Learning Yiddish, the old way

 

Yiddish is becoming a lot of attention lately, but please stop assuming that it is a ´dead language´ or that we are experiencing a ´revival´. Yiddish was always here and in the last decades was more than alive and kicking so well. It´s only that the non-religious, often non-Jewish, public is becoming interested in it and I don´t see anything bad in this phenomenon. Only that it´s more appropriate to have the proper historical context about this situation.

In the last months, everyone is talking about the much praised Duolingo Yiddish and hopefully once I will be at the end of the course myself, I will be able to provide my modest point of view. However, there are many other ways in which Yiddish can be learned: by using the classical books and eventually an old notebook and a pen. That´s how I learn most of my languages and I will never get disappointed by my method - which I alternate with other e-formats because it´s good for the learning cause. 

My First Yiddish Word Book published by one of my favorite Jewish edition house, Kar-Ben Publishing is an excellent support for both children, parents, new adepts of the Yiddish language as well as teachers. It has one of the features I always appreciate by a language learning book: it offers the right vocabulary aimed to describe certain situations, organised on topics and with the bare minimum that can be used in various contexts and conversations. You can create your visual cards and create topics of conversations around the various subjects, covering, among others, the seasons, the playground, description of the human body, of the house and some of the rooms, the family etc.

It offers a cute visual support as well, which at least for pre-school and first grade children is very important to keep the attention awake. Another good point of the book is that it provides both the Latin reading of the words, besides the English translation and the Yiddish variant. 

At the end of the reading, one can consider him/herself an Yiddish basic connoisseur and this is more than enough for a steady beginning of learning a language.

Definitely a recommended read to all those who love Yiddish at least as much as I do.

Rating: 5 stars

Yiddish is Back!

Now, I have your attention!
In fact, Yiddish was never on a break, only the ways in which the interest towards it propagated was relatively on hold. After all, this language - yes, it´s a language, not a dialect, zhargon, also as per the decision of the 1908 Yiddish Conference in Czernowitz where it was declared as ´national language of the Jewish people´- was always here, always developing and creating valuable works - that brought a Nobel Prize to an autor writing in Yiddish, Isaac Bashevis Singer, in 1978.

In the article How Does it Feel to be an Yiddish Writer in America, published on the 23rd of May edition of the Forverts, he explained the premise of the title: ´like a ghost who can see but it is not seen´. And he explains later: ´Writers have never had any guarantees as to the number of their readers or the future of their languages. Nobody can tell what will happen to the words and phrases in use today or five hundreds years from now. A new way of conveying ideas and images may be found that will make the written word, and perhaps even today´s spoken word, completely superflous. It is not the language that gives immortality to the writer. The very opposite is true: great writers do not let their languages become extincts´. 

The recent literary works brought to the attention of the English speaking publicm like the short stories by Blume Lempel or by Yenta Mash confirm this assumption. The fact that those writers are women might be another topic to discuss, but maybe on another occasion.

The good academic news of the fact that Yiddish is becoming so sought-after is that there are many books and information available in English, outlining the diversity and complexity of the language, especially from an anthropological/social perspective.

I will briefly mention my latest two readings in this respect.

Born to Kvetch by Michael Wex is a very detailed journey into the world beyond the words. Yiddish means a lot of dialects and a world when just speaking the words is not enough to fully manage the language. From the complex characters of the folk tales to the language of the synagogue, or the exchanges on the street, the word and its context can change - for the good and for the bad. Organised in chapters following the main life encounters, it provides a rich depository of vocabulary and their background story. One can learn a lot about it, but still, it is not enough for considering oneself a master of the Yiddish. Unfortunatelly, it does not provide too much specific details of variants of Yiddish spoken in various Central and East European countries, being rather focused on the standard Litvische. There are so many topics - way too many - that needs further discussion and exploring - like the fully packed laboratory of families of demons, but the book is enjoyable not only by academics, but equally by those who want to figure out more than basic information about Yiddish.

My favorite Yiddish-related read of the day is an excellent collection of articles, information and literary fragments inspired by or about Yiddish, edited by Ilan Stavans (who had extraordinary contributions in the field of Yiddish-speaking realm in South America) and Josh Lambert. How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish covers almost everything that one needs to acknowledge about the history of Yiddish in America, from the foods to the books and the famous Hollywood personalities. I´ve spent a bit over a day delving into all stories yet being convinced that there are still so many testimonies and memories left behind. Selections are automatically limitative and subjective but in this case the distribution is very diverse, which meant for me that there are more Yiddish-related books added on the TBR and hopefully reviewed on the blog soon too. I wish there will be such a bilingual selection one day, Yiddish-English.  

The Joys of Yiddish

On a bus in Tel Aviv, a mother was talking animatedly, in Yiddish, to her little boy - who kept answering her in Hebrew. And eatch time the mother said, "No, not talk Yiddish!". An impatient Israeli, overhearing this, exclaimed, "Lady, why do you insist the boy talk in Yiddish instead of Hebrew?"

Replied the mother, "I don't want him to forget he's a Jew".

Leo Rosten, The Joys of Yiddish