Back in 1994, I first began to learn Hebrew. Most books were just too difficult; for example, I ordered the "Foreign Service Institute" course. It taught the entire alphabet on one page, then jumped into complex lessons with no vowels.
On an out-of-town business trip, I finally discovered a book of exercises that teach a person to easily read the Hebrew letters. The book taught one or two letters per chapter, and slowly introduced the vowels (or Nikud). Each lesson progressed by adding one or two Hebrew letters, and another vowel or two.
Using this system, I was able to master "site reading" of Hebrew. In other words, even if I didn't understand the words I was reading, I could sound-out each word in the Sidur (prayer book) or the Hebrew Bible, or a Hebrew lesson book. The only problem was, sometimes I was still guessing and didn't have anyone to confirm if my new reading abilities were correct or not.
Thus, I was left wanting more. If you are lucky to have a personal Hebrew tutor, then they can hear you pronounce a word or phrase, then they can correct any mistakes you make. But not everyone has the luxury of their own private Hebrew teacher. As a computer programmer, I thought that it would be be so much better to have a computer tutorial that would show the words, then let you try to pronounce them. After that, you would be able to click on the word, to confirm if you had pronunced it correctly or not. And thus, "At Home with Hebrew" was born.
My search began to find Hebrew fonts that were appropriate, and a good multimedia software program called "Toolbook". That was the easy part; the hard part was developing the dozens of words, lessons, and system of combingin them. I almost wore out the pages of my printed Hebrew dictionary.
One of the challenges was deciding the order in which to teach the Hebrew letters and vowels. Another challenge was just the shear volume of words that had to be keyed in the computer. There was no easy Hebrew word processor, so the data entry was a big challenge. The final challenge, was recording over 2700 Hebrew word and sound files, so that program would be able to pronounce each and every word.
To make the product look professional, I had to hire an artist to create the CD/ROM jacket. She did a beautiful job, and we had to print something like 5000 minimum covers, even though I only create 100 CD/ROMS or less at a time. The program became a success, and since 1994, our company has sold hundreds of the tutorial.
"At Home with Hebrew" was a true labor of love. I invested almost two years of my evenings putting it together. It also helped me to become a success entrepreneur, learning about marketing on the world wide web. - 16069
On an out-of-town business trip, I finally discovered a book of exercises that teach a person to easily read the Hebrew letters. The book taught one or two letters per chapter, and slowly introduced the vowels (or Nikud). Each lesson progressed by adding one or two Hebrew letters, and another vowel or two.
Using this system, I was able to master "site reading" of Hebrew. In other words, even if I didn't understand the words I was reading, I could sound-out each word in the Sidur (prayer book) or the Hebrew Bible, or a Hebrew lesson book. The only problem was, sometimes I was still guessing and didn't have anyone to confirm if my new reading abilities were correct or not.
Thus, I was left wanting more. If you are lucky to have a personal Hebrew tutor, then they can hear you pronounce a word or phrase, then they can correct any mistakes you make. But not everyone has the luxury of their own private Hebrew teacher. As a computer programmer, I thought that it would be be so much better to have a computer tutorial that would show the words, then let you try to pronounce them. After that, you would be able to click on the word, to confirm if you had pronunced it correctly or not. And thus, "At Home with Hebrew" was born.
My search began to find Hebrew fonts that were appropriate, and a good multimedia software program called "Toolbook". That was the easy part; the hard part was developing the dozens of words, lessons, and system of combingin them. I almost wore out the pages of my printed Hebrew dictionary.
One of the challenges was deciding the order in which to teach the Hebrew letters and vowels. Another challenge was just the shear volume of words that had to be keyed in the computer. There was no easy Hebrew word processor, so the data entry was a big challenge. The final challenge, was recording over 2700 Hebrew word and sound files, so that program would be able to pronounce each and every word.
To make the product look professional, I had to hire an artist to create the CD/ROM jacket. She did a beautiful job, and we had to print something like 5000 minimum covers, even though I only create 100 CD/ROMS or less at a time. The program became a success, and since 1994, our company has sold hundreds of the tutorial.
"At Home with Hebrew" was a true labor of love. I invested almost two years of my evenings putting it together. It also helped me to become a success entrepreneur, learning about marketing on the world wide web. - 16069
About the Author:
See free example videos showing how "At Home With Hebrew" at Learn Hebrew and learn more about Video Training
