Most of you have been in Israel recently. Or are now.
Well there's this funny thing I've noticed about the language here, as I try to break my teeth and communicate with my fellow Israeli apartment-mates. Besides for the fact that it's NOT Lashon Hakodesh (which some girls still haven't really caught onto, but i'd learned a few years back), there's also such a thing as sfat hadibbur (the spoken language) and sfat haktiva (the written language). The written language is actually much closer to its origin, where words are combined into more sophisticated words than in the spoken language. Like "my mother" would be imi in written language, but ima sheli in the spoken language. It's broken down into little bite-sized pieces, not too complicated for anybody. So I soon got used to that too, and modified my speech to the same simple words my friends were using. It seemed almost too good to be true - everything was so easy and babyish!
Well soon i realized that there actually were more words I still had to learn, more phrases and expressions... some "sleng" expressions... but i was getting there, bit by bit. My apartment-mates were patient enough, and tolerated my mistakes with straight-faced corrections. But one day I said something I was pretty sure was correct, and instead of getting the usual expected response to whatever it was i was saying, they all started to laugh. So I got like all embarrassed and I'm like "ok, so what did i say wrong this time?". But instead of a correction, they laughed, and said, "no, no, you didn't say anything wrong!!" and laughed again.
Well i definitely didn't know what to say to that, so I just stood there, with this like idiotic smile on my face like i don't know what you want me to do now, so whatever!
Boruch Hashem, one of my apartment-mates finally decided to be kind enough to explain it to me. "You said it right, but it's really fancy to speak like that."
Oh so that explains it. Back to the "sleng" issue. "So how do you say it?" I was like totally fed up now.
I'm not going to get into the whole Hebrew grammar issue, but that's what it was. Instead of using the form of speech for "I" when you are talking about yourself in future tense, I was now informed that people "don't talk like that" and that really you should use the "he" form of speech. Like you don't say "ani elech" but "ani yelech".
I don't know about you, but I thought that was ridiculous. I found out soon that i was not the only one. Another foreigner in my apartment who knows Hebrew pretty well i would say, told me she never speaks that way. But I kept my ears open over the next few days, and I saw that they were right! Even some of the teachers (or most) spoke that way! So I could choose to keep to the rules and be weird... or be normal and break them like everybody else.
I thought about it a little, and I decided that a language wasn't such an important thing that I couldn't break the rules even though I though it was really odd. So yeah, I break the rules. Like everyone else.
Then it struck me. It's scary or sad or maybe just reality, but there's really lots of areas in life where the same applies. Where you can either keep the rules and be weird... or be normal and break them. And the parallel goes even further. That when you're little and you're only just learning the rules, you don't dream of breaking them, and you never imagine that others do either. You do everything just right, and if and when you do something wrong, you honestly regret it. That's like when you're just learning the language - you start off saying everything exactly just right. But then you start growing up... communicate a little bit with the big wide experienced adult world... and you start to adjust. You discover all the "slengs", where it's accepted to break the rules, and strange to keep them. It starts with small things, you know - saying a bracha quickly quietly instead of loud and clear as you should - and gets to bigger things - like davening aleinu while putting away your siddur after davening (yes everyone learns that from someone!) - and sometimes might even get to even bigger things, like skipping davening when you woke up in the afternoon hours....
Ok, I'll admit it, some things you do because of your own laziness, but I believe way too much of it is influenced by the behavior of others around you. And that's no good.
All it takes is a little awareness... and some strength of character too. We all have those things we naturally have no problem with, and would instinctively do it right, only that it's easier to just "be normal" and do it wrong like everyone else.
But we're chassidim of the Rebbe, and so we should do better than that. We can change the flow, change the "sleng" in our surroundings, and make it normal to follow the rules.
And most importantly of all, to bring Moshiach now!!!
So let's go for it! together!
Amen!
Well there's this funny thing I've noticed about the language here, as I try to break my teeth and communicate with my fellow Israeli apartment-mates. Besides for the fact that it's NOT Lashon Hakodesh (which some girls still haven't really caught onto, but i'd learned a few years back), there's also such a thing as sfat hadibbur (the spoken language) and sfat haktiva (the written language). The written language is actually much closer to its origin, where words are combined into more sophisticated words than in the spoken language. Like "my mother" would be imi in written language, but ima sheli in the spoken language. It's broken down into little bite-sized pieces, not too complicated for anybody. So I soon got used to that too, and modified my speech to the same simple words my friends were using. It seemed almost too good to be true - everything was so easy and babyish!
Well soon i realized that there actually were more words I still had to learn, more phrases and expressions... some "sleng" expressions... but i was getting there, bit by bit. My apartment-mates were patient enough, and tolerated my mistakes with straight-faced corrections. But one day I said something I was pretty sure was correct, and instead of getting the usual expected response to whatever it was i was saying, they all started to laugh. So I got like all embarrassed and I'm like "ok, so what did i say wrong this time?". But instead of a correction, they laughed, and said, "no, no, you didn't say anything wrong!!" and laughed again.
Well i definitely didn't know what to say to that, so I just stood there, with this like idiotic smile on my face like i don't know what you want me to do now, so whatever!
Boruch Hashem, one of my apartment-mates finally decided to be kind enough to explain it to me. "You said it right, but it's really fancy to speak like that."
Oh so that explains it. Back to the "sleng" issue. "So how do you say it?" I was like totally fed up now.
I'm not going to get into the whole Hebrew grammar issue, but that's what it was. Instead of using the form of speech for "I" when you are talking about yourself in future tense, I was now informed that people "don't talk like that" and that really you should use the "he" form of speech. Like you don't say "ani elech" but "ani yelech".
I don't know about you, but I thought that was ridiculous. I found out soon that i was not the only one. Another foreigner in my apartment who knows Hebrew pretty well i would say, told me she never speaks that way. But I kept my ears open over the next few days, and I saw that they were right! Even some of the teachers (or most) spoke that way! So I could choose to keep to the rules and be weird... or be normal and break them like everybody else.
I thought about it a little, and I decided that a language wasn't such an important thing that I couldn't break the rules even though I though it was really odd. So yeah, I break the rules. Like everyone else.
Then it struck me. It's scary or sad or maybe just reality, but there's really lots of areas in life where the same applies. Where you can either keep the rules and be weird... or be normal and break them. And the parallel goes even further. That when you're little and you're only just learning the rules, you don't dream of breaking them, and you never imagine that others do either. You do everything just right, and if and when you do something wrong, you honestly regret it. That's like when you're just learning the language - you start off saying everything exactly just right. But then you start growing up... communicate a little bit with the big wide experienced adult world... and you start to adjust. You discover all the "slengs", where it's accepted to break the rules, and strange to keep them. It starts with small things, you know - saying a bracha quickly quietly instead of loud and clear as you should - and gets to bigger things - like davening aleinu while putting away your siddur after davening (yes everyone learns that from someone!) - and sometimes might even get to even bigger things, like skipping davening when you woke up in the afternoon hours....
Ok, I'll admit it, some things you do because of your own laziness, but I believe way too much of it is influenced by the behavior of others around you. And that's no good.
All it takes is a little awareness... and some strength of character too. We all have those things we naturally have no problem with, and would instinctively do it right, only that it's easier to just "be normal" and do it wrong like everyone else.
But we're chassidim of the Rebbe, and so we should do better than that. We can change the flow, change the "sleng" in our surroundings, and make it normal to follow the rules.
And most importantly of all, to bring Moshiach now!!!
So let's go for it! together!
Amen!
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