 |
Following
are several excerpts of feedback by students who
have studied Hebrew at Ulpan-Or
Click on the picture below and watch the video of
Joanna's testimonial
Click
here to
listen to a recorded testimonial from Barbara C. from Canada
Click on the picture below and watch the video of
Barbara on her T-Ulpan trip
Kathy P. - took an intensive 10-lesson course while staying
on a short business trip in Israel
Kathy wrote in her course assessment feedback
“Your Ulpan
was a pleasure,…I am amazed that in 12 lessons, I have
gotten to the point where I sometimes find
myself thinking in Hebrew”
Star M. –
has been living in Israel for two years. Took several
courses in standard Ulpans and came to study at Ulpan-
Or .
Star wrote in her course assessment feedback:
“The CDs
and the telephone lessons helped me a lot. It was an
excellent course!”
David S. –
a medicine student
David came to study Torah in Israel and took an intensive
10-lesson course
David wrote in her course assessment feedback:
“An
excellent course that teaches confidence, comprehension,
grammar and the tools for further study”
Nicki W. –
stayed for 3-month Sabbatical in Israel.
Took an intensive 12-lesson course.
Nicki wrote in her course assessment feedback:
“This Ulpan
has definitely been one of the highlights of Israel for me”
Ulpan Or,
run by a really professional and helpful lady (Orly Ganor)
who has an office in the centre of Jerusalem. She
has an innovative way of teaching where her regular
hour-long lessons are supplemented by twice (or more) weekly
telephone lessons. The approach helps you use everyday
Hebrew with great confidence, and departs from the
standard Ulpan techniques which covers a lot of perceivably
irrelevant subjects. The one-to-one attention is also a
factor in achieving fluency and confidence. Whatever your
level, she gauges were you are and takes you further, fast.
I
started learning with her in August and my progress has been
phenomenal.
I have no hesitation in recommending her to you as an
excellent teacher and coach.
Natania G., England
HEBREW COURSE ASSESSMENT
First name: Rahel B., USA
Occupation: Student
Referred by: Found it on line
-
Course
accommodation Excellent
-
Studying
atmosphere Excellent
-
Learning
Method (rules) Excellent
-
Course
written material Excellent
-
Tele -
lesson method Excellent
Comments: I have studied with many Hebrew teachers, at least
7 and Orly is by far the best teacher I've had. She took
much more of a personal interest in my studying. I didn't
feel like just one of her many students. Because the classes
were private and because we spoke twice or three times a
day, she could keep track of my progress much more closely
and adjust what we were doing more quickly than if we were
meeting once or twice a week. She understood the
problems I've had with speaking and understanding spoken
Hebrew and addresses those problems immediately so I
felt successful right away in the classes. When I reached
what I thought was a permanent wall which I had reached
many times before, Orly understood what was happening
because she had seen this same phenomenon in many
other students and could honestly assure me that I would
move past that point. I let myself believe her and continued
studying and she was right. I did move past that place and
am now speaking at one or two levels beyond where I
started. My listening skills have progressed one level
beyond where I was. But I believe that as I continue
learning and
speaking Hebrew in my rabbinic school ulpan, I will also
continue to improve in that area. The tele-lessons, I
believe,
were the most powerful tool that helped me progress so
rapidly. Speaking in Hebrew two or three times a day, forced
me to do what was so uncomfortable for me and pushed me past
my discomfort. And the added benefit of being able to
feel more connected to Israelis because I could finally
speak their language was a great incentive and an instant
reinforcement. The affirmations were also very helpful. When
I began to say them many times a day, my Hebrew
abilities increased more rapidly. I tore one of the pages
that listed the affirmations from my workbook and placed it
on
the dining room table, the most central location in my
apartment, and read the words to myself whenever I went into
the
dining room. I began to believe the affirmations and believe
that I could actually become fluent in Hebrew. I recommend
Orly unequivocally. Her patience and belief in her method,
helped me accept where I was and helped me believe that I
would continue to improve both my speaking and my oral
comprehension as I continued to study and live here.
HEBREW COURSE ASSESSMENT
Comments: I was very much challenged to study and to go
through the Hebrew. The distance learning was excellent:
child, household and working worked together. It was good to
have the pressure every day and to get to the point to start
to speak Hebrew outside the course.
Thomas S., Germany
LETTERS
Dear Orly-
I am writing to express my satisfaction with your Hebrew
course.
When I came to Israel two months ago, I found myself in the
difficult situation of
wanting to improve my Hebrew yet not having time to attend a
formal, full-time ulpan. My first thought was to try to
find
books or computer
based language instruction but I soon realized that all the
materials I could find, both in the United States and
Israel,
were geared more purely to
beginners and were not suited to helping me build upon my
existing, rudimentary foundation. I was delighted,
therefore, to be referred to your
course by a good friend of mine who had completed your
introductory course.
Your combination of books, dialogues recorded on compact
discs, and daily telephone calls fit my needs ideally. The
home study materials were
excellent resources to immerse myself in spoken Hebrew in a
manner that befit my schedule, while the brief, daily
telephone lessons provided an
outlet to ask questions and to practice speaking the
language. I feel that I made substantial progress
under your
guidance and I look forward to
taking another course with you to continue building my
skills.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Michael K., USA
Dear Orly,
Learning a second language is difficult for most English
speakers, especially Hebrew. For years now, I have
struggled
with program after program trying to learn the Hebrew
language. Of course I learned, but the stress and pressure
was
always terrific.
Last year a friend told me about Orly and her plan of study.
Based on my past experience I was reluctant to sign up.
However, from the first day I knew I was in the right place.
Orly has the gift of transmitting the Hebrew language
without
the stress and pressure that other programs bring.
I admit that I have a long way to go, but Orly has given me
the confidence to try, and the reality of making progress in
understanding Hebrew. I have taken lessons while in
Jerusalem and have done tele-lessons while in the states.
The
tele-lessons have been wonderful because they keep me
focused on the language and give me a reason to study.
I recommend Ulpan by Orly without any reservation. It has
been wonderful for me and others that I know.
Dianne B.
Austin, Texas
Hi Orly,
We are back in Australia and have been for 48 hours. The
trip back was uneventful but very very long and we were all
exhausted when we gotin. In an effort to get the children
back onto Australian time, I sent them to school on the day
we
arrived - I wanted them to stay awake and that is so
much easier when there are things going on around you -
friends, lessons, lunchtime etc. In the first Hour that Tobi
was
there, the coordinator of the Ivrit programme asked her to
sit the cross-grade Ivrit assessment.
This is an exam given to all the children in the year in an
attempt to compare each child to the others so that they can
be
graded and classed with children of like abilities. Tobi was
withdrawn from the class as the otherchildren had
already sat the exam previously, and she sat the exam.
She finished and the paper was taken and marked. She was
very excited when, a few hours later, it was returned to her
and she learned that she had received 100% on her paper and
that she will be placed into the top Ivrit class (with the
native Ivrit speakers). She and I both give the credit to
you.
It was not my aim that the children be placed into the top
classes for Ivrit, when I enrolled them in
your Ulpan - but that they should improve their Hebrew
enough to enjoy the language and to enjoy speaking it with
their
friends.
I wanted them to enjoy the Ulpan classes, have fun with the
language and feel like they accomplished something. They
did all this and the fact that they have also improved
enough to place them at the top of their years is a huge
bonus.
Thank you so much.
fondly
Ariane, Australia
Shalom Orly,
I would like to let you know that I really enjoy the lessons
and the study kits. They are much better than any other
course
materials I know (and I know all the in Germany in
bookstores available books/cassettes) and the book from
Israel we
were using in my previous hebrew course at the peoples high
school of the Jewish community in Frankfurt. It's really
true that the three-times-a-week-frequency helps to
progress. One thing is that a one-on-one tele-lesson is very
intensive, the other thing is that I realized that with the
3times-frequence I can't stop thinking on/in Hebrew. For
example,
yesterday in the afternoon I was watching a football
(soccer) game at a sportsbar. While watching the programme I
became aware that in my mind I went through the dialog
again. It's the same with the songs, I now know four of the
songs and am learning two more. The songs just come to my
mind during the day/week and so I am learning/repeating
hebrew without any effort and at times or in situation I am
not able to learn "formally".
After my first lessons now with Ulpan Or I decided to not
continue my previous course at the peoples high school
because this would simply make no sense. I progress much
faster with your course, so I would not learn anything new
there. There anyway is a break till march. Neither could I
use it as an additional opportunity to speak hebrew as it's
a
class of 10-15 people and the teacher always asks the class
as a whole and the class answers together and so on...
I started learning Hebrew in September 2003 at the "Peoples
High School" of the Jewish Community of Frankfurt (in
German: "VHS Volkshochschule", you maybe know this german
municipal institutions). The course got me started but
progressed to slowly. We had lessons only one time a week
and the school ist closed whenever the normal german
schools have holidays. Between the semesters there were long
weeks (up to three months) without lessons. The book
we used was only in Hebrew without any explanations in
another language and there were no cd's or cassettes
available for this book: so it has been almost impossible to
learn alone e.g. if one wasn't able to take part in a
lesson. I
also got some Hebrew-study-kits form bookstores but found
none of them really very helpful and I could not combine
them with the course at the school because the order of the
topics was different.
I found Ulpan-Or via Internet and ordered their study-kits
in November last year and started in December with tele-
lessons (three times a week). On the coming Sunday (30th
January) I will travel to Israel for fourteen days and will
make
a P.I.L.L. Course there.
The lessons are fun and I really progress. I find the
composition of the study-kits is very helpful e.g. that
there is an extra
book for the verb-forms at the intermediate level where you
learn the rules of how to "transform" the verbs according to
tense, gender and person and not only learn each form of the
verbs. I also find the cd's very helpful. Compared with
other study-kits there is much more content on the cd's and
not only some dialogs, even the explanations are on the
cd's so that it is possible to learn even without the book.
I found that the frequency is very important: with my three
tele-
lessons per week I'm always "in" the language, I don't need
to "warm up" to say something in Hebrew.
Michael S., Germany
|
