 If you've recently fulfilled the lifetime dream of moving to Israel through the process known as making aliyah, then you may be surprised to find that you've now taken on an identity that you never anticipated. I'm not talking about becoming Israeli because that was probably part of your plan. Most people who move to Israel aspire to eventually do that, but the more practically minded among us, or maybe it's more fair to say the cynics, realize that the image of instant Israeliness broadcast by nephish-benephish photo ops at the airport is mostly the stuff of fiction. Moving into a new culture, speaking a different language requires effort, time, and above all, persistence. Just as you probably wouldn't take a flight to Oslo, visit Nikea, eat some meatballs, and then decide to self-identify as Swedish, the process of leaving behind your culture of birth and accepting a new Middle Eastern identity really isn't something that happens overnight. For most, it's a lifetime process, one that requires hundreds of hours spent learning vocabulary, taking professional steps backwards before making leaps forward, and building a new social circle and life almost completely from scratch. During your initial weeks and months in Israel, among awkward Shabbat mixers and your first time shopping at a Shufrasal, you may be surprised to hear others refer to you as an Anglo and talk about joining the Anglo community, and you may then, in the bright hot sun of your first Israeli summer, pause for a moment to wonder, what the f**k is an Anglo? In the strange netherworld culture of immigrants to Israel, those caught somewhere in the open grey space between the lines they've left behind and the new ones they are making, an Anglo is used as a shorthand for an Anglophone, which basically just means a native English speaker. Anglo is actually only one of several new words that you'll likely learn in the strange vocabulary of Hebrew, like how an academic isn't a tenured professor but actually anybody who holds a college degree, and how Balagan can be dropped into a sentence in English to emphasise that the current situation surrounding you in Israel, as so many of them are, can best be described as a complete state of f**k chaos. After picking up the lingo, you may be wondering why anybody moving to Israel would want to be identified with the language other than the one they're trying to learn, which is Hebrew. I don't have a clear answer for that, but I can tell you a few things about the Anglo sphere in Israel so that you know what to expect. The first thing that most Anglos eventually come to realise is that the language you speak is only one small part of your identity as a human. Anglos are definitely not a homogenous group, even though the name suggests they are. There are right wing Anglos living in the gush, left wing Anglos who vote for merits and campaign for gay rights in Tel Aviv. There are carnivar Anglos and avowed vegetarians. There are Anglos who grow ghost peppers for fun in greenhouses and those who grow different plants in their cramped Tel Aviv studios. You may find that you have everything in common with another immigrant to English who happens to speak your language, or nothing at all. You'll likely discover very quickly that Americans constitute the overwhelming majority of the English speaking population in Israel. You will find that Israelis and even other English speakers will assume that you're from the United States until proven otherwise. If you're not from the US and you spend enough time among English speakers, you'll probably spend hours of your life bored to death listening to debates about the US presidential elections or where to buy Philadelphia cream cheese. If you're above a certain vintage like me, you'll discover that Facebook groups, yes, they still exist, function as a virtual water cooler of sorts for the Anglo community. You'll probably encounter one called Secret Jerusalem that many people need for practical reasons, but even those who do like to make fun of. You'll likely find yourself wondering at some point why Americans in English seem so obsessed with sourcing Philadelphia cream cheese and other American essentials and question why nobody seems to consider using the search function before asking where in Jerusalem you can exchange dollars for shackles because it's been asked literally a zillion times. If like me, you're of a more cynical bend, you'll ultimately conclude that the entire Anglo world and the network of organizations that exist to support English speakers in Israel is really just intended to make your life in Israel that little bit easier. It's kind of like a crutch that everybody knows is a crutch and it's a bubble that some people actually resent, but for linguistic reasons, because Hebrew is kind of a pretty hard language overall. It's an expat bubble that kind of has to exist. For some, it's a necessary evil, but for others, it's a source of strength. As time goes on, you'll likely find that the Anglo sphere becomes less relevant to you as your Hebrew improves. You'll gradually begin to make friends among more Hebrew speakers than those who share your mother tongue. As this happens, you may feel a strange sense of being pulled between two conflicting worlds, between being pulled by the familiar but vaguely guilty pleasure of socializing with other English speakers and doing what's in your best long-term interests, on the other hand, by learning Hebrew and leaving the small community mostly to the site. There are times when you'll likely come to appreciate the Anglo bubble even when you don't personally need it anymore, like when your overwhelmed friend moves to Tel Aviv and has no idea how to order takeaway and searching in Hebrew is just that little bit too difficult right now. Or when your 80-year-old grandparent who has literally zero proficiency at language learning moves here and is delighted to discover that learning Hebrew is one less mountain that they'll have to worry about climbing. The more time you spend in Israel as an English speaker, the more you'll realize that much as there's no one right or wrong way to be in Israeli, there's no prescriptive way to live here under the identity of an English speaker. Like me, you may ultimately come to Brazil at the term Anglo and wish that people could stop making assumptions about you on the basis of a language you speak. You'll also begin to notice some very obvious bifurcations in the English-speaking world. There are those who are happy to put their English-speakiness at the core of their identity. You'll find Anglo-hard-cores who advocate living in ghetto-like neighborhoods where virtually everybody speaks English. You'll find those as well who advance the idea that you can live a fulfilled and happy life in Israel and have a thriving career here while barely speaking a word of Hebrew. Some have even advocated for the idea that English speakers in Israel should form their own political party to better represent their interests among the Israeli collective. You'll realize that these people seem mostly contented and happy and even though it may not be your model for living in Israel, it's theirs. On the other hand, you'll occasionally encounter the zealots. There are those who actively disavow the English-speaking community from the ghetto and throw themselves right into the linguistic deep end from the moment the wheels of their alia flight touched down on the tarmac at Ben-Gurion. More people, however, fall somewhere between these two extremes and you'll often only realize in retrospect that many of your English-speaking friends are actually much better integrated into Israeli society than you might have assumed. As you continue to live in Israel, you'll eventually find yourself at what I call the final point of evolution as an English speaker or a Spanish speaker, Russian speaker, or a Hebrew speaker. That's when you feel comfortable enough on your level of Hebrew to know that whether someone is a Hebrew speaker or shares your language is mostly at this point irrelevant. And the best friends for you are those with whom you have the most in common, whether that includes a language or not. Thanks for watching today's video. If you have suggestions for videos about life in Israel that you'd like to see me tackle, please feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments.