need advice

[rachael9]

Hello Everybody. My username is Rachael9. I am an American lady of mature years.  I have always been good in English; but didn't do well in an attempt at French when young; tho ok in Latin.  I do not have a very good memory.  I want to visit Israel, and so thought I'd try to learn Hebrew.  I only just started at the children's level.  I find I learn better when I start new things at the kid level.  It is more structured, step by step, and doesn't assume previous knowledge.  I was beginning the Hebrew alefbeit.  I saw that, unlike English; Hebrew printing bears no resemblance to Hebrew writing.  So it was already hard to learn the sound.  Then I was supposed to learn the printing, and the totally different writing.  Plus the strange vowel system of dots and dashes.  Not to mention having to read and write backwards [for me;lol].  I feel like I'll never be able to learn all of these things.  I feel if I tried, I'd have to devote most of my time, and at my age, not a good idea.  Meanwhile, I  like to write poetry and stories in English, and feel that perhaps I should concentrate my efforts where my skill set is. So I felt that I needed some advice from people who know far more than I do about language learning, and about Hebrew.  So that took me to your site.  Let the wisdom begin. And thanks.

 

[rachael9]

Well, Thursday night and still no reply.  Did I ask for help in the wrong forum section? Where should I post the above?

Thanks

[宇崎ちゃん]

There are 3 issues actually.

1. Wrong section indeed (no need to open a new topic elsewhere, I can move it to where it's supposed to go to).
2. The lack of using any breaks makes it extremely difficult to read your post and get your question at all. Please use the "enter" key more often.
3. If I understand the wall of text good enough, your question is about Hebrew, right? I can't recall any Hebrew members here.

[linguaholic]

On 12.12.2016 at 11:49 PM, rachael9 said:

Hello Everybody. My username is Rachael9. I am an American lady of mature years.  I have always been good in English; but didn't do well in an attempt at French when young; tho ok in Latin.  I do not have a very good memory.  I want to visit Israel, and so thought I'd try to learn Hebrew.  I only just started at the children's level.  I find I learn better when I start new things at the kid level.  It is more structured, step by step, and doesn't assume previous knowledge.  I was beginning the Hebrew alefbeit.  I saw that, unlike English; Hebrew printing bears no resemblance to Hebrew writing.  So it was already hard to learn the sound.  Then I was supposed to learn the printing, and the totally different writing.  Plus the strange vowel system of dots and dashes.  Not to mention having to read and write backwards [for me;lol].  I feel like I'll never be able to learn all of these things.  I feel if I tried, I'd have to devote most of my time, and at my age, not a good idea.  Meanwhile, I  like to write poetry and stories in English, and feel that perhaps I should concentrate my efforts where my skill set is. So I felt that I needed some advice from people who know far more than I do about language learning, and about Hebrew.  So that took me to your site.  Let the wisdom begin. And thanks.

 

Hi Rachel

I am not studying Hebrew, but I am studying Chinese. So, in terms of effort, I guess I understand what you are talking about. No matter what your age is, I am pretty sure you can still learn that language. I studied Sinology (Chinese Studies) at University, and we had a 70 year old woman that was studying with us. She was still able to learn Chinese at the age of 70. If you have passion for what you are doing, you can do it. That is my opinion. And I am pretty sure you are not even near 70 years old