At the beginning of the year, Ben found website called italki.com that connected people who wnted to learn a language with a tutor that is a certified teacher in teaching the language of their choice.
Ben has been interested in learning Hebrew since 2013 when we started learning Biblical Hebrew. Then last summer we got Modern Hebrew on Rosetta Stone. It was challenging to adjust to the letters and the completely different soundinh words, but the familiarity has become second nature for many words now.
When he found this site, and found some teachers that looked high quality and worth checking out, we decided to do some trial lessons and see how it went. It went really well and we have been taking lessons for a month now and we have improved drastically. The motivation level helps when you have a weekly or biweekly lesson and homework to prepare for.
There was another website, called memrise, that has a community that puts together flash cards with audio on some for learning vocabulary. This has been a great motivating tool for me because I love competition (you get points for learning and reviewing words).
During a lesson, we use Skype and a Google Doc that we can both contribute to and work through topics that we need to learn and new vocabulary words. Today we we working on numbers and shmichoot (which is construct state) and more vocabulary. We have conversation, sometimes scripted and sometimes attempted natural. We also talk about our lives in English and we get to know our teachers.
The cost ranges from 20/hr to 30/hr for a certified teacher, but most languages are affordable, and one can always choose a language partner or community tutor that is not certified and pay less or not at all.
The goal is fluency in the home (!) and to teach our children this language, so it will be interesting to see where we are six months from now and one year from now. We plan on using our tutors for as long as it takes.
Have a question? Ask me!
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