FoundationStone - a free and easy way to learn Hebrew
What's New?
FoundationStone is a FREE application and support materials designed to help you learn Hebrew - an essential part of a Jewish education.
The "Online Hebrew Tutorial" is available as part of the download - a complete, condensed set of language lessons to learn Hebrew. It can also be browsed online - see the links at the bottom of this page.
Quick Feature List -
- Flashcard program that allows you to practice memory recall for reading, writing, speaking and listening.
- Calculates independent statistics both from Hebrew to the translation and vice versa.
- Your choice of 'hitech' wordlist cycling strategies.
- Easy to use way of inputing Unicode Hebrew text for cut and paste into emails etc.
- Extensive high frequency lists, including those from popular study books.
- Browse, edit, annotate, share, frequency rank and print your lists.
- Graph your statistics, track your progress.
- Sound recording.
- Exports 'Berlitz style' audio sound lists to iTunes.
- Supports 10 translation languages.
- Built in integration with web resources such as dictionaries, translators, human tutors.
- Active community of users contributing lists.
- Perfect for sharing with a class of students.
- Open data philosophy: easy to get data to and from other programs.
- Mobile version that works on your smartphone or via the web (paid feature).
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HOW IT WORKS -
By recording which words you are getting wrong and reviewing those words more frequently, the program adapts your program of study to your individual needs. Contrast this to the standard method of learning using lists of words on paper - the words you already know get the same attention as words you don't. Words can be reviewed from English to Hebrew or Hebrew to English, and reviewed in random order so you are not remembering them from their position in the list. Statistics are provided and allow you to set personal goals for each session.
By allowing you to filter on the frequency a word occurs in a typical Hebrew text, the program allows you to better target a vocabulary appropriate to your level of knowledge - be that beginner or advanced. In any language, some words are more common than others. For example, "the" occurs more than "zoo" in a standard English text. Typically, if a student knows the top 200 most often used words, they can recognise over 50% of what they are reading. By filtering on the word frequency, you can learn the more common words before the least common, again making your study more efficient.
WHO SHOULD USE IT? -
This program is aimed at the beginning, intermediate and advanced adult language student, without compromise to any one level.
This application is not ideally suited for teaching young children - there are many reasonably priced commercial programs available that present the language material in a manner that stimulates children to learn. FoundationStone makes no attempt to keep a young child's attention. See JewishSoftware.com for software designed with children in mind. Or the popular, if expensive The Rosetta Stone.
FoundationStone does feature a lexicon function. However, due to the limited (but growing!) databases included, a better solution for people who need a full Hebrew to English dictionary are the commercial Ectaco products.
If you're simply looking for a Judaica store, investigate Judaism.com.
Users are encouraged to contribute and extend the material on offer here - translations, additional wordlists and feature requests are welcome.
FoundationStone aims to be the fastest way to learn Hebrew or refresh your memory. This is important to a motivated student studying alone or in a class. The application is ideal for olim and university students who have to learn fast to get a job or pass exams.
CONTACT DETAILS -
Please see if your question is answered in the Online Help first. Please submit questions in English, and allow up to ten days for a reply. You'll need to type the address into your emailer (apologies for the inconvenience, it's an anti-spam measure). We answer all email - excluding nasty mails about our Mummas! So if you haven't received an answer, it probably means your spam filters have censored our reply. Due to the support burden of chasing down bounces - we ignore these - try mailing again from a different account.
MAILING LIST -
To get on the list, complete the form HERE.
ATTENTION HEBREW EDUCATORS -
You can also input your own vocabularies. If you are a Hebrew educator, please contact us to discuss how your classroom vocabularies can be presented using this software.
SCREEN SHOTS -
Click on each image for a larger version -
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Quick Guide (Flash)
- 22MB low quality visual quick guide movie.
Quick Guide (Quicktime or MP4 compatable)
- 16.5MB high quality visual quick guide movie.
DOWNLOAD
Online Hebrew Tutorial
(included with the FoundationStone download, but available here too).
Listening Skills
(slowed down Hebrew audio files for intermediate students).
FoR KiDs
word frequency analysis of texts using software tools for faster learning
Visitors since Jan 98
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