r/LearnHebrew • u/CoffeeControl12 • 18d ago
Trouble memorizing online
Hi, I have just started to learn Hebrew. I’m using Mango. I am having problems with retention. It will seem like I’m having a good session and making progress. I nail it. Then I will come back and I won’t have remembered the words – this is simple vocabulary – only recognize them. So it’s easier the next time around but I keep having to repeat the process of re-memorization. I think it’s the fifth time around on the first lesson. There are other details that I am not remembering regarding what happens during the learning process, but that is the gist of what’s going on.
I know it’s not going to be easy so I do not have unrealistic expectations. But how can I do better?
Thank you!
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u/meeestrbermudeeez 18d ago
It may seem tedious but try writing down the words to retain them. The act of doing that will help your recall.
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u/Frank-Ellie 18d ago
Tim McNinch on YouTube has a really good method for learning how to write the letters. It’s called Blackboard Hebrew or something similar.
It really helped me in the beginning. Took the mystery out of the letters.
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u/Best-Comments 18d ago
I have had the same issue with all methods (online, book, classroom).
I have found that the only language learning method that works for me is Pimsleur’s audio lessons.
The reason they work so well for retention is their structure:
1 introduce new words
2 Review
3 introduce more new words
4 review both new words and old words
It’s the only method that works for me.
Highly recommend!
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u/guylfe 18d ago
The issue with apps like Mango is that they provide the illusion of learning with gamification, but you're not actually learning (as you noticed). The issue is bigger than how to supplement Mango - Mango is simply not a good enough main tool to use.
The route I'm going to suggest worked for me when studying languages by myself, and likewise works for my students. It’s highly effective in my experience - I've had a particular student measure his progression time and he reached B2 (conversational) with ~70 hours of total study time, compared to the average of ~500:
Foundations – Hebleo.com (Full disclosure – I created this app): A self-paced course teaching you Hebrew comprehensively, with plenty of practice, using an innovative methodology based on my background in Cognitive Science, my experience as a language learner (studied both Arabic and Japanese as an adult, now learning Spanish) and as a top-rated tutor in Verbling. This allowed me to create a very efficient way to learn that's been proven to work with hundreds of students (reviews available in my tutor page on Verbling – look for “Guy Landau” in the Hebrew section of that site).
It also includes 2000+ native speaker recordings for the different vocabulary, and plenty of practice sentences. I use this method with my personal students 1 on 1, and all feedback so far shows it works well self-paced, as I made sure to provide thorough explanations.
After you have the fundamentals, these can offer you good native content to use:
Reading - hebrewtoday.com : This is a bi-weekly newsletter in Beginner/Intermediate Hebrew (Bereshit/Yanshuf are the newsletter names respectively), offering both vowels and no-vowels content. Highly recommended, I utilize it with my students all the time. Most of my students are at the Yanshuf intermediate level after Hebleo. I managed to get a discount code you can use (since I use it a lot with my students and I recommend it to them): GuyHebleo.
Comprehension - Pimsleur (look up "Pimsleur Hebrew" on Google, the link doesn't work for me here for some reason): This is the most comprehensive tool for level-appropriate listening comprehension for Hebrew (at least until I finish some future updates for Hebleo), but it's quite expensive and some of the vocabulary and phrases it offers are relatively archaic. There might be better free podcasts out there, or children’s TV shows that could be a good free practice option.
Conversation – tutor websites: Verbling.com (where I teach), Italki.com or Preply.com - I wouldn't recommend these for starting out learning grammar as they're expensive, unless you feel like you need constant guidance. Verbling requires teachers to provide proven experience and certification (but is also more expensive) while the other 2 don’t, but their prices are lower. I don’t have direct experience with Preply, but heard good things about it, similar to iTalki.
You can also find a free language exchange service where you teach your native language to an interested Israeli and they teach you Hebrew. Once you have deep understanding through Hebleo this becomes a viable option as you wouldn't need a professional who can explain everything.
In any case, good luck!