Will failing Hebrew once stop all chances of getting into a History PhD program?

[MiddleEasternHistoryStudent]

This may sound kind of crazy to you, but I have a friend who is applying to History PhD programs right now and a few years ago when he was studying abroad in Israel, he failed an (Introductory) Hebrew class.

 

He still has a really high GPA, great letters of recommendation, and proficiency/ fluency in English, French, Modern Standard Arabic, Palestinian Arabic, Hebrew, and Turkish, but he's afraid that the one E on his transcript will doom his chances for getting into a top PhD program.

 

What do you think? He's trying to become a Middle Eastern historian. Does he have any shot at getting in anywhere? Thanks for your help.

[fuzzylogician]

One failing grade in one class is not going to sink anyone's chances of getting into a good PhD program. You list Hebrew as one of the languages your friend speaks, so obviously he recovered from that failed class. He should do perfectly fine. 

[nevermind]

Hebrew is basically baby Arabic (in terms of how the languages relate to each other). If he failed introductory Hebrew, he must've not been trying at all or something serious happened (assuming he did MSA/Levantine before Hebrew). Yes, while one failing grade may not impact someone's chances...if he's trying to be a Middle East historian, he should address it somewhere, explaining that he failed yet overcame it, assuming he does have that proficiency now. 

b'hatzlacha.  

[MiddleEasternHistoryStudent]

Just to clarify: he started learning Hebrew first

[fuzzylogician]

Hebrew is basically baby Arabic (in terms of how the languages relate to each other).

Sorry, it always just amazes me when people make such ridiculous generalizations about languages. Based on this I suppose we should all be able to pick up a Mandarin grammar and be able to speak fluently before long (writing might take longer). I always spend at least one whole session in every intro to linguistics class debunking this myth and others. (I promise to do my best not to reply if you want to come back and explain how I'm wrong and you're right, because I don't want to derail this thread.)

Yes, you can have a line in your SOP explaining what happened or just saying you've overcome it and you're proficient now. Or a LOR writer can address it. Or in some cases no explanation is necessary. That wasn't the question, though. 

[nevermind]

Of course my previous comment was a generalization of how language relates to each other--but I didn't think writing specific examples was necessary to get my point across (which is a little irrelevant anyway, if he tried to learn Hebrew first, and then went on to study multiple languages). 

That being said, of course I'm not expecting them to speak Hebrew fluently after an introductory class or speak Hebrew fluently without study just because they know Arabic.

But yes, if they were proficient in both MSA and Levantine Arabic, they really wouldn't have failed Introductory Hebrew unless something drastic happened. This is particularly true in beginning classes (less so in more advanced classes) where the material that is covered (like numbers - wahid / ehad/ahad, names of foods-bazal vs. basal -- how words are derived from a triliteral root, masculine/feminine/dual endings, singular/plural endings etc.) are incredibly similar to Arabic, both in pronunciation and grammatical construction (e.g. chiastic concord). 

I should also note that beginning Arabic might be a little bit harder because of the final forms of letters (Hebrew only has a couple) and the different shapes letters take if they are initial, medial, final forms of words. In addition, MSA has nominal, genitive, and accuative forms that are completely absent in Introductory Hebrew, so it assumes a higher level of grammatical knowledge,  Modern Hebrew has a lot of English words "Hebraicized" (e.g. televitziah...adding the singular feminine Hebrew suffix to television), so although still a new language for somebody proficient in Arabic--it's a lot less strenuous than one might imagine.

FWIW, I've studied Akkadian, Hebrew (Modern, Talmudic, Biblical), Levantine and MSA Arabic, and threw in Aramaic just for the heck of it. I did Arabic after studying Hebrew and got nothing less than A+s in my classes because they were so similar. Maybe I'm an exception, but I really don't think so. Many of my colleagues and students who have taken Hebrew after learning Arabic consider it pretty easy in comparison. :/

Edited October 26, 2015 by tmt503

[fuzzylogician]

FWIW, I've studied Akkadian, Hebrew (Modern, Talmudic, Biblical), Levantine and MSA Arabic, and threw in Aramaic just for the heck of it. I did Arabic after studying Hebrew and got nothing less than A+s in my classes because they were so similar. Maybe I'm an exception, but I really don't think so. Many of my colleagues and students who have taken Hebrew after learning Arabic consider it pretty easy in comparison. :/

If this is a pissing contest, I am not entering. I still maintain my point that your generalization is exactly that. A generalization. People learn languages differently and not everyone has an easy time with it. I don't think your point above was at all helpful, even if it were true. There is no such thing as an "easy" language. Most of your examples could be turned on their head to show how knowing any one Semitic language would help with another. Most of the "complicated" things you listed in Arabic have parallels in Hebrew that I don't know why you chose not to list; Just for fun, if in Hebrew you have "televiziah", in Arabic you have "tilfizion". I don't think I want to spend the time going through all of your examples like this. And with that, I grant you both the crown and the scepter. Yours is bigger. 

[nevermind]

My point was simply:

If he failed Hebrew after learning Arabic, it would raise red flags based on the similarities between the two languages (specifically at the introductory level) and he should address it. This does not seem to be the case. 

---

It has sadly turned into something else.

"Most of your examples could be turned on their head to show how knowing any one Semitic language would help with another." That's basically my entire point. Your example of Arabic (tilifizion....or tilifizyun) basically illustrates nunation that is standardized for case endings, something someone with MSA proficiency would identify. My point wasn't that it's "more complicated" in Hebrew--just the opposite. It's not a hard leap between two, nor is it difficult to see how they change. I said that going from Hebrew-to-Arabic might be initially *little* bit more complex based on a couple of different factors (Including final forms). My apologies if that came across as unclear and I apologize if I came across as glib.

I never intended this to be a "pissing contest". My experience is based on my experience studying Semitic languages as a graduate student and as a TA in an NES department for 2 years. This post was never intended to discuss language acquisition methods or the Canaanite Vowel Shift or anything that it has become.  I was asked to provide concrete examples, so I did that.

If you, as a moderator, could remove my comments from this thread--since they aren't relevant to the discussion anyway (he learned Hebrew first)--please do so. Thanks and have a good night.