The Cactus Course Outlines provide a learning framework for the Cactus Foreign Language Evening Courses. They are designed to provide you with a good idea of what you might cover during the course and include typical themes, vocabulary fields, grammar, cultural content and skills work for the language and the level. The Outlines are flexible rather than prescriptive, in that our teachers always plan their lessons with the specific abilities, aims and interests of the students in their classes in mind.

• Hebrew Beginner 1
• Hebrew Beginner 2
• Hebrew Beginner 3
• Hebrew Elementary 1
• Hebrew Elementary 2
• Hebrew Elementary 3
• Hebrew Intermediate 1
• Hebrew Intermediate 2
• Hebrew Intermediate 3
• Hebrew Upper Intermediate
• Hebrew Advanced

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Greetings and introduction
• Forms of address in the feminine and masculine
• Talking about yourself and your family
• Talk about nationalities.
• Question words
• There is, there isn’t.
• Numbers
• Alphabet in Print and cursive.
• Jobs and occupations
• Making requests and expressing gratitude
• Ordering food and drinks
• Jobs and occupations
• Everyday life. Days of the week, months, time.

Grammar:

• Personal pronouns
• Feminine and masculine usage
• Possessive pronouns.
• Present tense of key verbs To Read – לקרוא , To Eat – לאכול, To Go – ללכת, To Write – לכתוב...
• Word order and sentence structure
• Nouns and adjectives singular, plural.
• Question forming.
• Prefixes.

Cultural content:

• Common idiomatic expressions
• Key religious expressions and their usage in every day speech
• Insight into difference between Modern and biblical Hebrew.
• Insight into cultural differences between the different ethnic groups living in Israel.

Skills Work:

• The Hebrew alphabet, reading and writing, with special emphasis on unfamiliar sounds.
• Pronunciation of Guttural letters.
• Listening comprehension

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Revision of Beginners 1
• Counting and using numbers in Masculine / Feminine form.
• Traveling around sites in Israel.
• Around the house.
• Shopping, getting directions, situations on the bus

Grammar:

• Review of the Alpha-Bet.
• Adjectives in Male / Female, singular / plural.
• Word order and sentence structure
• The root of words.

Cultural content:

• Common idiomatic expressions
• The use of Hebrew in the Diaspora.
• Everyday life in Israel.

Skills Work:

• Practical tools to master reading and writing.
• Communicative role plays
• Listening comprehension
• Practical assignments and tasks.
• Cursive writing skills.

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Eating out – cafes, restaurants
• At the hotel.
• At the airport.
• Making plans
• Higher level numbers
• Review of the Beginners Level courses

Grammar:

• Review of the Alpha-Bet.
• Prepositions, nouns and adjectives : agreement
• The infinitive
• Verb roots
• The different types of verb forms in groups (פעל) Paal / (קל) Kal
• Adjectives and adverbs (Male / female)
• Causal clauses

Cultural content:

• More common idiomatic expressions
• The use of Hebrew in the Diaspora.
• Everyday life in Israel and the World.

Skills Work:

• Practical tools to master reading and writing.
• Communicative role plays
• Listening comprehension
• Practical assignments and tasks.
• Cursive writing skills.

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Review of simple sentences and basic conversation.
• Calendar and schedule.
• In the café.
• On the bus.
• Post office.

Grammar:

• Review of verbs in (פעל) Paal / (קל) Kal.
• Intro to verbs in stem of Hefeel - הפעיל
• Intro to verbs in גזרות ל'פ. ל'י
• Verbs in the stem of Hitpaael – התפעל
• Intro to the verb To Be – להיות
• Nominal clause models
• Forming sentences by combining indefinite nouns and indefinite adjectives.
• Construct states.

Cultural content:

• Classic Israeli films.
• Cultural development in Israel since the 50’s.
• Different social life in Jerusalem.
• Places around the Dead Sea and Judas Desert.
• Friday and Shabbat.

Skills Work:

• Listening comprehension
• Practical assignments and tasks.
• Pronunciation.
• Improve reading and writing skills.

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Review Elementary 1
• Reading the newspaper.
• Ordinal numbers.
• At a party
• In the bookshop.
• Body part and organs.

Grammar:

• Weak verbs (קל – Kal) in past tense.
• Definiteness of the construct state.
• Conjugations of the preposition ...ל (To)
• Construct states as the objects of the sentence /the second noun is the proper noun.
• Possessive sentences( ישYesh / אין Eyin le...)

Cultural content:

• Places around the Sea of Galilee.
• The Jews of Ethiopia.
• The Jewish wedding.

Skills Work:

• Writing a short story.
• Dialogue forming.
• Describing - Oral and in writing.
• Role play.

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Colours.
• The diary.
• The family.
• Around the zoo.
• Review of the Elementary Courses

Grammar:

• Basic stem – Paal conjugation, strong verb type, past tense.
• Conjugation of the preposition – Shel של...
• The use of the verb - To need

Cultural content:

• Agriculture in Israeil
• The Dead Sea Scrolls.
• Different types of Israeli family lives.

Skills Work:

• Writing a short story.
• Dialogue forming.
• Describing - Oral and in writing.
• Role plays.

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Advertising in Hebrew.
• Directions around town – Maps and routes.
• Clothing.
• Masculine and feminine numbers100 – 1000.
• At the police station.
• Can / Can’t.

Grammar:

• The conjugation of the preposition Et – את
• Object clauses – indirect speech.
• Can –infinitive verb +יכול
• Past tense nominal sentences.
• Consequence sentences.
• Conjugation of Paal ל'ה– verb type – past tense.
• Have / had / was / were- היה in the past.
• Conjugation of פיעל and התפעל strong verb – past tense.
• Impersonal phrases with infinitive verbs.
• Conjugation of the preposition With – עם

Cultural content:

• Nature in Israel and its relation to biblical mentioning.
• Clothes in Israel of the 20’s and 30’s.
• The history of the Jewish community in Spain.
• Celebrating Hanukah.
• Religion and tradition in Israeli society.
• The revive of the Hebrew language - Eliyezer Ben Yehuda.

Skills Work:

• Giving and understanding directions.
• Writing a descriptive letter.
• Pronunciation practice.
• Roll play of consequence question / answers
• Writing riddles.

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Revision of Intermediate 1
• Poets and poetry.
• Seasons and weather.
• Nature vs Tourism

Grammar:

• Habitual action הייתי, היינו וכיוב...
• Impersonal sentences היה/יהיה כדאי
• Nominal sentences in the future.

Cultural content:

• The Jewish calendar.
• Israel and Palestine
• The Israeli flag.

Skills Work:

• Writing an ad.
• Roll play – wishes for the future.
• Writing signs.
• Using a Hebrew dictionary.

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Giving Advice
• The horoscope.
• On the phone.
• Revision of the Intermediate Courses

Grammar:

• Dual form.
• Possessive (‘have’) sentences – Future.
• Foreign words in Hebrew.
• Relative clause
• Imperative and Negative Imperative
• Conjugation of the prepositions: because –/בגלל / from –...מן מ...

Cultural content:

• The kibbutz
• The Israeli flag.
• Jewish art in Jerusalem and Tzfat.
• The after life and messiah concept in Judaism.

Skills Work:

• Writing an ad.
• Roll play – wishes for the future.
• Writing signs.
• Using a Hebrew dictionary.

Topics & Vocabulary:

• University study options.
• Traveling around the world.
• The encyclopaedia and similar sources.
• Culture, believes and values.
• Feelings and emotions.
• The family.
• The Modern Hebrew song.

Grammar:

• Suffixes of a noun in feminine form.
• Future conjugation of Strong verb – Paal – / יפעול/ Guttural פ’הפ/ פ’הע
• Conjugation of the preposition ‘For’ – בשביל ‘Like’ – כמו
• The conditional (Real condition).
• Temporal time clause.
• Verbs in Piel פיעל in future form.
• The verb To Be להיות in future tense.
• Verbs in Paal, future time גזרת לה’/ ל'י
• Verbs in the Subjunctive.
• Final Adverbs and Clauses.
• Passive Participle.

Cultural content:

• The history of the Hebrew Alpha – Bet.
• Yad Vashem – The research and museum for holocaust studies.
• The life of Janus Korchack.
• Stories from The book of Genesis.

Skills Work:

• Oral and written landscape description.
• Writing commercial ads.
• Expressing feelings.

Topics & Vocabulary:

• Humans and animals.
• Morals and physiology.
• War and peace.
• Waiting in a queue.
• On the news.

Grammar:

• Strong verbs in Nifal – in נפעל infinitive, past, present and future.
• Conjugation of the preposition El – ,אל
• Noun declension.
• Nouns + possessive suffixes.
• Summary of prepositions conjugation.
• Concessive conjugation and concessive clause.
• Verbs in Piel גזרת י'ל past, present and future.
• The conditional (unreal condition).
• Gerund in construct state and plural.

Cultural content:

• Masada and the Romans.
• Manners and behaviors in Israeli society.
• Celebrating Hanukah.
• The origins of Hebrew words in the bible.

Skills Work:

• Writing a news piece.
• Writing a film script.
• Greetings and congratulations.