Yaffah = Beautiful
Written by Amber
It's early June, and I've been in the field three times since beginning ENP -- once at the youth center in Beer Sheva, and three times at the youth center in Beit Shemesh. Each time and while in commute, I worried how I would connect with the youth. My Hebrew is a work in progress, and I had heard that many Ethiopian-Israeli youth are not English speakers.
People have told me various reasons for this. One, is that these youth are dual language learners from birth, with many hailing from Amharic-speaking homes. Their parents, too, might struggle with literacy in both Amharic and Hebrew. Therefore, having English-learning support in the home is difficult and rare. Also, these dual-language learning youth also may or may not receive adequate engagement and/or attention in schools to meet their unique linguistic needs, even in Hebrew acquisition. So, acquiring a third language is, thus, even more daunting. And finally, Ethiopian-youth may not get the opportunities to engage with English-speaking tourists and new immigrants as might other Israeli ethnicities. Therefore, the language they have learned in school is rarely practiced. And as the old saying goes, if you don't use it, you lose it.
I was surprised, however, to learn that many of the youth of ENP -- at the Beer Sheva center in particular -- knew English quite well. They were at first shy to speak, since they do not use it on a
regular basis. But all it took was a conversation about the latest songs and artists on the radio for them to feel comfortable expressing themselves in the language. We began to talk about other things in English: what they did on the weekends; Alicia Keys' scheduled performance in Israel; the hottest reality shows on Israeli TV; the beauty of Miss Israel 2013 Titi Aynaw, the first Israeli of Ethiopian decent to be crowned. We connected well, the youth and I -- so well that in the end, they seemed to think of me as the "third kid" of ENP, despite age and cultural differences.
A similar experience occurred at ENP's youth center in Beit Shemesh. The kids in Beit Shemesh may not speak English well, but they certainly have the desire and potential to do so. I learned this finally my third time going last week. With the help of other volunteers who were bilingual in English and Hebrew, I connected more deeply with the youth at the center. I played games with the fellows, and the girls showed me around the center, telling me their favorite places and spaces in the building.
Four of us gathered in the office of the center, and the topic of the new Ethiopian-Israeli Miss Israel came up. I told them that I thought it was amazing and that she was beautiful.
One shook her head and said, "The boys in Israel...don't like"...not knowing the English word for "skin," she pointed to her own.
"No, no, no, Titi and..." I said. Not knowing the Hebrew word for skin myself, I rubbed my own, as well. "It's beautiful. I mean yaffah. Yaffah zeh lovely be-englit -- in English."
We laughed at a bit at our Hebraic English conversations. The four of us in that room made a deal. They'd teach me Hebrew, and I'd help them with English.
We shook on it.
It's early June, and I've been in the field three times since beginning ENP -- once at the youth center in Beer Sheva, and three times at the youth center in Beit Shemesh. Each time and while in commute, I worried how I would connect with the youth. My Hebrew is a work in progress, and I had heard that many Ethiopian-Israeli youth are not English speakers.
People have told me various reasons for this. One, is that these youth are dual language learners from birth, with many hailing from Amharic-speaking homes. Their parents, too, might struggle with literacy in both Amharic and Hebrew. Therefore, having English-learning support in the home is difficult and rare. Also, these dual-language learning youth also may or may not receive adequate engagement and/or attention in schools to meet their unique linguistic needs, even in Hebrew acquisition. So, acquiring a third language is, thus, even more daunting. And finally, Ethiopian-youth may not get the opportunities to engage with English-speaking tourists and new immigrants as might other Israeli ethnicities. Therefore, the language they have learned in school is rarely practiced. And as the old saying goes, if you don't use it, you lose it.
I was surprised, however, to learn that many of the youth of ENP -- at the Beer Sheva center in particular -- knew English quite well. They were at first shy to speak, since they do not use it on a
A similar experience occurred at ENP's youth center in Beit Shemesh. The kids in Beit Shemesh may not speak English well, but they certainly have the desire and potential to do so. I learned this finally my third time going last week. With the help of other volunteers who were bilingual in English and Hebrew, I connected more deeply with the youth at the center. I played games with the fellows, and the girls showed me around the center, telling me their favorite places and spaces in the building.
Four of us gathered in the office of the center, and the topic of the new Ethiopian-Israeli Miss Israel came up. I told them that I thought it was amazing and that she was beautiful.
One shook her head and said, "The boys in Israel...don't like"...not knowing the English word for "skin," she pointed to her own.
"No, no, no, Titi and..." I said. Not knowing the Hebrew word for skin myself, I rubbed my own, as well. "It's beautiful. I mean yaffah. Yaffah zeh lovely be-englit -- in English."
We laughed at a bit at our Hebraic English conversations. The four of us in that room made a deal. They'd teach me Hebrew, and I'd help them with English.
We shook on it.
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