Well, obviously, knowing the language sufficiently to pray and sufficiently to converse in it deeply on various subjects are two different things.

To pray you actually don't have to know it that well. A Russian being able to say a prayer in Church Slavic doesn't know Church Slavic, likely. Same with an Armenian and a prayer in Grabar (though that's an archaic form of Armenian, so some sense will get through).

These are bad examples, because Russian is related to Church Slavic (though it's a South Slavic language) and Grabar is the classical form of Armenian.

But you can think, again, of a Pole or a Catholic German who can say a prayer in Latin, but doesn't speak Latin.

And knowing the alphabet is not the same as knowing the language.

So nothing obvious in that. Kids from Rabbinic families and in general with good Jewish education would, of course. Just like kids from good families in European societies would learn Latin, Ancient Greek, and probably also Hebrew.

What you're missing is that anything easier, even more palettable to Palestinians and some others to learn, than straight Hebrew was thrown aside when it would have been a zero-cost, high-reward route to enabling the single-state solution that they claimed to want.

Instead, they otherized a chunk of the Jewish population that was about as large as the Palestinian population that they sought to eject, and Jews that were already closer to or in Israel no less!! Jews that would have gladly introduced new-comers to the new neighbors!! It was a nail in the coffin for any goal besides that of an ethno-state.