Practice Your Hebrew

Hebrew practice over the phone with Intel employees

אישה עם חיג'אב יושבת ומתרגלת עברית עם אישי עם שיער פזור

Lissan has been providing practical Hebrew courses for women for over a decade, and the demand continues to grow. While our courses provide our students with the language skills necessary to navigate the public domain in Jerusalem independently - allowing better access to healthcare, government and municipal services, and employment opportunities, our students still felt that they lacked a framework to practice their Hebrew speaking skills. In response to this need, we launched Practice Your Hebrew.

Practice your Hebrew is a project in partnership with Intel which matches mid-higher level students from Medabrot Ivrit - Women Speaking Hebrew with volunteers from Intel to practice their Hebrew one-on-one over the phone. Participants are provided with a series of predefined topics, and each conversation is followed by a practice exercise to be completed by the student, allowing our students to become more confident in their Hebrew speaking skills.

In the words of Intel volunteer, Yavniella Cohen-Angel

Over my years at Intel I have volunteered much, but I haven’t had such a fun volunteer opportunity in a long time

Because what is one of my favorite things to do? Talk!

And to point out other people’s mistakes! Just kidding… 😉

Lissan provides Hebrew courses to Arab women in Jerusalem. The courses alone are not enough so we volunteered just to talk and practice!

As a volunteer I chatted over the phone with two amazing women (6 times with each), completely different from each other, in different places in their lives… During a difficult time with terrorist attacks and protests we were able to speak in joy and partnership, they practiced their Hebrew and I discovered an entire world… We had defined conversation topics, but I learned so much and even improved my limited Arabic.

In Renan's words

When learning a new language, there is always that initial

fear of speaking and communicating with others. The fear to speak stems from the fact that we don’t know enough phrases in Hebrew in order to have a fluent conversation. And since in a conversation you need to respond quickly, we get confused and scared that the person we are speaking to will laugh at us.

So the conversation on the phone with an Intel volunteer was a good opportunity and an interesting way to listen and to speak directly with someone and to use the words that I had learned.

My teacher was very cute and patient. We spoke together about a number of topics that enriched my language. She also corrected some of my mistakes, which I wouldn’t have otherwise noticed.

-Renan