The Advantages of English

One of the most common fears of making aliyah is feeling like you are hindered because you don’t speak the language. You are afraid you won’t get a good job, won’t be able to study at the university and overall will be at a disadvantage in life in Israel. I have found that to be farther from the truth. One of my biggest assets as an Israeli is English as my mother tongue. It has helped me get a good job, helped me with my studies and in general just comes in handy.

When I first came to Israel I had no idea what kind of job I wanted. After working in the non-profit world for 2 years I knew that I needed a break from that and I was open to anything. Having landed in a venture capital firm I consider myself among the lucky ones, but I have also realized that my job is not so rare. Israelis start studying English formally in the 4th grade, but informally they learn it even earlier from TV, movies and other sources of media. Many of them have great spoken English and can also read well, but their writing is usually the weaker link. Companies value people with English as a mother tongue because they know the nuances and the phrasing that Israelis do not. Even though an American may not remember what he learned from his grammar classes in middle school, he knows when a sentence doesn’t sound quite right. As a recent college graduate of Middle Eastern Studies and former employee of a Jewish non-profit, my resume did not scream Venture Capital, but the English is proven to be an invaluable asset that has helped me more than anything else.

I was apprehensive to study at Wingate because I have never taken classes in Hebrew before. The first subject I studied was anatomy and I was pleasantly surprised when I realized that all of the terms were in English/Latin. It was still challenging to remember which muscle was attached to which bone, but my Israeli classmates struggled (and continue to struggle) with the terminology that seemed logical and more familiar to me. Even in some of my later classes on sports injuries and body composition I have noticed that lecturers use diagrams and sometimes full slides in English that they translate as they go. Again, I may not have taken Latin in high school but I can still read the words and understand more than others who are not as comfortable with English or Latin.

While English has been a huge advantage in my life here, it is by no means enough to really feel part of the society. Hebrew is the preferred language of communication for most daily life activities, not to mention a huge part of the Israeli identity.

As a country of immigrants there are other languages, namely Russian and French, which are now more prevalent than 10 or 20 years ago. Of course, the more languages you speak, the more you have to offer, but I still think that English is the biggest asset of them all.