Read For Free If You Cant Say Anything Nice, Say It In Yiddish Assembled By Lita Epstein Ready In Hardcover
on If You Cant Say Anything Nice, Say It in Yiddish
a language geek. If I had infinite time and money I would spend them learning as many languages as I could, One of the languages that has fascinated me more as long as I can remember is Yiddish, It used to be a vibrant language but post Holocaust it has dwindled to a dying language relegated mostly to academics and the elderly, There is a revival effort afoot and hopefully it will take hold,
In the meantime, Yiddish is mostly a language of phrases and insults passed down through different business cultures, Schmuck, chutzpah, spiel I could go on. I bet you know them, I bet you've used them, They are all Yiddish.
If you want to go beyond the basics, Lita Epstein has compiled a bunch of insults and other phrases in her book If You Can't Say Anything Nice, Say it In Yiddish.
She has transliterated everything to her best approximation to how she learned them, If you're on the west coast you'll see some oddities in her spelling, Properly written, Yiddish is written with the Hebrew alphabet but uses a mostly Germanic grammar and lexicon,
Epstein's book is a fun introduction to Yiddish but it won't take you beyond memorizing a few funny phrases, Has some funny curses but also has some really rude and hurtful ones,
The glossary is really useful,
Some chapters are boring,
There are few paragraphs on jewish herstory, i liked that part a lot,
The book was a christmas present from my brother,
ltI have a twoyear old who mimics everything I say, so it's time to clean up my language again, Conclusion: I'll learn to cuss in Yiddish!
That way, when he drops an "A broch!" in the sandbox when his castle collapses, I don't get called for a parentteacher conference.
Favorite from this book:
Onions should grow on your navel!
Zol dir vaksn tzibbeles fun pupik! When I saw the title, I knew I had to read this book! I've read a fair number of books written in the setting of the Jewish community and have come across quite a few Yiddish words.
I could surmise their meanings, but now I know! This books sets you straightYiddish is not Hebrew, Yiddish, a very old language, derives from a lot of German words and many other words picked where the Jews have lived over the centuries, The average American might be surprised at how many Yiddish words he or she is knows without even tryingbagel, shalom, lox, shmooze, shmear, nosh, shtik, shlep, blintz, kosher, shmaltzy, gezuntheit, megillah, shalom, mensch, mishmash, chutzpah, Mazel Tov, for starters and we haven't even gotten to the insultsshmuck, putz, shlok, klutz, shlepper, shmok, shnook.
If you are in the market for some handy curses, this book is replete with them, all of them very long, involved, inventive and sometimes downright nasty, but all in good fun, yah Meh.
It was okay. I like reading about language and languages, and there were some interesting bits, but when it came time to the laundry list of insults and curses I usually just felt bad.
I get from the title it isn't a book of blessings on people, but some of them just felt awful, I guess I was hoping for a more humorous take on Yiddish and how it can be used to offer backhanded compliments or insults, So certainly part of it was my expectation, Also, I feel I'd personally get more out of learning Yiddish, rather than just trying to memorize some phrases, Again, a personal thing.
As with anything, you're mileage may vary,
The short I wouldn't have read it had I been better aware of what it was and I shan't ever read it again, Good basic guide to the world of swearing
in Yiddish!! Hey, why learn a whole language when you can just focus on the good parts This is an invaluable resource for people who needs to learn how to deliver a good cussing out.
Some of the ill wishes in here are creative beyond the dreams of the average bear, like "May a demon take your father's son" I daresay I know who to use that one on.
Even the blessings are lefthanded: "May the Lord bless and keep the czar, . . far away from us. " This book is not to be missed, Really cool idea for a book, and there are some very creative insults there,
But Yiddish is a bit like Russian, Czech and similar languages to me my brain just does not seem to be wired for them, Anything Latin based works for me, and for some weird reason, Swahili and Korean seem to make sense, . .
My renewed enjoyment/appreciation/interest in Yiddish continues, This book was a gift from my wife, and a good one it is! There are many errors in the book though as far as correct translations go, but it's light enough and humorous enough to get a pass on those.
Several of the insults are now part of my vernacular, Wife's mission accomplished You havent been really insulted until youve been cursed at in Yiddish, One of the most colorful and toothsome languages ever spoken, Yiddish has survived in the toughest of circumstancesand its partly due to its ability to say whats on its mind, like it or not.
Harsh to the point of cruelty well, where to begin, Yiddish curses can also add a touch of sweetness to the bitter pill: A vecher balkon dir in kop May a soft balcony fall on your head.
. You dont agree Gai bareh di vantsen Go bother the bedbugs,
In the meantime, Yiddish is mostly a language of phrases and insults passed down through different business cultures, Schmuck, chutzpah, spiel I could go on. I bet you know them, I bet you've used them, They are all Yiddish.
If you want to go beyond the basics, Lita Epstein has compiled a bunch of insults and other phrases in her book If You Can't Say Anything Nice, Say it In Yiddish.
She has transliterated everything to her best approximation to how she learned them, If you're on the west coast you'll see some oddities in her spelling, Properly written, Yiddish is written with the Hebrew alphabet but uses a mostly Germanic grammar and lexicon,
Epstein's book is a fun introduction to Yiddish but it won't take you beyond memorizing a few funny phrases, Has some funny curses but also has some really rude and hurtful ones,
The glossary is really useful,
Some chapters are boring,
There are few paragraphs on jewish herstory, i liked that part a lot,
The book was a christmas present from my brother,
ltI have a twoyear old who mimics everything I say, so it's time to clean up my language again, Conclusion: I'll learn to cuss in Yiddish!
That way, when he drops an "A broch!" in the sandbox when his castle collapses, I don't get called for a parentteacher conference.
Favorite from this book:
Onions should grow on your navel!
Zol dir vaksn tzibbeles fun pupik! When I saw the title, I knew I had to read this book! I've read a fair number of books written in the setting of the Jewish community and have come across quite a few Yiddish words.
I could surmise their meanings, but now I know! This books sets you straightYiddish is not Hebrew, Yiddish, a very old language, derives from a lot of German words and many other words picked where the Jews have lived over the centuries, The average American might be surprised at how many Yiddish words he or she is knows without even tryingbagel, shalom, lox, shmooze, shmear, nosh, shtik, shlep, blintz, kosher, shmaltzy, gezuntheit, megillah, shalom, mensch, mishmash, chutzpah, Mazel Tov, for starters and we haven't even gotten to the insultsshmuck, putz, shlok, klutz, shlepper, shmok, shnook.
If you are in the market for some handy curses, this book is replete with them, all of them very long, involved, inventive and sometimes downright nasty, but all in good fun, yah Meh.
It was okay. I like reading about language and languages, and there were some interesting bits, but when it came time to the laundry list of insults and curses I usually just felt bad.
I get from the title it isn't a book of blessings on people, but some of them just felt awful, I guess I was hoping for a more humorous take on Yiddish and how it can be used to offer backhanded compliments or insults, So certainly part of it was my expectation, Also, I feel I'd personally get more out of learning Yiddish, rather than just trying to memorize some phrases, Again, a personal thing.
As with anything, you're mileage may vary,
The short I wouldn't have read it had I been better aware of what it was and I shan't ever read it again, Good basic guide to the world of swearing
in Yiddish!! Hey, why learn a whole language when you can just focus on the good parts This is an invaluable resource for people who needs to learn how to deliver a good cussing out.
Some of the ill wishes in here are creative beyond the dreams of the average bear, like "May a demon take your father's son" I daresay I know who to use that one on.
Even the blessings are lefthanded: "May the Lord bless and keep the czar, . . far away from us. " This book is not to be missed, Really cool idea for a book, and there are some very creative insults there,
But Yiddish is a bit like Russian, Czech and similar languages to me my brain just does not seem to be wired for them, Anything Latin based works for me, and for some weird reason, Swahili and Korean seem to make sense, . .
My renewed enjoyment/appreciation/interest in Yiddish continues, This book was a gift from my wife, and a good one it is! There are many errors in the book though as far as correct translations go, but it's light enough and humorous enough to get a pass on those.
Several of the insults are now part of my vernacular, Wife's mission accomplished You havent been really insulted until youve been cursed at in Yiddish, One of the most colorful and toothsome languages ever spoken, Yiddish has survived in the toughest of circumstancesand its partly due to its ability to say whats on its mind, like it or not.
Harsh to the point of cruelty well, where to begin, Yiddish curses can also add a touch of sweetness to the bitter pill: A vecher balkon dir in kop May a soft balcony fall on your head.
. You dont agree Gai bareh di vantsen Go bother the bedbugs,
Lita Epstein offers a crash course in the Yiddish gift for vivid invective, Along the way, youll learn a bit about the language itself its history, pronounciation, and travels and gain access to its lethal power, Humor is, of course, a frequent accomplice the better to kill you with, mein kind and the sheer range of wordsfor goofoffs, screwups, gossipmongers and evildoerswill demonstrate how keen observation not to mention hairsplitting works through the Yiddish language to better identify an intended target.
The book also provides two generous glossaries of phrasesto take you from English to Yiddish and back again,
So think, dumkop, Even if you could never tell a shlemiel from a shlemazel, or a kvetcher from a yenta before, youll now be able to proudly shout: Migulgl zol er vern in a henglaykhter, by tag zol er hengen, un by nakht zol er brenen.
He should be transformed into a chandelier, to hang by day and to burn by night,