Processing information and familiarity

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It seems like I need to be very familiar with something in order to be able to process it. Like I won’t be able to understand some complicated information at all the first time I listen, so I’ll just sit there and not pay attention. The second or third time I listen I’ll be able to understand. I really noticed this in language learning.

Two years ago or so I suddenly got interested in Judaism. I decided to try to learn some Hebrew to satisfy my interest. I found it very hard and quickly gave up. I just had no will to learn it and that special interest disappeared. For kicks I took an online course for Finnish. I found it way easier. Even though I never actively studied Finnish.

I did however listen to a lot of music in Finnish and picked up a few words here and there. Recently my special interest in Judaism returned with a vengeance. I decided to try something different. Find a few Israeli artists I enjoy listening to and see if it helps. I ended up getting obsessed with Israeli music. Right now I’ll just let myself get familiarized with Hebrew. I’m gradually learning to read Hebrew without actively trying to. I’m also looking up the meaning of words I hear a lot. Maybe one day I’ll want to learn for real. Maybe I’ll be “naturally good” at it by then.

Keep us posted on how you do. I am curious if you will be able to learn Hebrew. Best of luck to you. I find it very interesting that you found Finnish easy because I have friends who are Finns and they say that Finnish is one of the most difficult languages to learn.

I'm jealous, I'd love to learn a language properly >.< I can transliterate Cyrillic and obsessively learnt all the Winter Soldier trigger words as a result though

I didn’t necessarily find Finnish easy. I didn’t really study it. It just seemed easier than Hebrew.

I’m intentionally not learning Hebrew properly for a while. Trying to learn anything in a class never really works for me. How did you learn Cyrillic? I’m learning to read Hebrew word by word instead of the usual way. It takes longer, but I’m in no rush. I’ve also heard learning to read word by word will help you read faster.

Both Finnish and Hebrew are non Indoeuropean languages, so I would expect both to be hard to learn for an English speaker. No cognant words. Nada.

It's normal. You don't learn just by using textbooks. Humans learn all the time, even without paying any attention to their surroundings. That's why some people think something come up in their dreams they couldn't learn anywhere. No. They did. They did hear about it somewhere, see it in TV, seen an advertisment while driving etc. And their brain processed it.

I once had a dream containing a whole school lecture I didn't read and didn't even know we were supposed to read it because I was just that much of an airhead and I had no friends to keep me on track back then.
I have no idea how my brain knew what the lecture was about and that I am going to need the information that day but the dream happened the night before we had a test to see if we have read the book. The dream was as clear as watching a movie, with a narrator interpreting the scenes.
Right before the lesson I kinda panicked - I just learned there was a book we were supposed to read and I didn't read it! - but it become excitement soon because people started talking about the book and I found out they are describing my dream. So I decided to answer the test questions based on informations from my dream. And I got a B.
I believe I must have heard people talking about the lecture or perhaps my grandma read it to me back when I was a toddler (grandma read mature books instead of picture books to get me asleep). All I know is that my brain somehow had enough knowledge about it to get me a passing grade with the help of a dream.

That’s what makes Finnish such a great language to compare to Hebrew. I thought Hebrew was supposed to be easier than Finnish, but I found Finnish easier. After getting my brain ready for Hebrew I hope to find it easier.