Welcome to Hebrew by Ear

Learn Biblical Hebrew through songs and music

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Real Applied Biblical Hebrew

One use of music is to assist rote memorization. That is not the use of these songs. Rather than tutoring your knowledge of Biblical Hebrew grammar paradigms, these songs put the language itself in your mind.

Grows with You

The songs are written to complement the Picture Hebrew curriculum. Each song is written for a specific week in the semester and only uses the grammar and vocabulary that the students have learned up to that point.

Intentional

Each song has a purpose. The song on Job only uses Nif'al verbs. The New Covenant song only uses Hif'il verbs. When you listen to a song, you reinforce grammar the natural way—by using applied Biblical Hebrew.

What's so Powerful about Music?

Learning a language is so much more than memorizing vocabulary and grammar. Think about how you communicate in your native tongue: do you have to think through each sentence carefully to make sure that everything is correct? Usually the answer is no. You can communicate naturally because your language is part of you—it's basically instinctual! You have associated experiences, objects, concepts, actions, and pretty much everything with words or ideas expressed in your native language. Part of learning a new language and actually acquiring it is having these experiences in that language. This is why the TPRS approach (and related SLA approaches) is so effective: you associate the new language with real experiences instead of your old language's vocabulary and grammar.

Think now about music. Almost everyone listens to music. It's just part of us as humans. Wait, just like language? Yes, at least in a similar way. Combining music with language produces a powerful tool for language acquisition. Not only does music help you remember words and phrases better, but the language is being used in a real life application that connects with you personally. This is the goal of Hebrew by Ear: to supplement and enhance the language acquisition process by providing progressive comprehensible input.