Hebrew and English?

You probably didn’t even notice that my blog is in English, since the Times of Israel platform is an English language environment. We should stop and ask: since I have lived permanently in Israel since 1981, why is all my writing in English, when I live, work, speak and even dream in Hebrew?

Let’s go back to my very first day in Israel in 1976, just after graduating college. I landed in the early evening, with a bare understanding of Biblical Hebrew and no spoken Hebrew at all. My dorm was somewhere in Jerusalem, a city I had never been to before. Luckily for me, there was a French speaker who led me to the sherut (that’s a group taxi service that has mostly gone out of style) and helped me tell them where I needed to go.

Around 21:00, the sherut dumped me at the address I asked for, where the dorm parents of the 9-year-old boys told me in bad English that my dorm had moved across the city. I had no lirot (shekel hadn’t been invented yet) and no idea where that new address was. They lent me the money and called a taxi. Just to top it off, my suitcase was torn and the new dorm was an apartment at the top of a brand new building whose intercom wasn’t working.

Within a few months, I had basic Hebrew down: I could buy a tomato in Mahane Yehuda! Learning languages by hearing them is my personal forte, and I never did do an ulpan. Instead, I learned from the ganenet, from bank clerks, from shopkeepers, neighbors and everyone else I met along the way.

Coming back to Israel in 1981, we got an apartment from Amidar as returning Olim. I read every word of the contract, a waste of time since the bottom line was obviously they have all the rights and I have all the obligations. Oh well!  In 1983 I had my first job in Hebrew, and a year later, moved on to my first hi-tech job, writing a user manual in English.

My career in hi-tech actually started because I could write English! Writing English was critical, even though all work discussions were in Hebrew. That pattern has continued: I take notes in English of discussions in Hebrew, I write specifications, operating manuals, system descriptions, anything and everything in English.

Today, anyone in hi-tech needs a decent command of English, and often all written materials, even emails, will be in English also. But, unless there are non-Israeli participants, the spoken language of technical discussions, project meetings, lunchtime gatherings and every hallway chat is Hebrew.

So here I am, after 50 years in Israel, and my writing remains almost totally in English. I have never become truly literate in Hebrew. I can read anything—novels, legal contracts, newspaper articles, letters from school teachers, you name it—but slowly. I write very simple Hebrew, with no sense of style. That’s what happens when you develop your language skills informally.

Remember that I dream in Hebrew. I talk to my grandchildren in Hebrew. I talk to many friends, bank clerks, lawyers, colleagues and everyone else along the way in Hebrew.

My experience, and the changes in Israel over the past 50 years, tell me that you can succeed in Israel with basic Hebrew and good English. You will be much happier if you can manage your daily experience in Hebrew.