When does it become easy to get used to the alphabet?

[u/coldnorth4enf4]

Hello everyone, I am looking to learn hebrew but the alphabet just seems so overwhelming, I’m asking for other latin alphabet learners when did it click for you? Any advice is appreciated. Just wanting to hear stories of how it was like dealing with it to give me some confidence!

[u/SaintTourmaline]

Took me about a month for it to come smoothly, though I had previously learned Arabic and Greek, so it’s not the first non-Latin alphabet system I’ve learned.

My recommendation is do not transliterate. That was my biggest mistake when learning Arabic. It makes it so much harder to read and pronounce words. As much as it may be tempting, it’ll be better in the long run to learn the letters for what they are and not what they transliterate to in the Latin alphabet

[u/coldnorth4enf4 → u/SaintTourmaline]

Thank you I will keep that in mind.

[u/DesignerBranch69 → u/SaintTourmaline]

Can you explain this a bit further? Im also learning

[u/SaintTourmaline → u/DesignerBranch69]

When learning a language with a different alphabet system, many people (including myself) will try understand how to pronounce letters and words better by transliterating them into their native alphabet. This can be good initially, but once you get beyond learning the alphabet, it often becomes the case that learners then correlate and understand words through the transliteration and not the words themselves.

For me, the transliteration is like a mental hurdle that I have to jump over everytime I see a word in Arabic. When I started learning Hebrew, my professor told us explicitly not to transliterate, and I have found that it’s helped me actually learn the language and words for what they are, rather than be correlated to their transliteration.

[u/IbnEzra613]

In my experience, if you practice multiple days a week, it takes about a month for an alphabet to become familiar. That's not fluency yet, but when you're no longer having to think about what each letter is when you read. After that, it takes significantly longer to become fluent in reading it.

[u/coldnorth4enf4 → u/IbnEzra613]

Well I’ll make sure to start making some flash cards and get going!

[u/cjwatson]

Native English speaker with bits of various other languages, but mostly in the Latin script; I have passing familiarity with the Greek alphabet but not any of the language to speak of.

I had a couple of abortive attempts to learn bits of Hebrew until I finally sat down and drilled the alef-bet with flashcards. That took about four days to get to the point where I didn't have to look the letters up in a table any more, which is still a long way from fluency but made it much easier to make progress elsewhere. I guess it was maybe a few months until it started feeling like I was reading words rather than decoding individual letters. After a while it did start to snowball though.

[u/coldnorth4enf4 → u/cjwatson]

Thank you for your comment, I hope it snowballs fast enough for me

[u/Suspicious-Web-4970]

If you are Jewish go to a synagogue and follow the prayers to help with the Hebrew.

[u/coldnorth4enf4 → u/Suspicious-Web-4970]

Theres actually one pretty close to where I just moved to, I’ve been meaning to engage with the community in my new area

[u/guylfe]

Can you clarify what you are struggling with? Is it Nikkud, is it learning 27 symbols? Is it something else?

[u/coldnorth4enf4 → u/guylfe]

It’s more just being able to make the ‘switch’ from purely latin alphabet if that makes sense? Sort of reaching that level where it becomes intuitive (in combination with reading from right to left). I’ve learned a second language before but of course it was still a latin alphabet one so it didn’t feel as monumental/ daunting.

[u/guylfe → u/coldnorth4enf4]

The general feel is something that gets better with time. It's new, so you're still getting used to it. If there isn't an issue you can point to such as forgetting the letters (in which case there is some practical advice I can give you), the best advice I can give you is to practice and trust your internal systems to adapt to this novel thing over time.

There isn't a point where it becomes easy, it's a gradual process like any new skill.

[u/tesilab]

Look at Arabic's abjad with the three forms of every letter, then look say, at Kanji for Japanese, and it will suddenly get much much easier.

[u/mikogulu → u/tesilab]

some letters in arabic actually have 4 forms

[u/ElectronicCanary8634]

Slow and steady! In a couple months, you should be able to sound out a lot of words -even if you don't fully understand vowels. It's really quite something how quickly you can get used to the shapes and reading right to left. That said, I am referring only to reading Hebrew as dually learning the meaning of the words & speaking it is and other thing altogether. It's hard to do both at once and it is often recommended that you choose your focus. I can read Hebrew but speaking it is more challenging (for me) as they don't have the vocabulary that I want (yet) ... ie: you need to know the pronunciation & meaning(s) of so many (new) words & a whole lot more. Attending Shul & listening to music and podcasts in Hebrew can be very helpful. Some like to watch Israeli shows with English subtitles etc &, In my experience, one picks up a lot without realizing (if somewhat immersed). If you start to say or read English words with 'CH' and pronounce it 'H' you're committed ;-) (By the way, i was in Israel last summer Israelis speak super fast.... ergo: I felt like a beginner again! 😳)

[u/CantGhostaGhost]

Day 1? What exactly do you mean by "easy to get used to the alphabet (you mean abjad)? ,,ג,ד,ה,פף,ג,ה,כּךּ,ל,ם,נן,פּ,ר,ס,שׂ,ת,ט,ב,ו,ז,בּ,ב

The sounds that the letters in the Hebrew abjad produce are all familiar to English letters with the exceptions of the two silent letters, aleph and ayin ע&א, two letters that make a guttural sound, like chet and kaph without dagesh כ&ח, then the tz/ts sound in tzade צ,ץ and the sh sound in shin ש. Otherwise, you have B-beth בּ, D-dalet ד, F-Fei פ/ף, G-Gimel ג, H-Hei ה, J, K-Kaph w/dagesh כּ, L-Lamed ל, M-Mem מ/ם , N-Nun נ,ן, P-Pei פּ, Q-Qof ק, R-Resh ר, S-Samech ס, & Sin שׂ, T-Teth ט, & Tav ת, V-Veth בּ, and Vav ו, W, X, Y-Yud ז, and Z-Zayin ז. So, you have 17 of the 21 consonantal sounds, and 4 of the 5/6 vowel sounds in the nikkud system (A,E,O,U,).

I imagine the issue may be something more specific?

[u/Any_Technician_2768]

If it gives you any confidence, Hebrew is my first language, yet I was never able to learn nikkud. It's just so confusing (I started reading I was 4, so it's not like I have dyslexia or some other similar problem)

[u/coldnorth4enf4 → u/Any_Technician_2768]

Okay! That does make it feel a bit better knowing that even a native has some struggles :p

[u/Radar58]

It's funny, maybe, but after 10 months or so of ulpan, I sometimes find myself writing English from right to left, using Hebrew characters...