Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish | 
|  | | | Title: | Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish | | Author: | Rabbi Benjamin Blech | | Publisher: | Alpha | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 19 January, 2000 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0028633873 / 9780028633879 | | List Price: | $18.95 | | You Save: | $0.38 | | Amazon Price: | $18.57 | |
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Product Description
You're not idiot, of course. You can serve up a mean s'il vous plait in a French bistro, live la vida loca for a night of margaritas, and manage a sayonara! after sushi, sake, and karaoke. But when it comes to throwing around a little Yiddish, you feel like a total nebbish! Don't throw your hands in a helpless "Oy, vey" just yet! The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish is your guide to this unique tongue, whether you're tackling rules of grammar or just throwing around some key phrases so you sound a little less goyish. In this Complete Idiot's Guide you get a fascinating explanation of how and why Yiddish developed, an easy introduction to the Yiddish alphabet, as well as the distinctive sound of Yiddish, and all the Yiddish you'll need for communicating with family and friends or for bargain-hunting on New York's Lower East Side. This book contains a treasury of Yiddish words and phrases for every occasion.
Amazon.com Review
Whether you're getting back to your roots or getting ready for your first seder, it couldn't hurt to get a little help with your Yiddish, and the formidable Rabbi Benjamin Blech is here to lend a hand with the self-deprecatingly named Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish. This language has been a strong influence on American English and pop culture, so even if you're a hundred miles from the nearest synagogue you can learn plenty just from browsing the Rabbi's words of wisdom. It's not just vocabulary lists and pronunciation guides, either--that would be far too boring for such a vibrant language. You'll learn why a culture that typically uses two languages (Hebrew and whatever's local) needed to develop a third, and why it stuck. There's also lots of Jewish history and contemporary Yiddish American crossovers to put the language in its context--and, given the importance of humor in Jewish culture, there's a liberal helping of jokes and funny moments to help you grasp words and concepts. Chapters on holidays, travel, food, family, health, entertainment, and more round out your Yiddish experience. If you want to gossip with your local yenta, understand Lenny Bruce routines, or get to know one of our nation's founding cultures a little bit better, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish will make you a maven. --Rob Lightner
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Customer Reviews:
• Complete Idiot's Guide To Learning Yiddish 10 March, 2006
I found this book informative and humorous, but I do wish it had covered grammar a little more in depth. All in all, though, it's worth having...ROBERT WLADYKA
- Reviewed by customer ID: AF7GX6JCHXBCA
• Complete Idiot? 13 June, 2007
It's a series - not to worry.
Say, there's a "Baby Names for Dummies", so what's to kvetch? MY name wasn't in the book, was yours? It's your mother you should be talking to, not us! Once in a while, she'd like you to call, too, or at least write. So, what could it hurt? Your finger, it's broken, is it?
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1LH5914M6CLTH
• This Yiddish Book Is A Feast For The Senses 26 December, 2007
While searching for a book that explains the Yiddish language for the common person, I came across this book and what a book it is! It entertains and explains not only the language but also the people, places and circumstances that shows how Yiddish came to be. There are colorful examples, jokes and sayings to make anyone laugh! I found this to be quite an entertaining book, even if you have little interest in Yiddish.
- Reviewed by customer ID: ALA77HERW2U0J
• Fun But Disappointing 11 November, 2006
we were disappointed with the content and glossary of this book.
it was fun to skim and read over, but it didn't offer us much of an indept exposure to the most common terms.
we found that most of the words we looked up and were interested in just weren't there.
otherwise, it is easy to read and laid out in an interesting format for skimming.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2YUQ1P12NMK6E
• Fun, Ok, But... 03 July, 2006
OK, a little smaltzy, but a mildly fun trip into the beginnings of the Yiddish culture/language adventure. However, had I known that it was all transliteration (and not particularly well done), I wouldn't have bought it. Really, Hebrew letters and a few creative Yiddish fixes for vowel sounds and the right to left business is not that big a deal. You can do it in two weeks starting from scratch, or less. The experience of several generations of American Jews dragged to the Bimah seems to have poisoned everyone's minds about the aleph bet difficulties - small and easily surmounted. Remember, many in the first generations were literate in Yiddish and Hebrew, not to mention Polish or Russian, and learned English on top of that! Also lots of typos both in the text and the transliterations; fortunately I bought a used copy and an editorial fanatic had been through it with a sharp pencil and equally sharp comments. Sheva Zucker's Yiddish - A Textbook for Beginners, Vol. 1 or Zuckerman and Herbst's Learning Yiddish in Easy Stages are better, if you really want to learn.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A26VUVK2OG0L43
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