I'm Baaaack! About Ulpan...

Ulpan Gordon, in Tel Aviv

I know this space has been strangely quiet for a while.  Sorry about the Silence of the Blogger!  I’ve had a few very busy months.  I started studying in ulpan, a full-time Hebrew course that lasts five months.  At the same time, I’ve been abroad twice, once on ‘business’ – to celebrate the High Holy Days in Boulder, Colorado – and once on pleasure – to go boat-shopping in England.  Between all that, Clara and I bought and moved into an apartment, and I’ve been through a bout of sinus congestion that took me a long time to kick – I’m still not completely over it – which sapped my strength for several weeks.

Okay, enough excuses!  I’m touched that several of my readers have inquiries as to when I would resume blogging, so I’m here to tell you that…the resumption is now.  But I’m going to change my focus.  I’m going to move away from the weekly Torah portion, on which I’ve been blogging for a number of years.  My dear friend Paul in Australia suggested that I offer some insights on life in Israel, so I’ll move in that direction for now.

Classroom in Ulpan Gordon.  Makes one feel as if one has returned to
high school, but what can you do?

Since I mentioned that I’m currently enrolled in ulpan, I’ll tell you a bit about that.  Ulpan is, for most olim, or immigrants to Israel, an unavoidable part of the process of klita, or absorption.  Many immigrants come with zero Hebrew language, many with minimal proficiency.  My Hebrew upon arrival was, I’m given to understand, higher than than most.  Nevertheless, in my initial interview with the counselor at my local office of the Ministry of Aliyah and Absorption, one question she asked was whether I was going to go to ulpan.  I told her I wanted to improve my Hebrew from the level I then held, and asked for advice.  She sent me to the local Merkaz Klita, Absorption Center, where there is an ulpan, even though it only offer a basic level course, as the staff there might be able to advise me on where I might find an course at the level appropriate for me.

Students at Ulpan Gordon enjoying the mid-morning break

I did go down to Beit Canada, the absorption center in Ashqelon, and the director was helpful, but it turned out I would have to travel to another city – Beersheva, Tel Aviv or Jerusalem – for a course that would work for me.  At about the same time, I was looking into some employment and educational opportunities and thought I might just skip the ulpan, and let my Hebrew improve through constant use.  But after a few months of going back and forth, I finally decided to enroll.  Since attending in Beersheva or Tel Aviv would require a somewhat similar commute, I decided to go to Tel Aviv figuring that I would be able to enjoy some free hours after class, enjoying the seafront or the shopping there.  I took the placement exam at Ulpan Gordon, was told that I belonged in Kita Dalet, the highest level for the immigrants’ ulpan, and I enrolled.  The course started in September.

The Ulpan Gordon is a private school, but immigrants who choose to attend there are given a voucher by the Ministry of Absorption to pay for the course.  I have to pay my own transportation costs.  (I’ll write about public transport in Israel in a later post.)  The class meets four days a week, Sunday through Wednesday, from 8.15AM to 12.50PM.  There is homework most days, especially over the break from Wednesday afternoon to Sunday morning.  Most of the homework is easy, consisting of fill-in sheets, but it does reinforce what we learned in class.  The teacher also assigns us to write compositions, and these require more effort...but being an aspiring writer I enjoy the exercise.  The teacher was shocked when I turned in my first composition, word-processed and printed on my HP inkjet printer.  The norm is hand-written pages.  Because of my work in the rabbinate, I learned to type in Hebrew a long time ago and can do so with a reasonable proficiency.  Which is a good thing, since my longhand - Hebrew or English - is difficult to decipher!

Because this is Kita Dalet, for students who already have considerable proficiency in the language, we did not have to learn how to write, nor did we have to start out by doing the verb conjugation drills that discourage so many students of Hebrew.  We focus on learning how the exceptional verbs are conjugated, and on vocabulary acquisition.  We read a lot of article on interesting subjects, some from the daily newspaper.

My class has about 25 students, far too many, but since some of them are already employed, or have young children, it seems that attendance can be spotty.  There are three major ‘blocks’ of students in the class – I jokingly refer to them as ‘mafias.’  The largest is the Russian Mafia, which seems to consist only of women.  Then there’s the French Mafia, mostly women.  Then the South American Mafia, mostly men.  There are a few oddballs:  a Hungarian woman, a Turkish man, and then the very small Anglophone Mafia:  a South African, an Australian, and me representing the good ‘ole USA.

Despite the lack of conjugation drills – which I really don’t mind, truth be told – the course can be knock-your-head-against-the-wall frustrating.  But it’s a rite of passage, and in the end I’m glad I decided to endure it.  It will not make me fluent in Hebrew; I’m afraid that only years of living here, and constantly working at it, will be the only way to achieve that level of proficiency.  Still, as inadequate as ulpan might be, it speaks volumes about the desire of the state of take immigrants from all over the world and turn them into Israelis, that the course is offered.