The Hebrew Alphabet or Alef-Bet is one of the hardest languages to understand for an English speaker and reader when they first begin. The frustrations can sometimes be so overwhelming, the child or adult, will just throw their hands up in the air and say, “Forget it!”
For children at a young age, around 3 years old, are exposed to any different language, they tend to pick it up quite easily. At least, the conversational part of the language but what happens when they have to learn the Hebrew letters and vowels and then try to put them all together? Oy Vey!
People try and match up the Hebrew Alef-Bet with the English Alphabet but this does not work out very well. At first, they think, “The first two letters of the Alphabet are A and B and the first two letters of the Hebrew Alef-Bet are Alef and Bet.”
After this point, then it totally doesn’t match up and they begin to get frustrated.
To avoid the aggravation, find books or a private tutor who will be able to help your child or yourself learn how to read Hebrew starting with the basics. There is a book for adults and older children which allows you to self-teach on how to read and works amazing!
The difficult part when learning conversational Hebrew to prayer Hebrew are the different words. Just like English, Hebrew has slang and when speaking Hebrew, most likely, you would not be using half of the words which are said in temple.
One of the best ways when wanting to learn conversational Hebrew is to go to an Ulpan. An Ulpan is where only the language being learned is spoken so you are forced to begin understanding and speaking the language. In Israel, Ulpan’s are popular and around the US, they can be found as well. The big difference in the US is once you walk out of the classroom, you are back conversing in English where in Israel, if you want to stick to speaking Hebrew to improve, you can.