If you’ve taken Hebrew at the Rothberg International School, you’ll definitely know why this class was my favorite. The first few Hebrew classes felt like a room filled with students from every spot in the world, speaking languages that I had never heard in my whole life. We could barely communicate. Weeks passed and everything started to feel different. Those students who I met a very short time ago became my new family. We were not a huge class with hundreds of students as people usually imagine, since it’s a university class, but a small, close class. The relationship we forged was strong, and everyone knew each other as if they were brothers or sisters.
The atmosphere during that class was special; the way we learned influenced the understanding between us. We did exercises, read texts, or did other activities in couples or in small groups, which helped improve our language skills and encouraged us to speak more. Every student had the opportunity to express their feelings or tell a story or share an idea that caught their attention, whatever it was. Everyone was ready to listen; everyone cared and wanted to be an active part. That class was a combination of learning and fun. I’ll never forget the countless educational games we played, which really felt as though we were only having fun even though we were learning new things at the same time.
Although Hebrew classes were almost always very early in the morning, and we had tons of homework every day that we had to submit with no delay, it was really worth it. In my first class, I barely knew how to make a sentence, but now, after a year, I feel like I can speak the language fluently – let’s say, almost fluently.
