Learn how to talk about your job and education history
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sherah: Hi everyone, and welcome back to HebrewPod101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 20 - Talking About Yourself in Hebrew. Sherah here. |
| Amir: שלום I'm Amir. |
| Sherah: In this lesson, you’ll learn about forming the past tense of the Pa'al verb group. The conversation takes place at Asaf's parents' house. |
| Amir: It's between Vered and Asaf's dad, Ran. |
| Sherah: The speakers are in a casual setting, so they’ll be using informal Hebrew. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
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| רן: שלום ורד. אסף אמר שלמדת באוניברסיטת תל אביב. |
| ורד: כן, למדתי תואר ראשון בתקשורת שם. |
| רן: אני גם למדתי שם. |
| ורד: באמת? מה למדת? |
| רן: למדתי רפואה. מה המקצוע שלך? |
| ורד: אני כותבת לעיתון. |
| רן: איזה יופי, ומה עשית לפני זה? |
| ורד: כשהייתי באוניברסיטה הייתי מלצרית במסעדה. |
| Sherah: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| רן: שלום ורד. אסף אמר שלמדת באוניברסיטת תל אביב. |
| ורד: כן, למדתי תואר ראשון בתקשורת שם. |
| רן: אני גם למדתי שם. |
| ורד: באמת? מה למדת? |
| רן: למדתי רפואה. מה המקצוע שלך? |
| ורד: אני כותבת לעיתון. |
| רן: איזה יופי, ומה עשית לפני זה? |
| ורד: כשהייתי באוניברסיטה הייתי מלצרית במסעדה. |
| Sherah: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Ran: Hello Vered. Assaf said you studied at Tel Aviv University. |
| Vered: Yes, I studied a BA in communications there. |
| Ron: I also studied there. |
| Vered: Really? What did you study? |
| Ran: I studied medicine. What is your profession? |
| Vered: I'm a writer for a newspaper. |
| Ran: Wow, what did you do before this? |
| Vered: When I was at university, I was a waitress in a restaurant. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sherah: If you’re looking for reading material in the form of a newspaper in Israel, you won’t have to look far. |
| Amir: Thanks to one Israeli paper, called Israel HaYom, you can find free newspapers almost everywhere. |
| Sherah: Workers from Israel HaYom pass these newspapers out in shopping centers, train stations and bus stations. |
| Amir: You can’t miss these workers, because they are always dressed in bright red coveralls. |
| Sherah: Since the newspaper is distributed free of charge, Israel HaYom usually enjoys the highest weekday readership. |
| Amir: But another newspaper, called Yedioth Ahronoth, has the highest weekend readership. |
| Sherah: The oldest newspaper still in circulation is Haaretz, which is published in both Hebrew and English. |
| Amir: But this isn't the only newspaper published in English - there’s also the Jerusalem Post. |
| Sherah: Right, Haaretz is considered to be more liberal and The Jerusalem Post more conservative. |
| Amir: If you’d rather try out your Hebrew by reading the newspaper in simple Hebrew, there are a few publications that can help. |
| Sherah: The most popular we know of is Bereshit, but there are certainly others as well. |
| Amir: So check them out, listeners! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sherah: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Amir: לומר [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: to say |
| Amir: לומר[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: לומר [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: אוניברסיטה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: university |
| Amir: אוניברסיטה[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: אוניברסיטה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: תואר [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: degree |
| Amir: תואר[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: תואר [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: ראשון [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: first |
| Amir: ראשון[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: ראשון [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: תקשורת [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: communications |
| Amir: תקשורת[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: תקשורת [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: רפואה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: medicine |
| Amir: רפואה[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: רפואה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: מקצוע [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: profession |
| Amir: מקצוע[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: מקצוע [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: כותבת [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: writer in the feminine |
| Amir: כותבת[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: כותבת [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: עיתון [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: newspaper |
| Amir: עיתון[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: עיתון [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next we have.. |
| Amir: מלצרית [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: waitress in the feminine |
| Amir: מלצרית[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Amir: מלצרית [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Sherah: Let's take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Amir: תואר |
| Sherah: meaning "degree" |
| Amir: This can also be used for “title” and “adjective”. |
| Sherah: In the dialogue, it was used to say “university degree”. |
| Amir: This word is related to the verb לתאר meaning “to describe”. |
| Sherah: When you want to tell someone what your degree is in, you say יש לי תואר ב...meaning “I have a degree in…” |
| Amir: You can specify what degree it is by saying תואר ראשון for a bachelor's or “first degree”. |
| Sherah: A תואר שני is a Master’s degree or “second degree”. |
| Amir: And a PhD is a תואר שלישי or דוקטורט |
| Sherah: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Amir: Sure. For example, you can say.. יש לאיתי תואר בפילוסופיה. |
| Sherah: ..which means "Itay has a degree in philosophy." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Amir: תקשורת |
| Sherah: meaning "communication" |
| Amir: The root of this word is kuf-shin-resh. |
| Sherah: All words with the root kuf-shin-resh describe how people and things are bound together. |
| Amir: One expression using this word is אמצעי תקשורת, meaning “means of communication”. |
| Sherah: When you add the definite article -ה or heh to the front of תקשורת to make it התקשורת , it becomes a word you hear often in Israel, “the media”. |
| Amir: התקשורת is important in this politically heated country. |
| Sherah: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Amir: Sure. For example, you can say.. יש להם תקשורת טובה בניהם. |
| Sherah: .. which means "They have good communication between them." Okay, let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
| Sherah: In this lesson you’ll learn how to discuss your job and education. Pa’al verbs are the most commonly used verbs in Hebrew and they’re also the simplest. |
| Amir: In this lesson you’ll be learning how to construct pa’al verbs in the past tense. |
| Sherah: The past tense is constructed by adding suffixes to the base form. |
| Amir: In the first and second person, the suffixes let you know who the subject is. |
| Sherah: The base form you add the suffix to is the third person masculine singular form. |
| Amir: This is the conjugation that goes with הוא and it’s the most simple of all the conjugations. |
| Sherah: In the pa’al verb group, this is the three root consonants separated by two “ah” vowels. |
| Amir: An easy example of this is the base form of לאומר meaning “to say”, which is אמר. |
| Sherah: This conjugation is used in the dialogue by Asaf’s dad. |
| Amir: He says אסף אמר שלמדת באוניברסיטת תל אביב meaning “Asaf said you studied at Tel Aviv University.” |
| Sherah: The key phrase here is אסף אמר or “Asaf said”. |
| Amir: The root letters of אמר are aleph-mem-resh. |
| Sherah: This is the base form you attach the suffixes to. |
| Amir: For instance, if you wanted to say “I said”, you would add the suffix תי- for “I” and it would become אמרתי. |
| Sherah: There are more conjugations in the past tense than in the present tense, but the suffixes stay the same for all verb groups. |
| Amir: In the same sentence, Asaf’s dad uses another pa’al verb in the past tense when he says למדת (lamadat) or you studied. |
| Sherah: The verb ללמוד means “to study”. Lamad is the base form and -at is the ending for “you” in the feminine singular. |
| Amir: Vered answered him with למדתי תואר ראשון בתקשורת שם. |
| Sherah: Which means, “I studied a BA in communications there.” Here she used the first person singular למדתי or “I studied”. |
| Amir: You will notice that there’s no pronoun before למדתי. This is because the subject אני is understood from the conjugation of the verb. |
| Sherah: In the first and second person, the subject of the sentence is understood by the conjugations. Now let’s go through the conjugations of ללמוד in the past tense. |
| Amir: We've already heard the first person singular, למדתי the suffix is תי-. |
| Sherah: The first person plural, or conjugation for “we” is למדנו. The suffix is נו- |
| Amir: For the “you” conjugations or second person singular conjugations, you say למדת for the masculine and למדת for the feminine. |
| Sherah: In the plural you say למדתם for the masculine and למדתן for the feminine. The suffixes are תם- and תן- |
| Amir: The masculine singular in the third person, which we covered earlier, is למד. |
| Sherah: Remember, you do need a subject with this verb like הוא למד or “he studies”. |
| Amir: The feminine singular is היא למדה or “she studies”. The suffix is ה-. |
| Sherah: The third person plural conjugation is למדו. The suffix is ו- and it’s used for both the masculine and the feminine. |
Outro |
| Sherah: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Be sure to check the lesson notes for more examples and explanations. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Amir: תודה |
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