Students and graduates of UTime College and Ulpan never say ‘farewell’ to each other. The atmosphere is great that's why an active community was formed!
If our former students have some free time, they will definitely stop by their city branch to meet with the first Hebrew teacher or the first professional mentor in Israel - and tell them where they work, share their plans for the future, and get advice.
The other day Valentina Zyablitseva visited our head office in Rishon Le-Tzion. Last year, she and her husband Denis successfully graduated from Ulpan Aleph. They studied in different classes because somebody of them had to stay homa and take care of their two fidgety sons and also for their grandparents.
Valentina Zyablitseva:
“I came to Israel in February 2023 from the Siberian city of Kemerovo with my husband, two small children and very elderly grandparents. Realizing that in the stressful situation of moving, my young and elderly family members would need a lot of my attention and time, I looked for a part-time job. Therefore, at first, I worked as a nurse taking care of elderly people, and later I got a job in an “after-school program” at school.
I am a graduate from two Universities: Legal High School and Teaching of Foreign Languages School (English). Before our Aliya I worked as a lawyer and translator. But, having been preparing to move, I decided to change my profession and get license for teaching English at school in Israel. To do this, I needed to master Hebrew as quickly as possible and go to college.
I was trained at UTime College Ulpan from March to November 2023. I started learning Hebrew literally from scratch - I knew a few words and expressions, but I didn’t understand at all in what context it was more correct to use them, I didn’t know even the Hebrew letters. At our first meeting, Yuri Levitan, the manager of the ulpan, introduced us to the teacher Jane like this: “I guarantee that from this teacher you will get as much Hebrew as you can take - be greedy enough!”
This resonated with me greatly, and later I became convinced how right he was. I was never embarrassed to ask questions, ask for more and more new words, rules, explanations, I was never bored, I came to the ulpan with pleasure, time flew by quickly. Even though in the middle of the course I had to fly out of the country for two months, my studies were not interrupted, because the UTime ulpan administration always connected me to lessons via zoom.
In October 2023, the war began... Lessons did not stop, but switched to a distance learning format. An exam was held in November, our group passed it successfully. I completed my Hebrew learning by passing the exam with 92 points.
I have never regretted that I chose a private Ulpan rather than a state one. There is a lot of advantages in a private Ulpan: an individual approach, endless support, and the opportunity to master Level Bet material even within the Aleph course. I didn’t just learn a set of words and grammar rules, but received a cool set of tools for deep understanding Hebrew so that I could continue to master it on my own, speak Hebrew, communicate in Hebrew and start working in Israel.
Now, six months after graduating from Ulpan, I communicate freely, work in a Hebrew-speaking environment with children (at school), pass entrance tests for a teacher training program with filling out a bunch of bureaucratic forms on different sites, read and write in Hebrew.
Of course, I still have a lot to do, and my Hebrew is not yet perfect, but in the UTime Ulpan they taught me the main thing - the unusual and unfamiliar language Hebrew is not at all scary, you don’t need to be afraid of it, it’s impossible not to love it. Sometimes it seems to me that once in one of my incarnations I already spoke Hebrew, but then I forgot it. You just need to try really hard, and suddenly you will recall it! And your entire life will change!"
תגובות