On Tuesday night, I went to see Inception with a couple of other students. The first thing is that the movie was great! I was completely sold on the idea, I loved watching it happen and the idea is far-fetched but it is also just plausible enough to draw me in and suspend any disbelief. Even the very slim premise for him taking the job. I'm not going to give you a spoiler alert because this is the last that I will talk about the movie.
The movie experience here is very similar to home with a few exceptions. The first one is intermission. Yeah, there is an intermission in the middle of the movie. And it is actually in Davkah the middle of the movie. In this case, it was right in the middle of a great action scene and the lights just turned on.
I also loved the subtitles. The movie was in English, but there were Hebrew subtitles. It was great! I while I was trying to watch the movie, I tried to follow the subtitles at the bottom of the screen. What a great way to test my Hebrew. I know the story, I know what is happening because the actual movie is in English. Yet I was learning real Hebrew words. It's not that I haven't been learning anything in Hebrew class or in Ulpan. It's just different to see words that people would understand and would use in day to day live.
I really enjoyed the fact that when the characters would yell out, "Jesus Christ!" The subtitle would read, "אלהים" (Elohim!). Not quite what I would expect, but something I would actually want to know about the day to day language.
So my question persists, if I start going to tons of movies to practice my Hebrew, does this count as an educational expense?
Davkah is a Hebrew word that in day to day language doesn't have a real meaning in English. From what I understand, it can be used to mean exactly. But if said with a sarcastic tone, it implies the exact opposite.
Elohim is the Hebrew word for God, in a specific sense, the God of the Jewish people. El is the term for god. Without going into a philosophical discussion, just take Elohim to mean God.
Writing "Elohim!" instead of "Jesus Christ!" is hysterical. Thanks for the laugh. It also brings to mind the whole issue about "Christ" not being a last name but meaning "anointed one," and all the implications that go along with that. "Elohim!" is a neat way of sidestepping several of the possible translation issues that could be involved.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it does still leave a hole in your Hebrew education if you still don't know how the actual words "Jesus Christ" are normally written in Hebrew.