Give me a Chance

I have been to many places all over Israel and I speak Hebrew as much as possible and wherever it is possible. I have noticed that when I am with Americans and I start speaking Hebrew to a shop owner or a waiter, they do not even give me a chance and just start speaking to me in English. Sometimes it feels like some Israelis do not even give you a chance to speak in their language, no madder how good or bad(fluent) you are at Hebrew.

I also noticed that if you are in a small group or even just a pair of people it is much easier. I was with my Grandma at Shook Carmel. I realized that when I bargained and the shop owners heard my Grandma speaking English to me, they would make their prices very high and they would just speak to me in English. I then tried having her just point to something that she liked and I would talk to the booth owners and they would automatically give me lower prices and it was easier to bargain with them. I do not understand why it has to be so hard.

Israel is a land of immigrants and I believe that locals need to give people a chance so they can actually learn the language and become a part of society. A great example of this is I was in עין כרם after a צדקה project and went to go get ice cream. Everyone in my group went to this one really good store, but it was really crowded so one of my friends and I went to a frozen yogurt shop that was a few stores down and when we got there, one of the guys who is on EIE too was there. He is making aliyah and wants to learn as much hebrew as possible this semester. We started to order and while I was waiting for my frozen yogurt, the guy from my trip ordered. He tried to do it in Hebrew (I had started out the program helping him every night to teach him as much Hebrew as possible.). Seeing him being able to order in what I like to call "Hinglish" aka a mix of half Hebrew half English was great. The person who took his order helped him with the words he did not know. I think this is a great example of give new עולים a chance. I would like to think the whole country could try to make עולים as comfortable בארץ as that frozen yogurt person did.