Hebrew (Musings)

So. I decided to expose myself to a lot of Hebrew these past few days. It was exhausting. It made me think my Hebrew absolutely, well, sucks (not as much as some other people's, but definitely not as little as I think it should).

It makes me wonder whether I will be able to handle hearing Hebrew 24/7. It's not as though I don't know I will hear other languages in Israel, but the language I will need to use will be Hebrew. I would feel weird taking a job that has me speak more in English than in Hebrew. Hebrew (and Arabic) are the official languages. It's more than just a label. It is the essence of the country, at least to me, anyway.

I don't know whether it is a bad or a good thing that I am dissatisfied with my Hebrew. I don't know where I'm supposed to be, level-wise. How much will my Hebrew improve in a year? How much will it improve if I live in Israel? Of course, it will improve more, and faster--but not exponentially--but how will I feel in the end? Will Hebrew become something so natural and second-nature, or such a chore in the beginning, that it will seem like an odd reason to make aliyah in the first place? I just don't know.

Universities

About universities. I am considering studying law in Israel and becoming a lawyer. It looks like litigation, one of the areas (I thought) I was most interested in, isn't as popular in Israel as is corporate law. But I have decided not to worry about that now. I want to apply to several graduate schools (law schools), hopefully with the possibility of doing a combined LLB/LLM program (it still bugs me that I will have a BA).

These are the ones I will need to consider:

• Bar-Ilan U.
  
• Tel-Aviv U.
• U. of Haifa
  
• U. of J'lem

In case you have nodded off at this point, feel free to vote in my poll, "Would you attend law school in Israel?" I'd love to hear comments, especially to those of you who pick "no." Why not go to law school there?

Other ones (that I'd never heard of, probably because they are schools of law at other colleges. Thank you, Wikipedia) include:

• Academic Center of Law & Business, Ramat Gan
• College of Management, Rishon Lezion
• Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya
• Netanya Academic College, Netanya
• Ono Academic College, Kiryat Ono
• Sha'arei Mishpat, Hod HaSharon

I will definitely focus on the big guys...or might this chart below (from Wikipedia) suggest otherwise? I need to look at the details, because numbers alone do not tell a good (in any sense of the word) story! I think this chart is unlikely to be useful by itself.

Law school	Num. licensed
College of Management	275
Shaarey Mishpat	240
Academic Center of Law & Business in Ramat Gan	213
Tel-Aviv University (TAU)	188
Netanya Academic College Law School	184
Hebrew University (HUJI)	162
Ono Academic College Faculty of Law	154
Haifa University (HAI)	128
Bar Ilan University (BIU)	117
Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya	109
(abroad)	°45
(misc.)	°°2

I haven't posted here in forever. That's because I was not on top of things last semester.

That's going to change. This blog will store useful information I find online, all relevant to becoming a graduate student in and moving to Israel.

A Good International Trend?

..From The New York Times:

Much overseas expansion has occurred in the past five years, and even more recently than that for the Middle East and Asia, according to statistics compiled by the National Law Journal, a trade publication.

Link to Article

Business

Lawyers Wanted: Abroad, That Is

By JOHN BRINGARDNER

Published: November 23, 2008

As the economic downturn continues, a growing number of lawyers are starting to look overseas for work.

Reason to Move #33

School has been and continues to keep me very, very busy.

I do have another reason to move to Israel: all the random festivals.

There's Festigal and Festival haPsanter, which takes place this year from the 12th to the 15th of November.

There's an entire Wikipedia page on all of the festivals:

• פסטיבל אבו גוש
• פסטיבל אקטיביזם
• פסטיבל בשקל
• פסטיבל הג'אז בנמל קיסריה
• פסטיבל הג'אז הבינלאומי אילת
• פסטיבל הזמר המזרחי
• פסטיבל הזמר והפזמון
• חגיגות הזמר העברי בערד
• פסטיבל ישראל
• פסטיבל מחול כרמיאל
• הפסטיבל הבינלאומי למוזיקה קאמרית בירושלים
• פסטיבל סולם יעקב
• סמול במה (small במה)
• פסטיבל הסרטים הבינלאומי חיפה
• פסטיבל עכו
• פסטיבל העוד
• פסטיבל הקולנוע ההומו-לסבי הבינלאומי בתל-אביב
• פסטיבל הקולנוע ירושלים
• פסטיבל קולנוע דרום

And those are just the listed ones!

Now, it's not like we don't have festivals in America. There's the Jewish Film Festival. There are Rhubarb Festivals. There are random Vegetarian Festivals...but with the size of the country, it's hard to hear of them and/or go to them. I've been to very few, if any. If I were to live in Israel, I would get much more involved with these awesome events.

Reason to Move #32

I can't believe I, with my great interest in and love for Israeli music, forgot to mention one more thing that makes me want to move to Israel: Galgalatz, the main radio station. I got hooked up through the Yahoo Widget IL Radio, but there are also ways of doing so online.

Galgalatz is just an awesome radio station. The 'טכנאים, מפיקים, שדרן וכו play American and Israeli music, so I won't get miss American music too much (not that I love it, but anyway). They play oldies and new music. They play absolutely random stuff that is just plain fun to listen to. Some announcers' translations of song titles from English to Hebrew are hilarious ("I just got what it means! [proceeds to translate]." True story. Or "Beloved" (נאהבת) for "She Will be Loved"). I love the news on the hour. I swear I heard a weatherman once with an American accent; I heard another accent another day, too (it sounded like Russian to me). Then there's the driving commercials. What isn't there?

Galgalatz is a reason to go. There's Reshet Gimmel, too, which I like, but it does not reach the hilarity level of Gal-gal-gal-galatz.

Aliyah Resources From the Horse's Mouth

I found this link earlier, but I didn't mention it until I started printed out all the awesome information it has. Where does this link lead? Why, the Ministry of Absorption, of course!

Here is what it has:

Education
Information Booklet for Immigrant Students
Housing
Military Service
The National Insurance Institute
Guide to Services for the Disabled
Transportation Services in Israel
First Steps
Financial Assistance-Absorption Basket
A Guide to Ulpan Study
Employment Guidance Centers
Guarding Your Health
The Life Cycle
Pensioners
Registration in a Health Fund
Where to Turn
Information on Conversion

This is amazing, even if you could ask for more. In fact, you can: at the end of the booklets, there are forms to request more information. The booklets themselves are in at least two languages, sometimes even more (four or five, even. Any polyglots in the area?)