Learn how to talk about nationalities
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Sherah: Hello and welcome to hebrewpod101.com. This is Lower Beginner Series Season 1, Lesson 4 Talking About Nationalities in Hebrew |
| Amir: Hello, I’m Amir. |
| Sherah: And I’m Sherah. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about nationalities and countries. |
| Amir: The conversation takes place in Anna’s dorm room in the kibbutz. |
| Sherah: It’s between Anna and her new roommates. |
| Amir: The speakers are strangers, and they’ll be using informal Hebrew. |
| Sherah: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| A: שלום לכן, אני אנה, ואני אמריקנית. |
| A: Shalom la-khen, ani Anna va-ani amerikanit. |
| B: את מארצות הברית? אני קורנליה. אני גרמניה. |
| B: At me-ar’tzot ha-brit? Ani Korneli’a. Ani Germani’ah. |
| A: ומי זאת? |
| A: u-mi zot? |
| B: זאת שותפה שלנו. שמה יוליה והיא מרוסיה. |
| B: Zot Shutafah shelanu. Sh’mah Yulia ve-hi me-rusi’a. |
| A: את רוסיה. נעים מאוד. |
| A: At rusi’a? Na’im me’od. |
| B: אנחנו שותפות לחדר. |
| B: Anaħ’nu shutafot la-ħeder. |
| A: אתן גם לומדות באולפן ? |
| A: Aten gam lom’dot ba-ulpan? |
| B: כן. |
| B: ken. |
| Sherah: Let’s listen to the conversation one more time, slowly. |
| A: שלום לכן, אני אנה, ואני אמריקנית. |
| A: Shalom la-khen, ani Anna va-ani amerikanit. |
| B: את מארצות הברית? אני קורנליה. אני גרמניה. |
| B: At me-ar’tzot ha-brit? Ani Korneli’a. Ani Germani’ah. |
| A: ומי זאת? |
| A: u-mi zot? |
| B: זאת שותפה שלנו. שמה יוליה והיא מרוסיה. |
| B: Zot Shutafah shelanu. Sh’mah Yulia ve-hi me-rusi’a. |
| A: את רוסיה. נעים מאוד. |
| A: At rusi’a? Na’im me’od. |
| B: אנחנו שותפות לחדר. |
| B: Anaħ’nu shutafot la-ħeder. |
| A: אתן גם לומדות באולפן ? |
| A: Aten gam lom’dot ba-ulpan? |
| B: כן. |
| B: ken. |
| Sherah: Now, let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| A: שלום לכן, אני אנה, ואני אמריקנית. |
| A: Shalom la-khen, ani Anna va-ani amerikanit. |
| A: Hi, I'm Anne, and I'm American. |
| B: את מארצות הברית? אני קורנליה. אני גרמניה. |
| B: At me-ar’tzot ha-brit? Ani Korneli’a. Ani Germani’ah. |
| B: You're from the United States? I'm Cornelia. I'm German. |
| A: ומי זאת? |
| A: u-mi zot? |
| A: And who is this? |
| B: זאת שותפה שלנו. שמה יוליה והיא מרוסיה. |
| B: Zot Shutafah shelanu. Sh’mah Yulia ve-hi me-rusi’a. |
| B: This is our roommate. Her name is Yulia, and she's from Russia. |
| A: את רוסיה. נעים מאוד. |
| A: At rusi’a? Na’im me’od. |
| A: Oh, you're Russian. Nice to meet you! |
| B: אנחנו שותפות לחדר. |
| B: Anaħ’nu shutafot la-ħeder. |
| B: We’re roommates. |
| A: אתן גם לומדות באולפן ? |
| A: Aten gam lom’dot ba-ulpan? |
| A: Are you studying in the Ulpan too? |
| B: כן. |
| B: ken. |
| B: Yes. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sherah: So, when you go to Ulpan, there are usually people from all over the world in the class, many of them new immigrants. Let’s look at the different outside influences on Israeli culture. |
| Amir: Israel is very culturally diverse. The first Jewish people to come to the area were Russians, and this was during the Ottoman empire. |
| Sherah: The surrounding Arab cultures influenced their music, food, and even their language. |
| Amir: Later, the British left their influence during the British Mandate. Because of the British, English is a semi-official language of Israel. |
| Sherah: After the formation of the State of Israel, many people arrived from Europe. Their cultural influence is seen in Israel, but not as strongly in other cultures, because they were trying to leave behind their past and begin a new “Israeli” culture. |
| Amir: The next big influence was the arrival of Jewish people from Arab countries. |
| Sherah: There are many things that we adopted from these new immigrants in the 1950s, like food, music and even the hamsa, a palm-shaped amulet. |
| Amir: They had a big influence on the film industry also, and that’s when we saw the emergence of the bourekas films, which played off of the differences between ashkenazi and mizrahi Jews in a comedic way. |
| Sherah: And in recent years, we have seen many immigrants from Russia and Ethiopia. The Russian culture emphasizes the importance of education and that has transferred to the rest of Israel. |
| Amir: Ethiopians brought music, and this was seen in the Idan Raichel project, which features Ethiopian singers and instruments. |
| Sherah: I remember when that came out, it was a big deal. Okay, now it’s time to move on to the vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sherah: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| Sherah: The first word we shall see is... |
| Amir: ארצות הברית [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: The United States |
| Amir: ארצות הברית [slowly - broken down by syllable] ארצות הברית [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: אמריקני [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: American |
| Amir: אמריקני [slowly - broken down by syllable] אמריקני [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: גרמניה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Germany |
| Amir: גרמניה [slowly - broken down by syllable] גרמניה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: גרמני [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: German |
| Amir: גרמני [slowly - broken down by syllable] גרמני [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: רוסיה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Russia |
| Amir: רוסיה [slowly - broken down by syllable] רוסיה [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: רוסי [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Russian |
| Amir: רוסי [slowly - broken down by syllable] רוסי [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: שותף [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Partner |
| Amir: שותף [slowly - broken down by syllable] שותף [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: Next |
| Amir: חדר [natural native speed] |
| Sherah: room |
| Amir: חדר [slowly - broken down by syllable] חדר [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Sherah: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is שותף |
| Amir: שותף is the Hebrew word for “partner”. |
| Sherah: Right, this could be a partner in business, in life or in a situation. |
| Amir: Yes. For instance, if you are a lawyer and you become a partner, you would be called a שותף in Hebrew. |
| Sherah: A partner in business would be שותף לעסיקים. |
| Amir: When you want to talk about your roommate, you would say שותף לחדר just like Cornelia did in this phrase when she told Anna that they were going to be roommates. |
| Sherah: “Flatmates” are called שותפים לדירה. |
| Amir: Now, let’s say that you are an accomplice to some crime... |
| Sherah: Wait a minute! I hope our listeners are not committing any crimes. |
| Amir: (laughs) Me too, but let’s just pretend... if you are an accomplice, you are called a שותף לפשע - “a partner in crime.” |
| Sherah: In English, a partner in crime is someone who does the crime with you, but in Hebrew you are called that even if you are just an accomplice. |
| Amir: Our next vocabulary word is חדר. ‘Heder’ is the word for “room”. |
| Sherah: This is referring to a specific room in a building, and not a general idea like space. |
| Amir: In the diaspora, a ‘heder’ was the term for the religious school. |
| Sherah: Now they use the term ‘yeshiva’ for that. Other types of rooms are חדר אוכל which means “cafe” or “dining hall”. |
| Amir: Or חדר אורחים which is a “guest room”. Another room is the חדר מיון the “emergency room”. |
| Sherah: And then there is the חדר עבודה or the “study”. Okay, now let’s move on to the Grammar. |
| GRAMMAR POINT |
| Sherah: In this lesson, you’ll learn the different words for countries and nationalities. |
| Amir: In Hebrew, someone’s nationality is usually similar to their country’s name or the adjective used to describe something from that country. |
| Sherah: As with other things in Hebrew, there are four different versions of nationalities used to describe people - masculine, feminine and the plural forms. |
| Amir: When it comes to the feminine endings there are two variations, those that end in -ה and those that end in -ת. |
| Sherah: Sometimes a country’s name and the feminine form of the nationality are spelled the same but they are pronounced a little differently. |
| Amir: We saw this in the dialogue with the country of “Germany” גרמניה and the feminine nationality גרמניה. |
| Sherah: The difference is where the stress is placed in the word. It’s the same with “Russia” רוסיה and the female form of “Russian” רוסיה. |
| Amir: We also had the “United States” ארצות הברית and “American” אמריקנית in the dialogue, but those are not close. |
| Sherah: No they’re not. We want to give you some other examples of countries and nationalities. We’ll give you both the masculine and the feminine forms of the nationality. For instance, “China” is סין and a “Chinese person” is סיני or סינית. |
| Amir: “England” is אנגליה and an “english person” is אנגלי or אנגליה. |
| Sherah: “Brazil” is ברזיל and a “Brazilian” is ברזילאי or ברזילאית. |
| Amir: “Finland” is פינלנד and a “Finn” is פיני or פינית. |
| Sherah: Let’s give a couple examples of both the country and the nationality in a sentence. You start, I’ll translate. |
| Amir: Okay... הוא פיני. |
| Sherah: He’s Finnish |
| Amir: How about - היא סינית. |
| Sherah: She’s Chinese. . |
| Amir: I think the important things to remember is that many of the words surrounding the country and the nationality are similar. |
| Sherah: The pronunciation and the endings are what will determine if it’s the country or the nationality a lot of the time. |
| Amir: That’s right. |
| Sherah: Now let’s look at the sample sentences from the dialogue as well. In the beginning, Anna says אני אנה, אני אמריקנית. “I’m Anna. I’m American.” |
| Amir: This is the correct form in Hebrew. Israelis wouldn’t use ‘amerikanit’ as often as they would use אמריקאית, which is technically not correct in Hebrew. |
| Sherah: Right. So after this, Cornelia says אני גרמניה “I’m German”. |
| Amir: And then she talks about Yulia, saying היא מרוסיה. “She’s from Russia.” |
| Sherah: Right! |
Outro |
|---|
| Sherah: So, that’s all for this lesson. |
| Amir: Now that you’ve listened to this lesson, please visit HebrewPod101.com and tell us your nationality. |
| Sherah: And we’ll see you next time. Bye everyone! |
| Amir: להתראות |
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