A Proverb in Amharic.

Today my field instructor taught me a really interesting proverb in Amharic. Amharic is the language that is spoken in Ethiopia. In Amharic they say that when someone points at you with one finger, complaining or excusing you of something, they have three fingers that are pointing at them. When you point at someone else, you should always remember that three fingers point back at you and you should ask yourself what you have done to make things the way they are. Rather than complaining, you should ask yourself how you can create change for yourself. I wish I knew how to say it in Amharic, but although I do work with a non-profit that works with the Ethiopian community, everyone speaks Hebrew. Perhaps I will ask my field instructor how to say this in Amharic.

Today I reached a benchmark as I strive to regain my Hebrew back. While I do my work in English, I hear Hebrew every day in the office. I went on an adventure today by myself to find the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. My benchmark reitterated the fact that confidence is key in learning to speak a different language. What I have lacked is the confidence in myself to speak with mistakes. The struggle has held me back and the frustration has created barriars up until recently. When I got to the Israel Museum I went to get a ticket to enter and started speaking the the sales person in Hebrew. Out of no where all this Hebrew just flowed out of my mouth and I guess I was just amazed that perhaps I was just holding myself back. The salesperson wondered where I learned my Hebrew because I spoke very well. So today I reached a benchmark, reach a goal and I am some how managing to regain my Hebrew abilities back along with gaining new vocabulary without spending money on an Ulpan class.

I woke up the other day and was chatting with a friend on facebook and writing to her in Hebrew. When suddenly I had this realization. If I could write in Hebrew and have a conversation than I can speak in Hebrew. So that day I went to work, threw my fears out the door and had a conversation in Hebrew with one of the Israeli girls that works in the office. Up until that point I was nervous and didn't know how to approach talking to her because I thought I couldn't speak in Hebrew. With that, I am approaching my learning in a new way. I still struggle sometimes with understanding. Some people are more clear to me than others. But I've already made significant progress in the last few days!

The other day I sat through a meeting in Hebrew and was able to make out parts of it. But the reality was that since I lacked a lot of the vocab used it was difficult to follow. While I learned later that I missed the important parts of the conversation, I came up with a whole new set of vocab. I can now say "vision" in hebrew, which I feel is a really great word to know!

Along with this, I have started with my roommate a Hebrew wall on a pillar in my apartment that was painted with paint you can on with chalk. I've decided there should be a word of the day. Yesterdays was "Alarm clock" and the day before it was "toothpick." Now that I think of it, I did not pick a word of the day for today.

Todays word of the day is, ’’נאנח''– In english it means "sighing." I learned it today when I went to buy envelopes. The salesman said "Why are you sighing" but all i heard was "why blah blah" Which is usually how people sound to me if I don't know the words.

to be continued....