Citizen Café Tel Aviv — Attraction in Tel-Aviv

I started my Hebrew journey with Citizen Café Tel Aviv over 2.5 years ago as a novice, albeit with a basic understanding, and am currently mid-way through my 11th semester working through the various levels as I continue my path to fluency. To say that I enjoy the experience of the Citizen Café community and learning Hebrew would be an understatement – I absolutely love it.

So as to help anyone that may be considering signing up (and no I am not being compensated to write this review), I wanted to share some insights that I hope you will find helpful. Like many others, I always wanted to be able to speak Hebrew when in Israel. I currently divide my time between living in Tel Aviv and Florida. It used to frustrate me tremendously that I could invariably understand what someone said to me in Hebrew far better than I could speak or reply, despite a limited vocabulary. Citizen Café addresses that head on. From my very first class as a student, I was verbalizing words and phrases that I could use immediately. Will you have to conjugate verbs? – of course, but the secret sauce with this method is that you are learning everyday words, verbs and phrases that everyone in Israel uses and that you can put into practice straight away. The repetitious practice regimen in small, balanced groups each semester provides the necessary platform to be able to learn and grow. Classes are 90 minutes in duration held twice a week either online via Zoom or in-person with 20 classes comprising a full semester. Assignment to a level that matches your proficiency has been mastered by the team at Citizen Café and your progression and improvement is monitored with all of their encouragement to continue moving forward at your own pace. Additional practice tools are incredibly well thought out that include various interactive practice sessions with students of similar levels several times a week (think of them like online gym workouts for Hebrew); practice sentences; weekly flashcards to reinforce what you learned in class as well as voluntary homework assignments. Classroom tuition is led by an English-speaking Israeli with a flexible, well-constructed curriculum that makes each lesson fun, interactive and instructive. You will likely come away from each class with new vocabulary and phrases that give you the immediate confidence with which to utilize them straight away. The word “confidence” is super important because it is one of the primary factors that oftentimes holds all of us back and which Citizen Café instills in its coaching method. Even as a new Oleh I receive regular compliments from Israelis when they interact with me in Hebrew and my gratitude goes to Citizen Café Tel Aviv for instilling the confidence in me so that I can put into real world everyday use what I have studied in the classroom.

Learning a language isn’t complicated, it’s just not easy. Citizen Café has done the hard work so that you don’t have to struggle your way through it. It is structured, fun and it works.

Intangible bonus…. You will meet some great people and make new friends that you get to meetup with offline!...

After arriving in Israel for a year-long university programme in Tel Aviv, I told a friend I wanted to learn some Hebrew to make life easier and more enjoyable. Without hesitation, she referred me to Citizen Cafe TLV. After inquiring and sorting out schedule problems, I began my Hebrew learning experience with Citizen Cafe. As I now approach the end of my 4th course with them over the past 5 months, I highly recommend it. Classes are very interactive and keep you on your toes from beginning to end making it very engaging. As a student of 2 other foreign languages and an occasional instructor of one, I find the method very conducive to developing the "Hebrew intuition" to thrive in real life situations. The approach also facilitates your immersion into the local culture with many opportunities to discuss with classmates and teachers your experiences in Israel and deciphering the most puzzling riddles of the Israeli psyche. They also have special sessions to interact with people from other groups in your same Hebrew level and to review key concepts- these sessions are a lot of fun. In non-covid-19 times, there are social activities too. Every course offers you the opportunity to interact with at least 2 teachers which is great for the development of your listening skills. Homework also strikes the right balance between workload and practice to engage all key skills: writing, reading, listening and speaking. In these tumultuous covid-19 months, I have experienced their 10 week regular, 5 week intensive, online and face to face modalities. All of them are equally engaging and fun learning experiences in small groups. So far, I have met 8 of their teachers. They all have amazing levels of energy, patience, and a very supportive attitude that boosts your confidence as a Hebrew user. Anyone can learn Hebrew with such teachers, including me! When local restrictions prevented the continuation of face to face sessions, the transition was super smooth with plenty of technological tools and enthusiasm to maintain the high-quality learning experience. Overall, Citizen Cafe has enriched my Tel Aviv experience. It has enabled me to develop meaningful connections with my university peers, my ulpan classmates, my regular locals for groceries and other life essentials, as well as my Israeli friends. As it may be evident at this point, I don't regret listening to my friend's recommendation 6 months ago. Citizen Cafe not only helps you speak like a local; it also makes you...

Citizen Cafe TLV was the best choice I could've possibly made while living in Tel Aviv and I'll tell you why: the classes, from the absolute beginner level (red) to the conversational intermediate (green) are fun and fast paced. There's no such thing as textbook-bound courses that's not useful at all. The learning method is exactly the same as when you were a kid, learning your own language: you speak! And by speaking, repeating and learning day to day topics, you improve so much faster! It was amazing to see all the things I tried learning from textbooks finally making sense and becoming sentences in my head! the hourly rate is cheaper than the regular boring, never-ending ULPAN daily courses. You go to CCTLV twice a week (more if you feel like having one-on-one catch up lessons) for 3 hours total and the teachers and techniques are so awesome you build enough confidence to go out in the real world and talk to real people without using English as your default communication set-up. we have real homework that helps us improve and practice what we've learned in class. And it's not like "translate 'I have a red pencil' to Hebrew". It's like "translate 'hey, driver, can I get off at the corner of the street, please?!" - if you need to use taxis or shared taxis, you know how much this is important! Against western belief, not everybody speaks English and you might get in trouble if you don't know how to get by speaking the land's language (not to say how stupid it is to think people have to cater according to your needs and your language when you move to another country!) the classes are up to 8 people, which means you have enough room to ask, share and comment whenever you want. You have the teacher's attention exactly when you need it. You only go home with doubts if you choose not to open your mouth. and finally, the physical environment and location are so lax it feels like you're having a get together with your friends in the coolest busiest area of Tel Aviv. You can go anywhere from there, no matter when your classes are.

I'm sad I won't be there to finish all the levels in person, but I'm glad I can take online classes via Zoom with their new long distance program and their amazing crew - seriously, their teachers are the best people you can find around ❤

CCTLV, thank you for the most awesome experience a non-olah chadashah girl could've asked...