from YU - one was his dorm counselor there, who'd been here for many years, and one just made aliyah 6 months ago.
We were invited to dinner at the home of the new olim in Jerusalem. I was expecting a lovely dinner with conversation, in English, about aliyah, our kids, grandkids, etc. WRONG.
When the second couple arrived, our hostess greeted her in Hebrew. Uh oh. Wait - is she Israeli?
Yes, she was Israeli. And guess what - the language of the evening was Hebrew. I mean it's only polite that when one person is Israeli, the rest of the guests speak in Hebrew. So I greeted her as well and my head started pounding.
And then the unthinkable happened - the Israeli wife and I found ourselves in the living room by ourselves. NO! Now I have to speak in Hebrew! HELP! SOS! Well, help did not arrive, so speak I did.
I actually was OK. At one point, Hebrew words were flowing out of what I think was my mouth and the woman didn't give me looks like, "Oh my God, she's been here two years and she still speaks like a 2 year old" At least I didn't think so, because she asked me questions and I answered them, so I believe what we were doing was considered having a conversation in Hebrew.
We were there for 3 hours, and spoke Hebrew the whole time. I even waxed eloquent at one point about how we love having Friday as a "get ready for Shabbat" day instead of a work day and how that makes Shabbat an entirely different experience than outside of Israel.
At one point I could not think of how to say a phrase in Hebrew, so I just said it in English and Israeli wife nodded.
Wait a minute. You understand English?
But, no matter, I'm sure she was more comfortable trying to figure out what the heck I was trying to say in my broken Ulpan Hebrew, than trying to understand my English.
Now, having said all that, I don't know if, as they were driving home, the Israeli-wife couple was laughing themselves sick over my grammar/botched vocabulary, and saying things like, "Did she say ____? Please tell me she did not use that word!" But I'll never know, will I?
As for me, I THINK I did ok. All I know is that I was exhausted by the end of the evening.
I mean, that's a lot of grammar to remember, put in the right context, and get out of one's mouth the right way.
I speak THE most jumbled mix of Heblish ever. Basically my MO is to say as much in Hebrew as I can, while maintaining a normal pace of conversation, and just replace anything I don't know with English. Seems to be working OK :)
ReplyDeleteKol hakavod to you!