New Beginnings, in a new Language
- Alexandra Okeson-Haberman
- Nov 25
- 4 min read
This blog post was written by Alexandra Okeson-Haberman, a 2025/26 Fellow in Rishon LeZion
I’m no stranger to moving and starting over. From kindergarten to fifth grade I attended six different schools in four different states. Sometimes I didn’t stay in the same school for an entire year. I grew up being the new kid every couple years. My family finally (somewhat) settled down in Springfield, Missouri when I was 10, but the experience of moving around and having to introduce myself again and again stuck with me. As a kid, shy and unsteady in myself, I found this incredibly scary. I yearned for stability and wanted to be in one place. So why would I decide to fly across half the world and volunteer for 9 months in a country I’ve only visited once before?
Sometimes I ask myself that question. Starting over in any capacity can be scary and being so far from your family can be incredibly hard, but I have learned that starting again is part of life. Just as things end, things also begin, and as I am beginning my volunteering in Rishon LeTzion, I have been reflecting a lot on the importance of languages in cross-cultural communication. In our first seminar we discussed how differences such as values and basic assumptions can make cross-cultural communication more challenging. For example, Israelis are often more direct and straight-forward while some Americans are more indirect in communication. One thing we didn’t discuss, but that I’ve seen come up time and time again during my time in Israel is the language barrier.
Many Americans only speak English, although it is becoming increasingly common for Americans to speak a language other than English at home. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau (1) shows that between 2017 and 2021 22% of individuals 5 years or older spoke a language other than English at home. The most commonly spoken language other than English nationwide was Spanish, but Iloko is the second most commonly spoken language in Hawaii, and French holds the same title in Vermont and Maine. Languages spoken by Native Americans such as Western Apache, Navajo, and Central Yupik have declined in use since 2013. While there is an increasing segment of the American population that speaks at least two languages, it is much lower than the 55% of Canadians or the 67% of Europeans who speak two or more languages.
Most people in Israel speak Hebrew, but Hebrew is not the only language spoken in Israel. About a fifth of Israel’s population speaks Arabic. The most common dialects of Arabic spoken in Israel are Levantine Arabic by the Israeli Arab population, Lebanese Arabic by the Druze and some Arabs in the north, and Judeo-Arabic dialects by Jews who came to Israel from countries like Yemen, Morocco, and Iraq. Because of the large numbers of Russian-speaking Jews who emigrated to Israel after the collapse of the Soviet Union, about a fifth of Israelis speak Russian. English is commonly taught to Israeli children in schools and there are many signs in English to aid English-speaking tourists, but few Israelis call English their native tongue. (2)
Volunteering in schools to help Israeli kids practice their English language skills has made me reflect over my exposure to Hebrew growing up. Many of these kids are getting more exposure to English in their schools than I did with Hebrew. I went to Hebrew school growing up, but it is one thing to learn how to recite the v’Ahavta and a completely different thing to having conversations with people in a language in which you’re more familiar with praying than expressing yourself to other humans. I can’t change the fact that I did not learn conversational Hebrew growing up, but I can strive to learn and use Hebrew while I am here in Israel.
Volunteering at the elderly day center where older adults come in to socialize and spend time together on Monday has allowed me the opportunity to practice conversing with people in other languages. My Hebrew is still very basic and so many of my conversations have been limited to asking people what they like to do and how their day is going. I have, however, been able to have more in-depth conversations with some of the people there in French.
One of my roommates, Shannon, is from Paris and French is her mother tongue. While many of us are learning a second or third language in our native
tongue, she is learning a fourth language in her second tongue! Both of us volunteer at the elderly day center on Monday mornings and as Shannon is a lot more comfortable speaking French than I am, I have been able to listen and sometimes contribute to some lovely conversations.
On our first day there, Shannon and I were able to speak to a 90 year-old man who was born in Tunisia. He explained in French that he moved to France and then later to Israel where he currently lives. It was fascinating to hear about his life trajectory. The second week, Shannon and I met a 91 year old woman who was born in Syria. Like Tunisia, Syria was formerly colonized by the French and it is because of that history that the woman learned French in school. She told us that she spoke Arabic and French growing up and when she made Aliyah, she had to learn Hebrew. We spoke in a combination of English, French, and Hebrew. The experience was beautiful because we were all invested in speaking to each other, even if we had to switch languages sometimes in the same sentence.
Volunteering at the elderly day center has not only given me a chance to practice my Hebrew (however limited it is), but it has also demonstrated to me that when you learn another language, you are opening another world for yourself to step into. It is one thing to hear someone else translate for you and another to understand the words coming out of another person’s mouth. Going forward I hope to learn more Hebrew so that one day I may be able to have a conversation in Hebrew that matches the beautiful conversations my roommate and I have had with seniors in French. I may be starting over (once again), but this time I am excited and ready to turn a new page in the book of my life.
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