YU’s Hebrew Problem
Three years ago, YU stopped offering most of their synchronous or in-person Hebrew courses. Despite the benefits of this system, students worry about their ability to learn under its constraints. As the “premier Jewish university,” YU prides itself on its connection to Israel and the Hebrew language. YU considers Hebrew to be one of the most important classes in the university, as evidenced by the fact that it is a requirement for all undergraduate programs. There’s just one catch — students do not actually learn the Hebrew language through the course. If YU really cared about us learning the Hebrew language, they would stop this system and make a real class with effective learning.
Students in YU take a placement test to determine whether they will be placed in 1010, 1020, 1030 or 1040 level classes. In order to graduate, a student must complete at least 1030, so if a student places into 1010 he or she must (purportedly) take at least three semesters of Hebrew in order to grow proficient in the language. This, however, is not the reality.
Since many students are undeservingly placed into the higher levels, those of us who must take more than one semester of Hebrew see a lot of repetition from previous semesters. For example, the introductory assignments for 1020 and 1030 are exactly the same, making them redundant and, frankly, annoying to do. Coupled with this is the fact that teachers don’t expect us to use any of the knowledge we’ve acquired in previous semesters for the current one. When a friend of mine was accused of cheating on an assignment because he had used a word that he “shouldn't know” at his current level, he explained that it was something that we learned in 1020. The teacher responded by telling him: “Don’t use anything you learned in 1020, we’re in 1030 now.” Hearing that makes me wonder why we even need to take multiple semesters at all if we aren’t supposed to accumulate knowledge and improve from semester to semester.
A big benefit of this system is its asynchronicity, meaning that there is no designated time for the work so we can do it more or less whenever we want. This frees up time to do other things and take on a “heavier workload” since the program is not really time-consuming. From a scheduling standpoint, this is great, but from a learning standpoint, it’s terrible. The flexibility of an asynchronous schedule promotes laxity, which basically means that we don’t learn anything. The program is essentially a glorified Duolingo, except we don’t need to do it every day to “keep our streak going.” Combined with the lack of time and effort our “teachers” put into helping us succeed, the program is honestly embarrassing.
Typical professors at YU have office hours so students can meet with them to talk about class and how they are doing. Hebrew, however, is very different. For my class, office hours are 90 minutes once a week during a time slot when I have other classes. When confronted about this problem, the head of the Hebrew department suggested asking the teacher if they could meet outside of the given window. When my friend did, the teacher replied, “If a meeting is required, you must find at least five minutes during my office hours, even if it requires adjusting your schedule.” Suddenly, a program meant to help students balance their schedules requires us to miss class in order to meet with the professor. These meetings are also the only way to seek individual assistance or discuss grading. Instead of sending emails or leaving comments on the class messaging board, teachers expect us to miss class and meet with them if we really care to understand what we did wrong.
I’m not expecting the classes to be perfect, but there is a clear disconnect between the administration, the teachers and the students as to what their priorities are. The department needs to get their act together and figure out what they really want from this system because as a student I can say that it is not working. There may not be a simple solution, and I’m not saying that I have a great alternative, but there has to be a better way than the current format, even if it means reverting to the original in-person format. If YU merely wants to boast that they require all students to learn the Hebrew language in order to keep the reputation of being the “premier Jewish university” then technically the current format works. However, if the school truly wishes that its students learn the language, then I sincerely hope that they change it.
Photo Caption: Hebrew 1030
Photo Credit: Abraham Kanter
