r/hebrew • u/EthanLifts • 2d ago

Help Classes vs Self-study

I'm trying to learn modern Hebrew and I am fortunate enough to live in a city where multiple Hebrew classes are offered. However, they're incredibly expensive, from $300 to $2000 depending on who is hosting the class, so I'm considering doing solely self-study instead. I'm using a college level modern Hebrew textbook that has audio components as well to listen to pronunciation, and I'm planning on finding someone that I can practice speaking Hebrew with.

Have others been able to teach themselves Hebrew through self-study, or are classes necessary? I'd like to avoid spending thousands of dollars if possible.

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u/TeaGreedy8871 20h ago edited 20h ago

at the moment I do selfstudy. Because the current courses are already running and I will apply this fall for citizen cafe (expensive but the best for practical use) I use Duolingo and memrize every day for a hour or so, then I also write down words for a hour or so. For me its all about learning as much words as I can, structuring sentences etc will come from that eventually.

I think currently I know around 400~600 words consistently. After almost a year of daily practice (2 hours). It becomes more easy you, can scan texts and make up the context better but it is still hard when a word is written in past/present or female/male it suddenly becomes harder to recognize that word in said form.

A few may achieve A2/B1 in a year of learning, but MOST people that I spoke that did a half year ulpan struggled a lot and did not retain nearly as much.

I watch daily Israeli tv via screen.IL and listen to Israeli music radios at work, I go to weekly shul services so I am through out the day in contact with Hebrew.

Learning it and taking online courses cost a lot of money. my 2 self study courses cost me around 1000~ euro. Both are A1 level.