Sirens

My first day back to Ulpan after the Passover holiday was Monday, May 2nd.  At 10am everyone stopped for 2 minutes. I was told that even people in cars would stop on the freeway, get out, and observe these 2 minutes. In Ulpan, the break times were adjusted to bring all classes together in their gathering hall for a ceremony. The room was packed, more than during previous holiday observances. A siren started, and we all stood up (it could not have lasted for more than a minute, and afterwards I could hear the sirens outside for a moment). There was a candle lighting ceremony by students representing various countries. This was followed by the resident singer guitar player and half an hour of songs.


Then we went back to class. Dad (he's visiting right now) told me he went out on our balcony when the sirens sounded and saw everyone get out of their vehicles on the roads below. He also noticed walkers stop and others inside buildings come to their windows.  This however, also lasted for under a minute.

Next week a similar event will occur at 11am on Memorial Day for soldiers. After these two somber days will come Independence Day which I am told is a big celebration here.

Stay tuned for more...

Social media and cultural exchange

Coincidentally, I saw two movies in the same night, thanks to an invitation by Triwaks Communications to the premiere of "Social Media," the story of Mark Zuckerberg (through a Hollywood lense of course), and "The Hebrew Lesson", a small independent film about Ulpan Gordon, the hebrew language school that I am attending right now. 

"Social Media"
This is the dramatized story of the founder of Facebook (founded in 2004).  It's shot on location at Harvard, and the jury is out on whether there was a brief reference to Wellesley in there.  It shows the interesting series of decisions and driving motivations behind a "genius mind."

"The Hebrew Lesson"
This documentary followed a class of students in 2004 from January through June.  These stories ranged from a Russian man who came here to be closer to his young daughter and astranged ex-wife, to a Chinese woman who worked as a housekeeper and married the man she kept house for, to a Peruvian woman who came here to serve in the army and stay with her boyfriend then becomes pregnant.  It is a movie about relationships and the process of adjusting to foreign culture.  A woman in my class hosted the screening at her apartment.  She is a German woman with an Israeli partner.  Watching the movie was a bit like watching our own class on film.  (albeit more dramatic than ours, but maybe I just don't know my classmates well enough yet).

These two movies together, which were not in any way associated, held common relationship themes that kept both of the stories engaging, despite completely different formats and content.  Both took us through the process of individuals coping with the challenges of trying to assimilate to a culture that was not their own.  Some "failed" and/or gave up, while some persisted and created a new reality for themselves and others.   Either way, time keeps passing for all.

Ahmadinejad in Lebanon last Thursday

It was just another regular day here for us.  No talk about politics at Ulpan.  But it was all over CNN Thursday night.  It appears Iran is using Lebanon to build support and position itself against Israel.  Sounds like this isn't new, although Ahmadinejad's media exposure seems heightened.

I did hear at least one local perspective on the peace talks taking place right now.  It sounds like the American position is so concerned about trying to make the peace talks work that they are making huge concessions to try to temporarily hault construction in the West Bank now that the freeze on construction has ended.  The reason this is important is that the two sides won't have a meaningful conversation as long as Israeli construction is permitted there.

Another Israeli who says that she doesn't really follow the politics shared her sense of irony, in that Iran was one of Israeli's closest allies years ago.  In fact, her family even lived in Iran for a short time.  But changes from Kingdom to democracy changed the Iranian leadership's relationship with Israel (obviously, for the worse).

It seems to me that the middle east is like a family.  Fighting all the time, but more like each other than anyone else.  The ultimate, epic family feud.

I

"ha mora" (the teacher)

Had an interesting experience in hebrew class during our last week.  Our teacher (who is a wonderful teacher, by the way), asked our class why we came to Israel and what impressions of Israel exist in our home countries.  The general consensus was that the media in all our countries (US, Norway, Ukraine, Germany, UK, Canada) did not reflect Israel in a positive light.  Well, this really hit a nerve for her.  She came in to class the following day and spent the first half hour of class telling us how upset she was by what we had told her (can't imagine her previous classes provided different feedback).  She felt that it is not fair how the media in other countries portray Israel's political actions.  Well, who ever said the media has a monopoly on the truth?  No surprises here.  As my high school physics teacher used to tell us, "it's all relative."

What was interesting was how upsetting it was to her; how careful she feels Israel is to lead by moral example in this region, particularly from a humanitarian stand point.  She believes that Israel is grossly misunderstood.  Her identity is so closely tied to Israel that this was extremely personal for her.  I've seen this blurring of personal identity and country here much more than I have in the U.S., or in other countries.

I certainly have felt both pride and embarrassment at American news and actions, but I can't think of a time that it has interacted with my sense of self. 

It was suggested to me that a key difference is that as a smaller country, there is a stronger sense of defensiveness when feeling misunderstood than for citizens in a country that is a leading world power. 

I am curious - what impressions do you have of Israel and more importantly, why?  Where did your impressions come from?
If you're not sure, or want to learn more, I am extending an open invitation to come and decide for yourself what Israeli's are like.  We have a spare room now.

Learning for next time

There are a lot of "firsts" for things you take for granted when you move to a new country.  The first time I drove here.  The first time I got blocked into a parking spot.  The first time I got towed.  The first time I got allergy shots (and the second).  The first time Dan tried to cash a check at the bank. 

Yes, last Thursday I got towed.  I was parked in a zone that should have been ok.  But there was a sign in hebrew behind me (and the other cars around me) that apparently indicated an exception to the general rule during certain hours. 

Last Thursday I went to get my allergy shots.  At the clinic they told me to go get my payment voucher.  At the payment voucher office they told me to go pay, then bring back the receipt.  Then they gave me the voucher, sent me back to the clinic, where I finally got in the queue 45 minutes later.  Then I was going to have to wait an additional hour until I could leave, so I left and came back after Ulpan, rounding out a 2 1/2 hour process.  In the U.S. I would have been in and out in under 10 minutes.

Today we walked into the best known bank brand in Israel, Bank Leumi, where Dan has his business account.  However, because we were in the Tel Aviv branch, they weren't willing to cash his check for 400 shekels (that's about $100).  It took a call to the branch where the account was opened, a fax, a copy of his ID, and then they figured out he was listed by his US passport instead of his Israeli ID as the account owner.  Still, they had to deposit the check, then take out the cash.  They wouldn't just cash it.  Oye ve!

the purpose of a test

I'm learning as much about teaching methods in Ulpan as I am hebrew (and that's saying A LOT, considering I read a whole paragraph on day 5!)

We had our first quiz on Thursday.  Because most of the students are in that early college mindset driven by getting through to get the grade, there were groans throughout the room.  Talya, our fabulous teacher, reminded us of a very important principle of teaching/learning.  Quizes are for teachers to discover whether what THEY are doing is working, and to adjust their curriculum based on the results of the quizes.  Quizes are NOT to chastize us for getting things wrong.  Doesn't sound right?  Probably because we're too used to the morphed American education system.  We all know that education is falling apart in the US.  But the reasons may be a surprise (for more on that, check out the new book by Diane Ravitch, Assistant Secretary of Education in the 1990's and Wellesley alum - the book is titled "The Death and Life of the Great American School System."

Ulpan is an entirely different experience for me than any other formal class I have taken.  I am not afraid.  Sure, I am a little bogged down with the focus and time required, as there are so many things I want to do here.  But I'm not afraid.  Not like I was when grades were on the line.  I am not afraid to show my ignorance.  To let her know that I'm not getting it.  I don't have to stay up all night studying and lose sleep worrying, because I know that if I don't get it, SHE needs to know that I need more help - i.e. more homework on that topic, more practice, or whatever it takes.  As long as I do everything she asks, if I'm still not getting it, that's ok. 

Imagine if we could remove the fear of failure in the US school system for kids, so they could fully participate without fear of repercussions (like bad grades that limit your ability to get into good schools, which can limit your ability to get a chance to prove yourself at a good job, earna good income, pursue a passion, etc)? 

And imagine if instead of opening a text book and insisting on memorization, the teacher approached the topic in a way that forced students to "think" about the issue, thereby retaining it for the long-term. Every experience I remember from K-12 involved an experience that did NOT include a text book.  Of course, there are great teachers out there (I had more than a few), but with "No Child Left Behind" increasing testing for the wrong reasons (to punish and rank students, instead of inform teachers how to best "teach" in their unique classroom), there are less and less.  And unfortunately, the Obama administration may be continuing rather than changing some of the policies put in place by the previous two Bush administrations.

A recent article came out about the drop in creativity of Americans.  It points to our educational system as a big part of the problem.  http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html

Not that the Israeli's have it all figured out.  But they do have more entrepreneurs per capita than anywhere else in the world.  And given their success breathing life into a dead language, and based on my personal experience, their teaching methods, at least with language, might be a good place for the US to look.

Balagan in my brain

Chaos in my brain.  Resulting from 4 days of intensive hebrew studies so far.  From 8:30am-1pm every day I sit, focusing like a maniac on what our mora (teacher) is teaching us.  I've got 6 weeks of this.  Class all day, hours of homework each night.  Each week we'll take an hour and a half test, to help her gauge how we're doing so she can modify the course for us.  It's me, a German woman on her summer vacation, and about 20 college students.  We also have a teacher in training in the room helping out.  They are both great.

The methods are amazing.  I actually read a whole paragraph in hebrew today - on day 4!  Of course, that's in phonetic english, not hebrew characters.  Next week we switch to reading and writing only hebrew.  Each day this week we have learned 5-7 letters of the alphabet.  Then we practice writing the script versions (different characters from the script), and sounding them out.  Listening to me read is like watching paint dry. 

Time to do my shiurey bait...