Writing 101

In my research paper, I'm researching the connection between languages and personalities.  Many studies that were done in the field support the idea that bilingual people tend to have different personalities when speaking in a different language. In his article " For Three Years, I Spoke Only Hebrew to My Daughter " Scheiber is talking about his own experience with being bilingual, and how he thought that he could “pass down” the Hebrew he learned from his native Hebrew speaking Israeli mother, to his daughter.  “I am funny in English. Or at least I have my moments. Not so in Hebrew” (Scheiber, 2014) is one of the examples Scheiber gives to emphasize the differences he feels about how his personality shifts between English and Hebrew. He said that this happens as a result of him being colder, stricter, and somewhat harsher when speaking in Hebrew then in English.  As for my personal experience with personality shifting when switching a language, the thing t...

On January 26, 2020, global basketball superstar Kobe Bryant died tragically at the age of 41 in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna among seven other people. Kobe Bryant is considered one of the top basketball players in the NBA’s history, In his NBA career, Kobe Bryant won 5 championships with the LA Lakers, earned an NBA record 15 selections for All-NBA teams and 12 for All-Defensive teams. He has also led the league in scoring twice, won the Slam Dunk challenge and got 4 All-Star Game MVPs in 18 appearances. He won his Season MVP in 2007-08, won the Finals MVP in the next two years and the list of his achievements goes on . News of Kobe’s death shocked the world and when his death was confirmed, social media exploded with countless fans' tributes to Kobe’s sudden death, alongside tributes from his friends, NBA current and former players, and even president Donald Trump. His impact both on and off the court was undeniable, with Kob...

There are over 7,000 spoken languages in the world today and according to the bible, language diversity started as a result of the story of The Tower of Babel.  This is explained in Genesis 11, where mankind were greedy and decided to build a tall building that would be able to “reach to the heavens” (Genesis 11-4) so that they could be like God and would not need him. The pride and arrogance of this act caused God to create different languages among the people so that they would not be able to communicate and work together to build the tower. But what would happen if all people spoke the same language? Any attempt to answer this question can only be theoretical because it never happened before. Even if we all started from the same language, this would not last too long because language can change and adapt to a culture's needs over the course of time. If we all spoke the same language, cultures would not be as present because language adapts itself into the culture, ...

If you ever happened to scroll down the streets of my hometown Haifa, or any other city in Israel for that manner of fact, you will easily notice people speaking in different languages besides Hebrew. You will most likely hear people speaking in different languages such as Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, English, Amharic and many more. We Israelis consider this part of the “Kibbutz Galoyot” phenomenon. The biblical meaning to “Kibbutz Galoyot” is bringing jews back from exile from all over the world back to their “home” land- Israel. In the Israeli society today, it basically means that besides being “Israeli” jews, they have different backgrounds, cultures and traditions, and often languages. Growing up in this environment was very enlightening. From a very young age I was exposed to different traditions, different food and languages. Even in my own family there are several different languages spoken, and different types of food. My mom and her sisters were born and raised in Iran...

When I first came to America and met American jews, I was fascinated to learn that the Hebrew they are familiar with is very different than the Hebrew I'm used to speak and hear on a daily basis from back home, which is Israel. I noticed that when talking to a jewish guy living on my dorm room floor. Even though he is fluent in Hebrew, he couldn't understand many of the words I was saying when talking to my parents over the phone in a casual conversation. He was very confused because many words sound like other words as they come from the same root, but the meaning is completely different. The reason that American jews can’t fully understand the “Israeli” Hebrew is because there are two different variations of the same language. American jews know biblical Hebrew from the bible. And that was the only form of Hebrew until the 19th century. Until the 19th century Hebrew was considered a dead language for over 3000 years (it wasn’t the first spoken language to anyone), a...