The learning stack
Input, memory, and production — in balance
Effective Hebrew acquisition isn't a single app feature. It's a stack of complementary engines that move you from understanding messages to retaining vocabulary to producing speech.
Input Engine
Floods your brain with meaningful Hebrew you mostly understand — the i+1 sweet spot.
Memory Engine
Locks in high-frequency words and chunks with expanding-interval review.
Production Engine
Gets you speaking early — with AI feedback, shadowing, and low-stakes output.
Each pillar feeds the next: input supplies vocabulary, memory makes it stick, production forces retrieval — which strengthens memory and opens harder input.
1 · Input Engine
Comprehensible input at the right level
You acquire Hebrew when you understand messages — not when you memorize rules in isolation. The Input Engine delivers graded content slightly above your current level (i+1): enough novelty to grow, enough context to stay afloat.
The i+1 principle
When you understand the gist despite a few unknown words — because the situation, visuals, or cognates carry meaning — your brain maps form to meaning naturally. Grammar tables come later; messages come first.
Graded Content Library
Seven levels from first words to native media — each describing what you can understand and where to find it.
- 1
Beginner
Basic greetings, numbers, and survival phrases in clear contexts.
VideosPodcastsPicture books · slow dialogues - 2
High beginner
Simple daily routines, shopping, and directions with visual support.
VideosPodcastsGraded readers · travel vlogs - 3
Lower intermediate
Familiar topics — family, work, hobbies — at moderate pace.
VideosPodcastsComprehensible-input channels · easy news - 4
Intermediate
Extended conversations and opinion pieces with some unknown words.
VideosPodcastsInterview podcasts · simplified news - 5
Upper intermediate
Most everyday media with occasional lookups; abstract topics emerge.
VideosPodcastsNews broadcasts · cultural essays - 6
Advanced
Native-speed content on familiar subjects; literature becomes accessible.
VideosPodcastsNovels · documentary series - 7
Near-native
Full native media including slang, wordplay, and unvowelled text.
VideosPodcastsNative TV · unabridged literature
Advanced learners shift toward massive native input — ungraded news, podcasts, and literature — with interlinear support when a passage exceeds your comfort zone.
2 · Memory Engine
Spaced repetition for words that matter
Input alone isn't enough — you need retrieval practice timed to beat the forgetting curve. The Memory Engine prioritizes high-frequency vocabulary and prefabricated chunks you'll hear every day.
Expanding-interval review
Each successful recall pushes the next review further out. Fail a card and it returns sooner. Over time you see hard items often and easy items rarely — maximum retention, minimum study time.
High-frequency priority
The most common ~1,000 Hebrew word families cover roughly 85% of everyday speech. Learn these first and every hour of input becomes more comprehensible.
Chunking over isolated words
Native speakers store prefabricated phrases — greetings, fixed expressions, collocations — not just single lemmas. Learning chunks gives you ready-made output and faster parsing of incoming speech.
שָׁלוֹם
shalom
hello / peace
תּוֹדָה רַבָּה
toda raba
thank you very much
בְּבַקָּשָׁה
bevakasha
please / you're welcome
אֵיךְ קוֹרִים לְךָ?
eikh korim lekha?
what is your name? (to a male)
3 · Production Engine
Speak early, speak often
Output forces retrieval — the same mechanism that strengthens memory. The Production Engine gives you judgment-free speaking practice, corrective feedback, and pronunciation training without waiting until you feel "fluent enough."
AI Conversation Partner
24/7 Hebrew conversation and on-demand grammar Q&A — no scheduling, no performance anxiety.
Open AI tutorCorrective Feedback
AI flags gaps in your output so you notice errors — the first step to restructuring intake, not just repeating mistakes.
Practice with feedbackShadowing Tool
Listen-and-repeat for pronunciation and prosody — train your mouth while your ears stay on native rhythm.
Try shadowing below ↓
4 · Personalization
Your path, your pace
Goals differ — a tourist needs phrases fast; a heritage learner may prioritize accent and literature. Realistic benchmarks and sentence mining keep expectations honest and vocabulary personal.
Goal-based tracks
Realistic benchmarks (FSI estimates)
The U.S. Foreign Service Institute publishes rough classroom-hour estimates by language category. Treat these as guides, not guarantees.
Category I
Hours to proficiency: ~600
Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese
Category II
Hours to proficiency: ~750
German, Indonesian, Swahili
Category III(Hebrew)
Hours to proficiency: ~1,100
Hebrew, Hindi, Russian, Thai, Vietnamese
Category IV
Hours to proficiency: ~1,800
Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean
Category V
Hours to proficiency: ~2,200
Arabic (some dialects), Cantonese, Japanese (advanced literacy)
Modern Hebrew is Category III — approximately 1,100 classroom hours for professional working proficiency in typical FSI programs.
Sentence mining
When a line in native content clicks — a phrase you want to own — mine it into your personal SRS deck. Our interlinear translator and practice generator are the starting point; spaced review is the retention layer.
Save-to-SRS is scaffolded — persistence not wired yet.
Filter by interest (preview)
- Beginner — Basic greetings, numbers, and survival phrases in clear contexts.
- High beginner — Simple daily routines, shopping, and directions with visual support.
- Lower intermediate — Familiar topics — family, work, hobbies — at moderate pace.
- Intermediate — Extended conversations and opinion pieces with some unknown words.
- Upper intermediate — Most everyday media with occasional lookups; abstract topics emerge.
- Advanced — Native-speed content on familiar subjects; literature becomes accessible.
- Near-native — Full native media including slang, wordplay, and unvowelled text.
5 · Engagement & UX
Lower the affective filter
Anxiety and low motivation block acquisition — Krashen's affective filter hypothesis. Our design reduces pressure so input gets in and output comes out.
What is the affective filter?
When you're stressed, embarrassed, or bored, comprehensible input bounces off. Low-anxiety design — no public leaderboards, no timed drills by default, optional niqqud support — keeps you in the zone where language sticks.
Low-anxiety design
Private practice, no streak-shaming, and interlinear scaffolding so you're never staring at an opaque wall of script.
Habit-building
Daily consistency beats cramming. A lightweight streak and session reminders nudge you toward input every day — even fifteen minutes counts.
Interest-driven content
Pick topics you care about — travel, food, news — and the graded library filters to match. Motivation sustains the stack.
Daily streak (preview)
Track consecutive practice days without punishment — miss a day and pick up where you left off. Persistence not wired yet.
Frequently asked questions
Ready to start the stack?
Describe your next real-world moment in Hebrew practice — shopping, travel, conversation — and get six interlinear sentences in seconds.