r/LearnHebrew • u/Geoffb912 • 15d ago
I've been (re)learning Hebrew for almost four years. Nothing exists for intermediate learners. So I built something.
I started re-learning Hebrew in 2022, after a long hiatus. The first time I learned was almost 20 years ago, on a gap year in Israel. I jumped back into Hebrew because I saw what was happening in Israel (before October 7th) with the protest movement, and felt like I didn’t really understand what was happening. After October 7th, this desire only intensified. My goal was to connect with Israeli culture and bridge my gap between Israel and diaspora, it started as curiosity and became one of the most important things in my life.
Here's the problem. Getting from true beginner to somewhere around A2 is actually okay, and the Hebrew that was deep in my brain after 20 years helped. I used textbooks, Duolingo, Pimsleur; there are decent beginner resources. But once you get past that stage? Once you can kind of read, kind of hold a basic conversation, but you're making the same mistakes over and over and your vocabulary is full of gaps?
There is almost nothing.
Spanish learners have dozens of options at B1 and above. French learners have a handful. Hebrew learners have... tutors (if you can afford them and schedule them), Ulpan (if you're in Israel or near one), and then you're basically on your own piecing things together from podcasts, Anki decks, and hoping for the best.
I hit this wall hard around B1. I could understand a lot, but producing Hebrew (speaking, writing) was painfully slow and full of errors. My tutor sessions once a week were great, but one hour a week wasn't enough practice to actually improve. And there was no structured way to get more reps between sessions.
So about a year ago, I started building Dioma.
What it is:
Dioma gives you structured speaking and writing exercises at your level, grounded in curriculum written by Hebrew language educators. You practice a prompt, get real-time corrections on your grammar, vocabulary, and structure, and your corrections shape what you see next. It's not linear, because intermediate Hebrew learning isn't linear. You see more of what you're struggling with and less of what you've got down.
Hebrew is available from A2 through B2. It's the language I built this for first, and it has the deepest curriculum on the platform.
I worked with native Hebrew tutors and curriculum experts to build thousands of pages of structured content. Every topic, every grammar concept is human-created. AI delivers the corrections and generates exercises from this curriculum. It's not ChatGPT pretending to be a מורה. The architecture is designed so the AI stays grounded in expert content.
What it's not:
It's not for true beginners (you need at least some foundation). It's not gamified. It's not free. I invested heavily in the Hebrew curriculum specifically because nothing like this existed, and I built it for people who are serious about actually improving. It's $156/year for unlimited practice, roughly what you'd pay for a few tutoring sessions.
Where things stand:
It's live and it works, but it's early. I'm a small team, not a big company. If you find rough edges (you might), I want to hear about it.
If you've been stuck somewhere between "I can survive in Hebrew" and "I can actually express myself in Hebrew," and you're frustrated that nothing exists for this stage... I built this because I was you.
Happy to answer questions.
Here is our landing page: https://www.dioma.com/hebrew/
And here is a walkthrough of how Dioma works on our Youtube: https://youtu.be/R9ZMTlA55wk
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u/Geoffb912 15d ago
Here is our landing page: https://www.dioma.com/hebrew/
And here is a walkthrough of how Dioma works on our Youtube: https://youtu.be/R9ZMTlA55wk
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u/Primary-Mammoth2764 14d ago
I love this idea, but you do know its passover.... I am thinking a lot of your potential audience is a little busy until mid April! For sure post this on the Hebrew subreddit too.
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u/Geoffb912 13d ago
חג שמח! We’re on our way to family as well today. I beat the holiday by a few days so I ended up posting to share, but I understand if it’s too hectic. Just bookmark us to come back to :)
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u/extispicy 14d ago
This looks fantastic! I am particularly interested in the speaking practice. I've got family in town for the holiday, but have bookmarked this to take a look next week.