go hard or go home

im curious to know if any of you speak, understand, read or write in a language besides english? languages intrigue me  🙂  i have been studying hebrew for the past almost-four years and it’s been one of the biggest, funniest, time-consuming challenges of my life! when i moved to israel i could not even understand hebrew, i didn’t know how to read or write and i didn’t even know the alphabet! plus, they write right-to-left for cryin’ out loud! as soon as we arrived in israel, my sister and i immediatly enrolled in an intensive, basic-level ulpan program at a kibbutz where we studied five days a week for eight hours; it was literally like going back to school…only in a foreign language. i successfully completed two ulpan programs, consisting of many written and oral exams, mountains of hebrew homework and, eek, speeches. each uplan lasted five months, and then i was released into the real world. the israeli real world. living in israel for the past three+ years has obviously helped me tremendously & i can finally say that i am fluent  🙂 definetly one of my biggest accomplishments to date.

but it doesnt stop there. the next language on my long to-learn list is spanish. i briefly studied the sexy language four years ago when i was a senior at texas state university and i even flew abroad to mexico for a few weeks to enroll in an intensive spanish-immersion program but, embarassingly enough, i have since forgotten spanish. i have been wanting to invest in the rosetta stone spanish kit, as i have heard it’s a great way to learn a new language, or refresh your memory if the language is in there somewhere, hiding. have any of you ever tried rosetta stone? i didn’t know this, but the company also offers a translation service! i see people here in israel struggling on a daily basis to properly and professionally translate resume’s, formal government documents, immigrantion applications, university papers, ect… while i am one to help if i can, sometimes there are things you need to leave to the pros, like rosetta stone worldwide translation services. have you ever tried it out?

so tell me, what is your native language?

do you speak any others?

would you like to?

or is the thought just overwhelming?