After reading all the other introductions, I am definitely the amateur around here! I am Namibian/South African. I visited Israel in 1996 with the aim of learning modern Hebrew and could have basic conversations towards the end of that period. Returning to South Africa I did first year courses in Biblical Hebrew (which I found very easy in spite of Karl's insistence that it is a different language from modern Hebrew
) and Biblical Archaeology before switching to a BSc in Computer Science (another one!) and Zoology. Afterwards, I did my MSc in Conservation Ecology, worked a few years as computer programmer, and am currently busy with a PhD on predators and Human-wildlife conflict on Namibian farmlands.I am mostly here to learn more. Although I have not followed Karl's method of simply reading the T"anach in Hebrew only, I normally read the Hebrew next to my Afrikaans translation in order to better understand the original sense of the Scriptures.