Israel walks the line

January 26, 2009 - 7:02 PM by David · 2 Comments
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Life 

numbersFor a long time, there was no word for ’standing in line’ in Hebrew.

Just kidding, of course there was a word for it, it’s just that nobody actually stood in line. Nobody will actually stand behind you, they sort of sidle up next to you, as if they’re going to cut in front of you at the first available moment. Lines in Israel look more like trapezoids.

And never mind the people who come up behind you and say “I’m here behind you – I’m just going to do 10 errands and I’ll be right back.” These people alway have a knack of returning just after their turn was supposed to come and expect me to vouch for them, even though I’m done with my business and have one foot out the door.

In the last couple years though, a major innovation has rippled through the postal, government and health care systems – the number system! Everyone takes a number at the door and there’s no controversy, nobody holding someone else’s place, nobody arguing that they were ahead of you in line – right? Wrong.

Today at the neighborhood post office, the following scenario proves that Israelis can create havoc even out of an organized situation. Here’s the deal – lots of people are at the post office, one person who couldn’t wait any longer walked out, throwing his number into the trash can at the entrance.

A 20-something-year-old man who had just walked in, reaches in and picks up the discarded number, which is a couple dozen ahead of his own. A woman who sees the action going down and realizes Mr. 20-something is now ahead of her shouts out, “You can’t do that. I was here before you.”

“Sure I can,” he answered. “If the other guy had stayed, he’d still go ahead of you. What does it matter if it’s him or me?”

The woman didn’t like that response and approached one of the postal clerks – “Don’t receive this man – he’s cutting in line,” she yelled out. The clerk had no idea what she was talking about, but meanwhile, the other people in line all started weighing in with their opinions, some siding with Mr. 20 and some with the ruffled woman.

My wife, who relayed the story, was ahead of both of them, and walked out without getting to experience the final act. My bet is that just before it was Mr. 20’s found turn, someone ran up and said “I was here, I just went out to do 10 errands.”

Tags: , ,

RepORTs from the teens

January 9, 2009 - 12:32 PM by Harry · 2 Comments
Filed under: General 

AshkelonA network of high schools across Israel that emphasizes high-tech vocational training, ORT is an educational powerhouse, its 100,000-strong student body representing about one tenth of all Israeli high school students.

With six branches within rocket range in southern Israel, ORT estimates that 7000 of its pupils are currently under high risk of Hamas attacks.

ORT’s Ronson School in Ashkelon, which educates some 1800 students, has temporarily closed its doors due to this situation, necessitating special tutoring and commuting arrangements so that the 12th graders don’t fall too far behind.

In the meantime, the school’s Eye 2 Israel / Yama and student blogging (informational site in Hebrew only) projects have encouraged students to use their tech bent to help foment a positive image of Israelis in the blogosphere – a motivation close to Israelity’s heart.

One of their bloggers, 14-year-old Rebeca Mayer, is an immigrant from Cuba. Although her English isn’t the most polished, Mayer’s accounts of her day-to-day life are a poignant reminder that there are real people behind every headline. As she puts it in her blog, “I decided to open this blog so all of you out there will understand what we’re going threw here in Ashkelon.”

Writing from inside a bomb shelter, where she and her family have been spending lots of time lately, Mayer wrote on December 28:

I’m really board here cause there’s nothing to do, my little bro is playing with my grandma with a train.

….I wanted to go out today and buy some shoes, but I guess this plan would have to wait, it really sucks to live in this kind of reality I just hope everything will be ok.

More recently, this past Tuesday, she wrote about her feelings of personal connection to the IDF soldiers who had recently been killed in combat in Gaza:

I feel so responsible for there death, cause I know they died to defend me.

They were supposed to come home as heroes but they come back in a coffin.

Now nothing could change, I just hope they will be happy up there in heaven.

As of yesterday, Mayer was planning on going to Eilat for the weekend for some escape and fun. We hope she finds what she’s looking for.

Image Ashkelon courtesy Jason Turner from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Portman’s directorial debut taking shape

September 14, 2008 - 2:39 PM by Harry · 1 Comment
Filed under: Movies 

NatalieVariety is reporting that Natalie Portman’s directorial debut, an adaptation of Amos Oz’s memoir “A Tale of Love and Darkness” is in the works. Now, this in itself is not new news as it has been reported elsewhere many months ago. What is news however is the revelation that the movie will be in Hebrew:

While admitting that the next step into directing her first feature is daunting, the 27-year-old Portman is relishing the chance to tell the story of venerated author Oz’s childhood in his native tongue.

“Someone made a good point once about how would you feel if Mexicans came and made a movie about George Washington in Spanish? It would be absurd but we do it all the time,” she tells Variety. “I think people are much more open to reading subtitles now and prefer the authenticity of seeing the true language of that culture. It’s becoming unacceptable to make films in places and in a language they’re not supposed to be in.

“It’s always best to make things as cheaply as possible because then you can take a lot more risk, like doing something in an original language that is not widely spoken,” Portman said moments before receiving the San Pellegrino Movie for Humanity Award at the recent Venice film fest, feting her humanitarian works with children in Africa.

So intelligent that Natalie and so, so, so….pretty.

Natalie shouldn’t have a problem with the language since we already know she is pretty fluent.

Hat tip: Cinemascopian

Tags: , , , , ,

My bilingual baby

July 25, 2008 - 2:40 PM by Harry · 3 Comments
Filed under: Life 

Princess PoopypantsSo my 15 month old daughter has been sprouting up words for the past few months. It is surreal enough for me to actually be a parent but thing but to have her actually communicate is truly bizarre. What’s really amazing is that she’s racking up both English and Hebrew words. It started with Abba/ Dada and Ima/ Mama – which is now mostly Dada and Mama (I really wanted her to call me Nighthawk but that didn’t work out). But she still seems to have a growing range in both languages. Yesterday she said ‘tapuach’ when offered an apple. Though she knows the word apple – also as it relates to all other fruits that she doesn’t call ‘nana’ – she seemed really excited to enunciate ta-poo-waaa.

Then the other night she said, na’alayim (shoes). Now she’s been loving her shoes (the English versions) for the past month, eagerly getting hers to put on, treading in mine, bringing my wife’s shoes to her and even putting some on Noonie our incredibly patient dog. But tonight, seeing our shocked responses, she continued to point out all the na’alayim in her books, around the house, etc. Plus she had major fun pronouncing the words, experimenting with the ‘y’ and ‘l’ and ‘yim’ sounds.

So to record the larger achievements in both languages, she’s also got the following words down pat: hello + halo + shalom; ball + kadoor; bye bye; balloon; ma zeh (what’s this) and mee zeh (who’s this); book; doggy; duckie; soos (horse); shoes + na’alayim; peh (mouth); ‘znayim (ears); baby; sing; mayim (water); bottle + bakbook (though she really says abottle); degel (flag); nadned (see saw or swing); noonie (our dog); cookie; lo + no; two; apple + tapuach; banana; todah (thank you); and opah (or oopsy, said when someone or something). She also started recently saying ‘hi mama’ ‘hi dada’ and ‘bye bye tzila’ (her teacher at school and it comes out more like tzee’a).

Oh and when she throws something down, she puts her hands on her cheeks (McCauly Caulkin style) and says ‘oy yoy yoy’. She knows this makes me laugh so she does it continuously, much to my enjoyment.

Tags: , , ,

 

© 2009 ISRAELITY | Site by illuminea | Sitemap