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Yiddish? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Oboesparkles Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 6690 days ago 9 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Italian, Hungarian | Message 9 of 48 28 July 2009 at 10:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I learned Yiddish in Elementary and High school, although I don't speak it very well at all. It doesn't seem like it's very threatened considering it's spoken by a pretty big community of super religious Jews. Then there are all the older European Jews that still speak it. I live in Montreal, and here we actually have a Yiddish Theatre which puts on some really excellent productions.
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| J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 6029 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes  Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch | Message 10 of 48 29 July 2009 at 8:35am | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah I thought that to be a bit weird too Laban. Does being Christian cancel out being Jewish? Guess that depends on who you speak to. I consider myself Buddhist/agnostic and still Jewish. But anyway...
It true oboesparkles that a lot of ultra-religious speak it and they pump kids out at a faster rate tan their secular brothers and sisters. I think that Yiddish is making a slight comeback in some circles. I've met numerous people who want to learn it or are in the process of learning it. This can be for a number of reasons but there are still some people who care about music, literature and culture. All up I have hours of music, readings, stacks of books and many resources for learning it. One day I hope to put it on my list of language I learn on the forum here. I'll be teaching it to my nephew and niece too. :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5837 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 11 of 48 29 July 2009 at 1:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Oboesparkles, wow that's impressive that you learnt it in school. I guess this was not a regular Jewish school, maybe orthodox then, or some kind of community school? I suppose with such initiatives Yiddish will survive, perhaps even outside Orthodox Judaism! :-)
@J-learner, there is nothing strange! Eg to have a little bit of Jewish blood, but not be Jewish! I think it's really a very COMMON situation. Because of my background I will always support Israel and I respect Judaism tremendously. But it's not my own culture/religion. @laban, to explain why they went to IL as I understand it: They lost their house under nazism, the father lost his job and then died of some illness. After the war they could not go back to their old home-town anyway and did not have good prospects in Switzerland where they had been staying during most of the war. The son in the family became a zionist and decided to make aliah. Not sure about the exact motivation but it's easy to imagine. So they travelled to Israel by boat from Italy. One sister had got married and remained in Switzerland. She also stopped practicing Judaism. One of the sad things is that the family tried to get to Sweden, just across the straits, after the war broke out. But they could not get Visas fast enough. So they literally had to flee to Switzerland instead. The sisters both worked as teachers in Israel, had many children each and lived completely normal lives as far as I know (both died many years ago). The brother had no children. I think most families in Israel have similar even more dramatic stories about how they ended up there! Same with some in North America. I suppose you could say that Yiddish is a remnant of the Jewish life that existed in Europe pre- 1940s but is now gone. That makes it a 'melancholic' language for many, I guess. Perhaps not to people who encountered it in modern life, like all of you who commented! :-) It was really interesting to see your responses and it answered my questions. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6271 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 12 of 48 29 July 2009 at 2:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think Yiddish is that difficult to learn, especially for people who already speak German. The Hebrew alphabet probably makes it look more of a challenge than it really is.
One Yiddish speaker who was not Jewish was James Cagney, apparently. He grew up in a Jewish neighbourhood in the USA. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| laban Triglot Groupie Israel Joined 5821 days ago 87 posts - 96 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, English, Italian Studies: Norwegian, German | Message 13 of 48 29 July 2009 at 5:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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cordelia0507 - very interesting story, and yes, it is somewhat similar, i guess, to all other stories of this kind.
I asked because i didn't understand you had a jewish background and that's why i was a bit puzzled. too bad my grandparents didn't try sweden or at least switzerland, i mean, israel is great but come on, sweden is like heaven on earth :) Edited by laban on 29 July 2009 at 5:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Oboesparkles Diglot Newbie Canada Joined 6690 days ago 9 posts - 12 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Italian, Hungarian | Message 14 of 48 29 July 2009 at 6:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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The Hebrew alphabet is not hard at all. Unlike Hebrew, in Yiddish all the vowels are written so it's very easyto read. The only time the pronounciation isn't clear is in Hebrew loan words (which, admittedly, there are quite a few).
And as for my school, it's actually very secular. Unfortunately the Hebrew and Yiddish education there has gone downhill in the last decade or so. Which is terrible, because it's the only school in Canada that still teaches Yiddish. The number of classes has gone down to 2 per two week cycle. They used to read and analyze advanced Yiddish literature, but when I graduated, all we did was read a simplified version of the abridged version of Tevyeh der Milkhiker (Fiddler on the Roof). And most of us barely understood it. The Yiddish teachers have tried to convince the administration of the importance of Yiddish, and how we have the responsability to maintain it, but they seem to think that math and science are more important. The worst thing is that, as the Yiddish teachers get old and retire, they're being replaced by non-native speakers who inevitably graduated from Bialik. And so the students are being taught by people who can barely speak themselves. Oh well! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 6029 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch | Message 15 of 48 30 July 2009 at 4:15am | IP Logged | ||
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I agree Oboe...it isn't as hard as reading Hebrew.
It's a very satisfying language to read. (Even at my level which might be at best an amateur). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lloydkirk Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6412 days ago 429 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 16 of 48 30 July 2009 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | ||
Have you been to Sweden, Laban? I have family there, it's not so great a place. Freezing cold, extremely high taxes(52% of GDP), huge unintegrated immigrant population,etc...Stockhom is nice in the summer though. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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