Companion to the First Hebrew Primer

I'm learning Hebrew on my own and not in a class. I read the not-so-good review about the audio CD and didn't buy it at the time I purchased the Primer. Well, after going about 1/3 the way through the book, I realized that I was handicapped by not having access to the sound of the words I was learning. So I took a chance and purchased the Companion. I wish I had ignored the poor review and bought it at the same time as the Primer. I'm going back to the beginning and reviewing pronounciation now. The audio is a great help to this.I'll admit that this may not the best way to learn Hebrew, but I'm a real slow language learner, and probably wouldn't be able to keep up with a class anyway. Since my goal is to be able to read Hebrew, and not necessarily to speak it, this is a great tool for me.I would recommend getting the Companion CD, I'm not disappointed with mine.

I have tried to teach myself Hebrew before with limited success. This book has made it possible for me to teach myself with confidence. It is extremely well laid out and each lesson truly keeps building on what precedes. The exercises that accompany each lesson are well planned and are just the repetition and practice necessary to reinforce everything that has been presented in previous lessons. I wish I had found this book a long time ago but better now than never !!!

What was not clearly stated in the description is that this package has nine audio CDs, not just one CD. Which means MUCH more pronunciation practice than what you get with the one-CD Hebrew course by John Dobson. The Hebrew pronunciation is VERY clear. There is a female voice (who has phoneme-accurate Hebrew pronunciation despite her ability to speak American English) and a male voice (that sounds Israeli to me). The 9 CDs are packaged in an attractive carry case with sleeves.

The narrators have not made a serious effort at rigorous diction. I would not recommend this unless you have no other way to practice pronunciation, and then only if you require aural reinforcement for learning.

I am a self-learner. It helps to have this audio aid in studying this wonderful Hebrew Primer. It is a great textbook! This 9-CD set covers the contents (vocabs and short sentences) of the main teaching, the beginning of some exercises, Tall Tales (short stories for practice), and the guided biblical reading of the Book of Ruth, which starts around Chapter 10 (Total 29 Chapters). If you do not have any experience with hearing/speaking Hebrew, I recommend this Audio Companion CD Set. You will need it, and I have found it useful to keep me going with my self-learning process. Its recording quality is excellent, and sections are well labeled with titles and page numbers so you can go directly to where you want to go. But, if you are familiar with the basic pronunciations, vowel symbols, or have anyway to hear a native speaker or a teacher reading even a part of it, do not bother.Here is why . . . : The readers are not natives; they have HEAVY English accents. It will not help with familiarizing our ears with the native sounds and intonations. This is not a good resource for that purpose, though they read fairly fluently and correctly most of the time. It may even be bad for you if you have never heard a native speaker pronouncing words and if you care about pronouncing words closely to the native sounds with right intonations. I even skipped some parts because it was unbearable. I have been listening to a Tanach reading by an Israeli rabbi and working on Modern Hebrew for a while, so I can clearly tell the difference. For better quality audio resource for biblical Hebrew in general, I recommend Hebrew4Christians.com. They have amazing amount of well-organized written and audio resources. I have done some basic learning there, for free.

I purchased the audio CDs, with the First Hebrew Primer, Third Edition, and flash cards, at the same time. They have been a joy to use, and the format is very easy to follow. The lessons are presented in a clear manner, and the repetition of the lessons facilitates remembering the content. I would recommend this package to anyone, especially someone who is a beginner to learning Hebrew.

The audio CDs were very helpful in hearing how to pronounce the words. However, in later chapters they stopped reading the lessons and exercises and read only the oral review, the vocabulary, the tall tales, and Biblical selections, assuming we were becoming proficient at Hebrew. In reality, we were new students of Hebrew, and it would have been more helpful if they had continued to read everything, especially when new prefixes and suffixes were added, so we could make sure we were reading everything correctly.

Saves me so much confusion. A great learning aid in itself, as it's good for comprehension and review. I feel sorry for students who don't have this resource.