An important disclaimer
Draftees, if you have an advanced level of spoken Hebrew fluency and a reasonable level of writing/reading fluency, then this blog post is not intended for you.
It's crazy. It’s crazy to think someone could have successful IDF combat service without decent Hebrew. It’s crazy that a guy who wants units like “Seyeret Maktal” or “Duvdevan” can’t order a pita in Hebrew without repeating himself five times or call the internet company to pay a bill and having to press ‘4’ for english. Pure, craziness.
I can tell you this because I was there. Back in 2015, I was, unbeknownst to me, this crazy guy. I came to this country with absolutely no connections or family here, not much inkling of Israeli culture and most importantly - no Hebrew. I was in a relative minority group of lone soldiers; those who came here with no Israeli DNA, as most lone soldiers are ‘Katinim Hozrim’ or native Israelis. At that even, it still wasn’t as drastic as coming to a foreign country with big dreams yet with none of its national language. You see it so much in Israel you have the illusion of its normalisation but I’m telling you it’s BANANAS! And If I had not put my personal Hebrew development as my #1 daily priority, that would been the most bananas of all. Luckily for me, I sought everything within my power and reach to improve my Hebrew. I took the advice people gave me and ran with it (The advice was “dude, your Hebrew sucks”) and quickly understood how important Hebrew would be for my success rate in the Israel Defense Forces.
As my draft approached, I was committing myself more and more to Hebrew study. Even at that, I could have given more. We always can. Originally, I thought of story-telling about my journey in this post – because it was unique, and people could certainly learn from it. I, like you, was taking huge risks, far more than the average Israeli soldier. But, I cannot recommend anyone to follow my exact path. Excluding the aforementioned, I will leave my story to your imagination. For this post, my focus is on you. I want to make sure you understand the problem. I already got it. With that, let’s abstract… I present you a story of your hypothetical (and imaginary?) friend ‘Mark…’
Say you had this friend who just graduated college. Mark had freshly been made real estate broker and your dude already killing it flipping multi-family units in California. Big bucks. So, one day, he gets a call from his boss. His boss offered him a life-changing position pushing more of these multi-family properties. The job would be a lot more intense and would require a lot more work. If he could succeed in this position, he would gain tons of experience, self-respect and establish himself amongst his people. The job would be in Tokyo, Japan. His favourite place in the world. Mark loves and appreciates the Japanese culture more than anyone else. It has always been a dream of his to visit Japan. Now he had the opportunity to live there! Pure adrenaline pumped through his veins and he listened as his boss let him in on one, big ‘catch’. “In order to accept this position, it is mandatory that you learn Japanese within six months.” “What do you mean – learn Japanese? Like I need to study it?” Mark said. “Mark, I don’t care how. I’ll need you to be able to take and receive orders from me and translate them into Japanese. On your own. The deadline is six months.” the boss made clear. “This is nonnegotiable.” Mark’s great mood took a 180 real quick. His heart sank. Six months wasn’t just a lofty challenge, it was damn near impossible. He reluctantly declined the position, then called you immediately thereafter to explain why. “Bro, how the hell could I move to work with a bunch of Japanese people and not speak Japanese? How would I interact with them even? Hell, I wouldn’t even know how to order my favourite sushi without getting laughed at! And this guy wants, in less than a year, for me to master a professional level of Japanese?! Get a grip Mr. Boss…I’m staying here!”
Anyone would understand why mark had to decline that position. He played the odds and was a realist. Anyone familiar with linguistics wouldn’t bet on him to speak “like a Japanese” within six months. Mark was smart. You are not like Mark. Are you dumb? No, of course not (lol). What you are is a risk-taker. You are not playing the odds. You certainly don’t have better odds than mark. You are moving to a country in order to sacrifice your freedom and your life to a military system without the ability to speak. If the accomplished and successful Mark wouldn’t go to Japan for something as reasonable as a new white-collar job, what makes you believe you can move to Israel for an intense combat service? Many lone soldiers don’t understand how drastic this measure is. It’s not just one or two - I encounter 100s of lone soldiers that play these same odds a year. 100s of lone soldiers that can’t speak a lick of Hebrew. Too many, frankly.
You will need to convince a war-fighting machine to trust you enough to be in their ranks, day in and day out for at least three years (or two if you are a woman.) Of course, entirely in Hebrew. You’ll want to understand the jokes and conversations of your teammates while sitting around on base. You’ll need to understand commands on the battlefield and your level of understanding could seriously influence the success of the mission. Moreover, misunderstanding a radio message could be a matter of life or death. I’m not trying to inject anxiety into your veins. I’m trying to align your (perhaps) subjective view of what could happen to the reality of what could happen. But I wouldn’t write this post if there wasn’t hope for you risk-takers. You can accomplish your dreams. You can do it. But if you’re going to make mark regret playing it safe and beat the odds., you are going to have to work. Study. And do in a fashion you probably never had done before. You’re going to have to prioritise Hebrew more than anything else in your daily regimen.
If you don’t respect that you are in a precarious position, slack off and go out to the “Shalvata” club when you are supposed to be studying you vocabulary, you will lose in the IDF and you will lose BIG. See, no matter your impressive warrior spirit, no matter how fast, strong or smart you are - in the army, communication is of the upmost importance. It’s so important that you can’t even participate in “Yom Sayarot” (the SF initial selection) without a certain level of Hebrew. It’s so important that the army built a 3 month course for people like you at the “Michve Alon” base. The army ties. But hey, it may not get there all the time. In my opinion, these army courses do not provide a proper education environment for learning fluent Hebrew. So if you are relying on this course and relying on it alone, you are totally doing it wrong. I repeat: Do not rely on Michve Alon.
Now is the time for you to change your habit pattern. Not tomorrow, not later. (If you need to know how to build habits. Start with a podcast or something. A book. Hell, start anywhere – its could be better than what you are doing now.) It’s time to get more organised and more serious. Day by day. Hour by hour. It’s time to work a little less ‘hard’ at Tsevet Lohamim and a lot more ‘smart.’
Start reading the Israeli news (Enough with the Jpost and Ynetnews). Sub to a Israeli podcast. On that note, immerse yourself with Israeli entertainment as a whole – music, TV and movies. Make as many Israeli friends as possible. Stop swiping right on American girls/boys and start going on dates with Israelis!!! I’m serious. The level of obsession for Hebrew improvement must be bone deep. And go through every struggle with pride. Failure, embarrassment and uncomfortable pain for watching deadpan Israeli comedy shows is apart of the process. Just go with it and understand the big picture. Inundate your life with the language now, because Hebrew will give you no choice upon your draft date and beyond. Make stupid, laughable mistakes now, so you won’t in the army.
Yes, it’s as simple as that: Reorder your priority set and live by them - the results you deserve will come. And of course, make every Tsevet Lohamim session you can. Why is it important for trainers speak to/with you in Hebrew? I wish you the best of luck in your endeavours. If you haven’t thought of Hebrew seriously, then start thinking now… Nothing is more important! If you won’t study now, when will you?
Written by R. Allen