A Child’s Joy (Article #25) 10/26/2006

One of the hardest issues for us to deal with has been adjusting to spoken Hebrew. While my coworkers all speak English (at varying levels of proficiency), our suppliers and the myriad of people I interact with at work are mostly Hebrew speakers only. Goldie is constantly dealing with repairmen (new construction always needs fine tuning repairs), school teachers and administrators, and all the many people needed to keep our lives in order. Yet, we manage.

I can converse in Hebrew somewhat comfortably, and when I don’t understand something I am not at all shy about mentioning it and asking for a definition. I try to read the newspaper here at least once or twice a week (in Hebrew) and hope that eventually I will understand the news on the radio over time (they speak so quickly).

Goldie understands Hebrew and can converse, but is also taking Ulpan to gain a comfort level with speaking the language and broaden her vocabulary. She tries very hard and can always call my sister or sister in law if she really gets stuck on a word.

The kids however, have a much more difficult time of it. The older ones are at least mature enough to understand that these things take time. So they approach school with an understanding that they might not understand everything that is said. In the short term, this is great – but for the long term they will have less internal motivation to figure out the “gobbledygook” (Chaim’s word).

The younger ones are simply angry about the language issues. All they understand is that they have no clue, that everyone else seems to know what to do and what is going on and they just sit there. It was extremely difficult at first, since nobody wants to even do anything about it until after the holidays and Ulpan only started right before the chagim.

Yet, we are beginning to see differences in the kids. Moshe comes home from Gan and will respond to questions in either Hebrew or English. As the youngest child he will have the least adjustment to deal with. He is just learning to speak English and will have the easiest time picking up Hebrew since he is already using those skills in learning English.

Mordechai recognizes words now and has really made a conscious effort to incorporate them into his daily routine. He has made some friends at his Gan (one boy in particular, Chaim Rock who lives across the street from us is with Mordechai all the time) that he interacts with and has begun to get an idea of what the Morah wants from him. Sometimes.

Of course, this past week he had to have a regression since he has been out of school for so long because of the chagim. The truth is, that while we enjoyed the chagim and the time we got to spend together – the change in routine and having to reestablish the routine has definitely been difficult for us.

The toughest adjustment has been Batya’s. In second grade and with a real thirst to learn, she was initially very excited to be coming to Israel and learn a new language. She approached the summer camp experience with a tremendous attitude and had a terrific time. She took a special ulpan before school began and was raring to go on the first day of school. But it just didn’t happen for her.

She began to hate school. She dreaded going to the bus and came home frustrated and angry. Even with all of that she never gave up.

Then, a couple of days after Yom Kippur she had a major breakthrough in school. They were making Sukkah decorations and Batya went up to the Morah and asked for another piece of orange paper – in Hebrew!

Initially, the teacher wasn’t sure what Batya wanted, so she asked her to repeat it, just to make sure. When she realized that Batya had successfully communicated with her in Hebrew she immediately gave her a huge hug and stopped the whole class from what they were doing. In front of the whole class she praised Batya and all the girls clapped for her and were so excited for her.

I cannot describe how powerful Batya’s excitement and pleasure was. She was so extremely proud of herself and was also so encouraged to keep trying harder and harder to learn more (and how great was that Morah’s response, what a terrific way to stimulate Batya’s desire to continue learning).

Although she knows that she will miss half of her day in school, she is suddenly so motivated to go to Ulpan and continue developing her Hebrew skills. Her joy is contagious and has trickled both down and up to the other kids who see her happiness and want to achieve it for themselves.

Batya’s homework is also the hardest for us (Goldie) to keep up with. As a second grader, most of the reading and writing she is doing has to do with developing vocabulary and the introduction of new words. Since our vocabularies are only good enough for us to get by in conversations, we (Goldie) have to sit with her and use our Oxford Hebrew/English dictionary in order to figure out what is going on. And then, once we have given up, we call my sister.

Interestingly, Aliza has almost the exact opposite feelings than Batya toward Ulpan. As one of the most advanced Hebrew speakers in her Ulpan level, she feels as if she is gaining nothing from Ulpan and is missing too much academic learning by being in Ulpan that she is ready to quit Ulpan and just attend the regular class. She took a test right before the chagim to see if she can skip out of the class.

Our week started out with everyone off of school. Moshe had Gan on Sunday – but he was the only one. While Chaim had the whole week off, the rest of the kids were back in school on Monday. We had expected the week to see the beginning of full school days, as we were promised would happen “Acharei HaChaggim” (after the Chaggim). However, the funding apparently has not yet come through, so they are still working on an abbreviated school schedule.

Getting into sync definitely took the whole week. On Tuesday night Goldie took the older two girls to Yerushalayim for a women’s concert. It was a belated birthday present for Aliza who had hinted that she wanted to go to that show for weeks. Goldie drove into Yerushalayim with Chaia Broderick and was very nervous about driving on her own.

We reviewed exactly where everything was and the trip went as planned. She got in and out of Yerushalayim quite easily and had no problems parking for the show. She did comment how much colder it was in Yerushalayim than in Beit Shemesh.

My sister mentioned something to me about the weather as well. She lives in a suburb of Tel Aviv and asked me if the rain was getting to me yet. I was surprised at the question.

Last Sunday, the day after we davened Teffilat Geshem (prayer for rain), I was at the train station waiting for the morning train to Yerushalayim when it began to drizzle for the first time since we arrived in Israel. I was astounded at the fact that it was literally the day after we had davened for rain.

Within minutes, the drizzle turned into a torrential downpour. By the time the train arrived, it had settled into a steady rain.

Leaving the station that day, I noticed that the train seemed to be going slower than usual. A couple of miles into the ride, the train stopped and lost all power. After a couple of minutes, the conductor got onto the PA system and announced that the rain had disabled the train and that we would be returning to Beit Shemesh where we could catch specially hired buses to get us to the city.

Think about it, the rain disabled the train. Only in Israel.

I took advantage of the rail problems by calling in to the office to tell them the trains were out and that I would be working from home that day.

However, since that day we have not had a single drop of rain. Which is why my sister’s call took me by surprise. Why would she be asking me about the rain, when clearly none was falling. Apparently, even though Tel Aviv is 45 minutes away, the weather is totally different there and they had rain every day all week.

There is a phrase in the US, “don’t accept any wooden nickels”, referring to not accepting counterfeit currency. I had to take a taxi to our attorney’s office on Wednesday afternoon, and handed him a 100 shekel bill to pay a 30 shekel fare. He handed me a 50 shekel bill, a 20 shekel bill and a 10 shekel coin.

He placed the 50 shekel bill in the center, most likely because he knew what was giving me. When I walked into the attorney’s office, I mentioned to him how strange the bill felt to me. He laughed and gave me some papers I was waiting for.

That evening I went to the train station and stopped at the supermarket to by a drink for the ride home. I knew I was in trouble when the cashier asked me, “what is this?”

She called the store manager over and he gave me a big speech about how he is really supposed to call the police to report me for passing a phony bill, but since I don’t appear to be the counterfeiter he would give me a pass. He then spent 10 minutes teaching me how to spot a phony bill, and exactly why the 50 shekel bill I had presented was no good.

Thankfully, 50 shekels is equal to about $1.20 (actually it is around $12), so the lesson wasn’t as expensive a lesson as it could have been. I have the bill posted on the wall in my office to remind me that there is always a lesson to be learned somewhere.

On Shabbat our block held its own Kiddush. We live on Rechov Gad in the Sheinfeld neighborhood. One side of the block is townhouses full of apartments. Our side of the block is private (2 family) semi attached homes.

There is a real sense of chevra (community) here on the block. We even have our own Yahoo Groups mailing list. On Wednesday, we got an email from the list about the 3rd annual block Kiddush which would be taking place Shabbat Beresheet.

Back in the USA it was always a dream of mine to have a block party with the neighbors. I envisioned closing the block to traffic and having a BBQ with maybe some entertainment for the kids.

That is not what we had here. However, we did have a lot of fun and were given an opportunity to meet several nice families whom we had not yet met. Everyone brought a drink (no – not alcoholic, we are apparently a dry block) as well as something to eat (cake, cookies, kugel) and their kids.

It was set up in the middle of the street and really provided a pleasant opportunity for many of us to meet each other for the first time.

Special Mazal Tov to Josh and Daniella Rudoff (currently of Beit Shemesh and formerly of Cedarhurst) upon the birth of their son. May they be Zocheh L’gadlo L’Brito Bizmano, L’Torah, L’Chuppah, U’Lmaasim Tovim. I had an awesome time at the Shalom Zachor, which really rocked – thankfully it was not “dry”.