Description:
Launch Speak Hebrew! and immediately find yourself stepping off the plane in Israel, opening your virtual map to discover the sights and sounds of Jerusalem. Audio, visual, and phonetic tools make it easy to pick up basic Hebrew conversational skills in no time, while an easy-to-use interface makes navigating through this program a breeze. Once we installed Speak Hebrew!, it took about five minutes to get the program up and running. Users are given two initial options--travel or music. While the music option won't do much for your Hebrew skills (you can either listen to a recorder or to psalms), it is interesting to see well-known prayers translated into Hebrew onscreen. However, the real meat of the program lies in the travel section. This is where you can travel to the Western Wall, buy groceries at the local market, visit an Israeli family's house, and even fill your prescription for antibiotics at the local pharmacy. Users choose whether they wish to "play" as a male or female, as Hebrew makes grammatical distinctions between the two genders. You can also choose to either play or observe. If you observe, you are given the aid of subtitles, which feature written phonetic and Hebrew translations and English translations. If you play, you will participate in the conversation without subtitles, and focus on listening rather than reading comprehension. If you wish to repeat a sentence, simply hit the R key in the main menu and you can listen to a dialogue again. When using the program, it is immediately obvious just how authentically Hebrew the application actually is. Accents are true to life, and conversation is easy to follow and free flowing. One especially cool feature was at the Western Wall, where we were able to click on a brick and read a specific prayer that had been placed on the wall, as is the custom when visiting this site. Small touches like these make the program seem especially genuine. Speak Hebrew! is not intended for users who wish to write a dissertation in Hebrew or deliver a complicated speech to a fluent audience. However, if you are thinking of visiting Israel and you want to make sure you can hail a taxi or buy a banana, Speak Hebrew! is a fast and fun way to get there. --Gisele Toueg
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