the people in Israel speak English as a second language or third or whatever?

Question

but everybody in Israel speaks english besides the Hebrew? is the arabic an official language? and I heard some people the arabic is only spoken by arabic israelies?

Answer 1

Hebrew is of course the first language, in hebrew its called 'mother language' (sounds very russian, doesnt it?)

Every Israeli school child will start learning english as a second language during 3rd or 4th grade (if im not mistaken). And in order to finish 12 years of school, your english needs to be at a certain level.

In most schools, when a students get to 7th grade, they need to choose a which third language they want to learn, between french and arabic.

Both are very basic, and arabic (at least when i was at school) wont get you anywhere, since they teach literature arabic and not spoken arabic. It is basically the same as teaching an american biblical hebrew and then setting him off on the streets of tel aviv.



In any case, the arab population of Israel is around 16%, and most Israelis know the basic communication skills in arabic, arabs in Israel definitely speak fluent hebrew. But still, all road signs and directions are written in Hebrew, english and arabic.

Answer 2

I wouldn't say that everyone in Israel speaks English; however, a great amount of them do, or at least have some sort of basic command of the language. I would say that, more likely than not, you shouldn't have too much trouble finding someone to speak to.



Arabic is an official language, just like Hebrew; however, not too many Israelis learn it. They are supposed to take a certain amount of it, but I think a decent amount of Israelis find ways around it. Arabic is spoken by practically all Arab Israelis, just like Hebrew is spoken by most of them; however, there are decent amounts of people, both sides, which can speak both with fluency. However, I've read that many Mizrahi Jews who are Sabras (Israeli born and raised) either don't want to learn Arabic, because of what their parent's went through; because they aren't interested; or, because their parents won't let them.



Basically, English is a common second or third language for Israelis. But, I wouldn't be surprised it if was a fourth, fifth, or sixth language, as there are many polyglots living in Israel.

Answer 3

To answer you, I would say more people speak and understand English better then Arabic.Arabic along with Hebrew, is also an official language in Israel. Arabic is spoken primarily by Arab citizens of Israel and Israeli Druze, as well as by some Mizrahi and Yemenite Jews, particularly those of the older generation who immigrated from Arabic-speaking countries

With regards to English,English is the primary language for international relations and foreign exchange, but it is not sanctioned for use in Knesset debates or in drafting legislation. Some British Mandate laws are still formulated in English, and the process of their translation into Hebrew has been gradual. English is required as a second language in schools and universities, for both Hebrew- and Arabic-speaking students. Despite the country's history of British mandatory rule, written English in Israel today uses primarily American spelling and grammar.

Answer 4

Most Israelis speak English.



The official languages of the country are Hebrew and Arabic. English is commonly used as a second language, and lately Russian has become ordinary. Non-official languages commonly spoken in the country are Amharic, Bukhori, Chinese, French, Italian, Kayla, Ladino, Marathi, Persian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog,Thai, Ukrainian and Yiddish.

Answer 5

I have no clue whether the Labour Party costed the effect of immigration into the education budget. I don't know why you think "labour said mass immigration was just young skilled people who would then go home & not place pressure on services" either, for one thing they didn't call it mass immigration and for another it's been policy for decades to let people bring their children with them when they come here. There'll be more non-native children in schools now the tories and liberals are in. It's their policy to remove children from immigration detention centres and place them under local authority care, so they'll be off to school now, apart from the ones who end up working on skunk farms and being pimped out as prostitutes. But that doesn't matter. So long as the liberals can delude themselves that they're still a progressive party and they'll come onboard with the tories to keep labour out of office, the life experience of children and the limitless opportunities this policy will give to gangsters to exploit them is a small price to pay apparently.

Answer 6

Yes they love to speak English.

Sometimes Tourists wanting to immerse themselves in the Hebrew language have a hard time because the Israelis all want to practice their English on them.



Mujahid, you are talking about yourself, not Israelis.

Answer 7

english is taught at school from the first year of primary school so it would be deemed the second language. also in many schools arabic is also taught.



however you have to understand that israel has over a million tourists every year and you can hear all languages spoken on the street.

Answer 8

These days you can learn how to speak Arabic over the internet. Check out this online course, it's voted as the best Arabic online course of all time: http://www.rocketlearner.com/arabic The course is very easy to follow, I was able to learn Arabic in just 3 months.



I live in New York City, I wanted to go to a Arabic language teacher but that would have cost me over $800 per month. Good thing with this internet, $800 it's a lot of money for me.

Answer 9

i am from israel and i speak english as my Third Language Because I have Spanish roots

but in school we Study english in a very young age.

so you can Hear english from teen but the very Adults dont speak english beacuse they didnt study this language when they were young

you can hear arbic, Moroccan and Russian

Answer 10

i agree with mujahid.