Paul Michael Yedwab

This book is far too easy for adults. The average adult can learn a new alphabet in one night, so it is not necessary to spend weeks going through the pronunciation of the letters. In every language I have studied which did not use a roman alphabet (and I have learned 10 languages), the first day of class we took a quiz over the alphabet. Furthermore, most of the practice 'words' in this book are just nonsense syllables to allow people to practice reading the letters. It could at least have used real words and defined them, allowing students to build vocabulary skills. Choose a better textbook for your students so that they can actually learn some Hebrew. Finally, the book informs readers that the divine name YHWH (when written in Hebrew characters) makes whatever it is written on holy, but it still writes the word in the book; that means you can't even throw this book away - it needs a geniza.… (mehr)