Batchler Joel
Biblical Hebrew – Level B
"I am extremely grateful for having taken the courses offered by this program. I have already completed Biblical Hebrew Course A and am now in B. My two teachers have been extremely knowledgeable, and I feel as if I can truly pick their brains when it comes to certain points. The forum is great (through Zoom), and I have never had an issue. If I have any sort of recommendation whatsoever to anyone interested, it's that you should be relatively dedicated thoughout the week. It's only one hour per session, and I put in around four hours of study per week. I personally make sure that my study is a couple of units ahead of where we are in class so that when we meet I can actually ask the questions that are most pertinent or confusing. Note cards come in handy for vocab, and I personally review verbal conjugations every month or so to make sure I still have them in my mind. One other recommendation I have is that you should honestly have a relatively firm grasp of the material covered in Course A before you're in B. That means that if you already have some Hebrew background, I would request that you have some reading material from the first course presented to you to check whether or not you can understand it. I have noticed that some of my classmates at the beginning of the semester for Course B have dropped out because of their lack of ability to keep up with the course. Course A is nice in that it eases you into the overall structure of things, but Course B, after a few weeks of review, shoots off quickly into more difficult areas. I was grateful I had my solid foundation from A. It took a moment to adjust to the faster pace of B, but now, being more than 2/3 through, I got my footing again. After having studied for about a year and a half, I am absolutely pleased with how fast I can read, how much I understand, and how fun learning this language has been. Granted, I understand that my learning style is not necessarily everyone else's learning style. It is far from immersion, which some people prefer. This course is relatively analytical, but I enjoy that (I like knowing more than the surface level). If you are already used to traditional classroom-based language learning, but at a much slower and easy-to-handle pace, you should be fine. Truly grateful for having found this institute."
