Kol ha’kavod to Israeli windsurfer Gal Friedman for winning Israel’s first-ever gold medal.
Gal Friedman holds up Israeli flag
Now that’s a sight you don’t see every day. It makes me want to stand up and cheer! I wish I could have heard Hatikva being played at the medals ceremony.
Allison thinks it’s really cool that his name is “Gal”, which in Hebrew means “wave”.
This is a great story. Now I know my second word in Hebrew. Is there a big difference between Hebrew and Yiddish? Can a Hebrew speaker understand Yiddish and vice-versa?
Yiddish is written with Hebrew letters and is about 10% Hebrew or so… but Yiddish is more like 70%+ German, with some percentage of English and other languages thrown in for good measure. If you read the Hebrew alphabet you’ll be more likely to be able to read Yiddish, but it’s German-speakers who would be best able to understand it.
And no, I don’t speak any Yiddish apart from the words that have become part of English use.
P.S. Now you also know your third and fourth Hebrew words:
Zahav = gold
Kol Ha’kavod = congratulations, to his credit, etc.
Why are you so happy that a FOREIGN country has won a gold medal?
I root for all the small countries.
The most pathetic country is India. With 1 billion people, they can’t do better than 1 silver medal.
just a guy,
why is it pathetic that an entire nation doesn’t place the same importance on self-achievement and marketing as you do?
Live and let live, they have other problems than wasting even an equal amount of money on sports and sending athletes to the olympics in order to bed other foreign athletes?
BTW,
the actual event
Apparently, first the first time anyone can remember, immediately after the anthem was over, instead of the usual quiet exit, the podium was stormed by Israeli supporters from the crowd who wanted to stand there as well.
That’s another reason I love living in Israel.
Thanks for the Hebrew lesson segacs. Kol Ha’Kavod on your zahav Gal!