Written Hebrew w/ vowel sounds vs. written Hebrew w/o vowel sounds?

[Ari Ben-Canaan]

Oy vey!

I am learning how to read Hebrew w/ the vowel sounds written underneath the script.  I can see online people speak Hebrew w/o vowels written out.  I could not imagine reading English with out vowels ["cld nt mgn rdng nglsh wth t vwls"]. -- At least not with the same amount of comprehension as I do with vowels.

I get confused...  How would my name, "Ariel", be written w/o vowels?  "rl"?  How would that be different than how "Uriel" is written?

Am I wrong to think that learning with vowels first is a good idea, and then to progress and try reading and writing w/o vowels after?  Are the vowel script like training wheels on a kids bike?

Obviously its doable somehow! 

[Ben m]

in hebrew you can write without the vowels.

[Ari Ben-Canaan]

Writing Hebrew without vowels means writing them without the dots that are seen around the letters, not the letters themselves like Aleph and Yod and Vav.  Every letter in the Hebrew alphabet would still be written, so your name would still be written as אריאל even without vowels.  Uriel would be written as אוריאל without vowels.  It's fine to start learning with the vowel points because you need to know them but don't get too hung up on them and concentrate on memorizing the letters themselves while you're reading and not the vowels.  I think training wheels is a good comparison.

Thanks!