Customer Reviews

Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After purchasing numerous Yiddish language tapes and books, I have finally found the source that teaches you, not just the nouns and blessings/curses, but the pronouns and verbs. This is a user-friendly book that gives a brief (5 chapters!) history of the language, then nose-dives into the language. It teaches the reader how to conjugate verbs, eschew common mistakes, and reading the Hebrew aleph-bet (this part is optional, don't be scared!). It is superbly written. I haven't stopped reading it yet!

Honestly, I was as put off by the "Complete Idiot's" part of the title as you probably are but the unfortunate choice of title shouldn't dissuade you from purchasing this book. It's absolutely superb, well-written and informative without being unduly pedantic. Every paragraph is lucidly presented and done so in a manner that is terrifically entertaining. Rabbi Blech's sense of humour is without parallel and you really should try both of his other books - "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jewish History and Culture" and "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Judaism". I postponed purchasing all of these titles for quite some time because I really find that "Complete Idiot" designation to be both offensive and insulting towards its intended audience. The publishers really need to re-think this concept because it's leading people to avoid purchasing books that are a real treat to read. Perhaps they might want to rename the series "The Complete Novice's Guide to ...". These are intelligent books written for intelligent people and they should be marketed that way. This book is really a relatively effortless way to become fluent in Yiddish (or at least clever enough to fake it) provided you're willing to put in a little time and effort.

This book is totally awsome! It is the funniest, most enjoyable learn-a-language book you will ever come accross. Rabbi Blech is completely on-the-ball with his Judaic knowledge which is interspersed within the book. And why shouldn't he be? He only wrote two Idiots Guides to Judaism, one which I have read and also highly recommend! (The Complete Idiot's Guide to Jewish History and Culture)

On page 84 he says "Ask your Yiddish-speaking bobe [grandmother] or zeyde [grandfather], and I can almost guarantee they'll be able to sing ['Di Grine Kuzine'] to you" and so I did. He was right! My Yiddish speaking grandparents got about half way through the song until they needed the bi-lingual printing of the song in The Idiots Guide to Learning Yiddish to help them remember the words!

Expect to read this book and learn the Yiddish language, culture and everything that goes with it (including why your Yiddish Mama won't let you go out in the cold without a sweater.) You will also increase your knowledge of the history of European Jews, laugh greatly (in some cases, so you do not cry) and have an overall great time reading the stories, songs, history, grammer lessons and vocabulary teachings.

I bought this book because I've enjoyed Benjamin Blech's other contributions to the "Complete Idiot's Guides": The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding Judaism and the Complete Idiot's Guide to Jewish History and Culture. After reading these books, I was primed to learn some Yiddish--especially because it was the same author. When I picked the book up in the bookstore, I quickly noticed that it didn't have a CD, which I found odd. But with my faith in Blech, I forged ahead and bought the book. Maybe it didn't need a CD. Well, it does. I'm not Jewish, and I've never heard anyone speak Yiddish except for a few words here and there on a TV show or a movie. THIS BOOK NEEDS A CD. I guess most people who pick this book up have a bubbe somewhere that spoke Yiddish to them, or they can ask for help on pronounciation. But I'm not that person. Benjamin Blech is still a wonderful writer, and I would find no fault with this book if it was accompanied by a CD. I'm giving this 3 stars, however, because I feel that the omission of a CD for a LANGUAGE BOOK is a grave oversight on the part of the publisher.

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.

I have been attempting to learn Hebrew, but I could never find a book that gave information on Yiddish. When I discovered this book in my local bookstore my heart did a dance, I absolutely love it. Rabbi Blech did a wondrous mitzvah in writing this instruction book for the Goy or the Jew. :)

I gave this book to my twelve-year-old daughter, who just started learning Spanish as well -- she's half-Hispanic and all Jewish -- and she's been quoting it to me ever since. Thank you, Rabbi Blech, for such an enjoyable read. This book and "Haiku for Jews" are the current favorites in our house.

This is a great book, it was very enjoyable and easy to learn from. It will definitely give you a working start with Yiddish.

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.

Generally quite complete but not as user friendly as some other idiots guides.