languagebazaar.org
Language Bazaar: Interactive Hebrew lessons for kids and adults
Learn modern Hebrew through picture cards, spoken practice, gestures and games instead of grammar drills. You start speaking in the very first lesson, and the first five lessons are free.
First 5 lessons free. Sign up only to save your progress.
- What it is
- Hebrew learning web app
- Price
- First 5 lessons free
- Method
- The SILLy method, by Zev Bar-Lev of UC San Diego
- Made for
- Hebrew school students and adult beginners
What is Language Bazaar?
Language Bazaar, branded in the app as Hebrew Today, is a web app that teaches modern Hebrew through short, game-like lessons. A wolf mascot named Yogi introduces each new word with a picture card. You hear it pronounced and say it out loud, then read the Hebrew sight word and give the English meaning.
Each word comes with a silly story to help it stick, a gesture to act out, with an optional mirror mode that uses your webcam, and a find-the-word game. Lessons then move on to Hebrew letters and their sounds. Students learn associations with Hebrew letters before they even know the letter names.
The approach is Sheltered Initiation Language Learning, the SILLy method, designed by UC San Diego professor Zev Bar-Lev. The classroom program built on it was featured by the San Diego Jewish Journal in April 2014 under the headline “The Best in Hebrew Education.”
How Language Bazaar works
Meet a new word
A picture card introduces the word and you hear how it is pronounced.
Say it, then read it
Say the word out loud, then read the Hebrew sight word and give the English meaning.
Act it out
Learn the word’s gesture from a short video, and practice it in mirror mode.
Play to remember
Find the hidden words, then move on to letters and their sounds.
What you get
Made for
- Hebrew school students
- Adults learning Hebrew on their own
- Families learning together
- Educators looking for a playful method
- Picture cards with audio
- Every new word has an image and a pronunciation you can replay.
- Speaking from lesson one
- You say each word out loud before you ever read it.
- Stories that make words stick
- A short, silly story gives every word a memory hook.
- Gestures and mirror mode
- Act out each word, and watch yourself do it with your webcam.
- Word games
- Find-the-word activities turn review into play.
- Progress saved without a password
- Sign up with your email and a six-digit code to keep your place.
Language Bazaar questions, answered
Is Language Bazaar free?
The first five lessons are free. Sign up with your email to save your progress.
Do I need to know the Hebrew alphabet first?
No. You start with words, pictures and sounds, and learn associations with Hebrew letters before you know the letter names.
What is the SILLy method?
Sheltered Initiation Language Learning, a method designed by UC San Diego professor Zev Bar-Lev. It favors activities, games and speaking practice over grammar drills.
Does it teach speaking or just reading?
Both. Speaking practice starts in the very first lesson, alongside sight words and letter sounds.
Is it for kids or adults?
Both. The method is used by children in Hebrew school classrooms and by adults learning on their own.
Your first Hebrew word takes a minute.
Open lesson one in your browser. No download, and no signup until you want to save your progress.