12.05.2010

Israeli slang

I studied Hebrew growing up, and when I went to Israel when I was a teen, I was surprised to discover that I could actually speak it. Even though it was quite obvious that I had a knack for language since I was able to have conversations in Hebrew, I didn't really pursue or care about languages until I went to Japan after college. Now my Hebrew is non-existent, and I'd rather go to France than go to Israel again, but I still am interested in learning new things about the language.

So when someone sent me links to some brief articles in The Forward about Israeli slang, I had to check them out. There are several interesting ones, so I'll list them here. They don't take long to read, actually, since they're quite short.

haval al hazman: a waste of time

Ha matzav: the situation

Sa l'shalom: you can go

Tihiyeh large: to be large not physically, but in character

The insult of freier: sucker

How the state is ha medina

hazui: hallucinated in a surreal way

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