This class is simply amazing. I teach at a local Religious Institution, and this course covers reading Hebrew phonetically (for those of you who are not in the know, the bible was originally written in Hebrew, so if you want to read the source material, you gotta have Hebrew). I’ve taught this class before, and usually cover the material in about 12 sessions. This time, the course is a crash review. Review because in a month, we’re going to be offering a Translating Biblical Hebrew course, and the requirement for that course is the ability to fluently read the language.
For those of you that have never had the pleasure of teaching archaic language classes, having more than a couple of students is pretty unusual. I have twelve! ranging from a couple of junior high kids (one of whom has just returned from a missionary trip to central America) to a couple of (very) senior citizens. I must admit to being a bit worried. the room was very crowded, and I’ve never taught this material to such a large group, let alone in a very fast (we only have 4 sessions) review.
It turns out that things went fine. We covered three chapters in an hour and a half. One of the students (only one!) didn’t already have some exposure to Hebrew, and by the end of the class, he was keeping up just fine. The rest of the class really were just needing a review. They started off a bit haltingly, but at the end of the first hour, most of them were sight-reading the words without having to check their aleph-bet charts.
Lets see: Large class, big age range, enthusiastic and well prepared students….. Sounds like a recipe for a good time, eh?
