I’ve known Hebrew since before I could walk. Growing up in an Israeli household, I didn’t have the option of not learning the language, but I am now extremely happy proud that I did. I now enjoy every chance I get to speak Hebrew. My summer camp employs international counselors every year, and because it’s a Jewish camp, a lot of these counselors are Israeli. Sometimes, I play a game, in which I see how long it will take the Israeli counselors to figure out that I understand Hebrew; they usually figure it out pretty quickly. When they do, I take advantage of the I have to make some friends from the other side of the world. Although I didn’t make an active decision to learn Hebrew, I have taken what I have learned and used it to make new friends; that’s…show more content… I grew up listening to Jewish holiday songs, eating Jewish and Israeli foods, and visiting Israel every few years. Because culture and heritage are not things a young child gets to choose to take part in, the decision was made for me. The decision to continue to participate in Jewish and Israeli activities as I became older, however, was mine, and it has become a part of who I am.
In sixth grade, when we were picking a foreign language to learn in middle school, I was adamant that French was the language I wanted to take. My dad looked at the options (French, Spanish, and Mandarin) and said, “You’re taking Mandarin.” He kept telling me that Mandarin would be the best language for business, that more people speak Mandarin than Spanish and French combined. I responded that everybody who spoke Mandarin lived in China. “Well, then you’ll have an excuse to go to China.” Needless to say, I enrolled in a Mandarin course.
In a short time, Mandarin became my favorite subject. We had monthly “noodle parties,” where we ordered and ate Chinese food. And because the same 13 people took Mandarin every year, we got to know each other really well and became good
