Ulpan started this week

I started Ulpan this week and it's been very interesting. It is a very intensive Hebrew language program, five hours a day, with two to three hours of homework a night. I have been trying to do all my homework promptly because I'm afraid that if I fall a little bit behind, then I'm going to be totally lost. I was actually up until 12:30 last night finishing my homework. This is a new thing for me, usually I convince myself that I understand it until I review for the test and realize I'm lost, then I panic, cram, and manage to just get by.

It's also interesting to be in the class with the wide range of students. I'm in the gimel class (3rd level) which is considered the "in-between" class. The first two classes are mostly grammar and basic vocabulary, and then then the next three classes are advanced grammar, vocabulary, and text skill. This means that most people in the class are like me in that they have some past Hebrew experience, but have gaps in their knowledge because they learned Hebrew in many different places.

My spoken Hebrew is probably close to the top of the class, but my grammar is probably the worst. Many of the people complain that the class is too easy because they know all the words and all the grammar, but then they open their mouths and sound like they just got off the boat. So the class focuses on teaching spoken Hebrew and written Hebrew. The spoken parts are boring for me because my level is higher than the class', but I had to request extra grammar help from the teacher because I'm totally lost in that department. One of the nice things about the class is that it is trying to bring everyone to the same level so includes a full review of basic grammar. I asked one of the teachers to give me extra grammar worksheets and hopefully, my grammar will no longer be, as Gila puts it, "creative".

Another interesting aspect of this particular class is the diversity of the students. There was a catholic monk in the class for the first day, but he switched to another class. There is an orthodox rabbi, several students fresh out of undergrad, a bunch of people who are doing prep for year programs (like me), and a random assortment of others. By and large an interesting group. Though another difference is that I'm not really here to make friends, so I'm actually able to focus on my school work instead of spending the first few weeks trying to get to know everyone.

Debra's Ulpan starts next week, so I'm curious to see the differences between the two.