Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won't Do) [Hardcover]

Michael Wex (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 16, 2007

A cross between Henry Beard's Latin for All Occasions and Ben Schott's Schott's Original Miscellany, JUST SAY NU is a practical guide to using Yiddish words and expressions in day-to-day situations. Along with enough grammar to enable readers to put together a comprehensible sentence and avoid embarrassing mistakes, Wex also explains the five most useful Yiddish words–shoyn, nu, epes, takeh,and nebakh–what they mean, how and when to use them, and how they can be used to conduct an entire conversation without anybody ever suspecting that the reader doesn’t have the vaguest idea of what anyone is actually saying. Readers will learn how to shmooze their way through such activities as meeting and greeting; eating and drinking; praising and finding fault; maintaining personal hygiene; going to the doctor; driving; parenting; getting horoscopes; committing crimes; going to singles bars; having sex; talking politics and talking trash.

Now that Stephen Colbert, a Catholic from South Carolina and host of the "Colbert Report," is using Yiddish to wish viewers a bright and happy Chanukah, people have finally started to realize that there’s nothing in the world that can’t be improved by translating it into Yiddish. Wex’s JUST SAY NU is the book that’s going to show them how.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This is not your bubbe's—or Leo Rosten's—Yiddish. Translator, novelist and performer Wex follows his witty and erudite Born to Kvetch with a colorful, uncensored guide to the idiomatic, use of Yiddish in such areas as madness, fury, and driving, mob Yiddish, insults and thirteen designations for the human rear (in declining order of politeness). Wex is knowledgeable about the biblical and Talmudic roots of some colloquial phrases; for example, he points out that tukhes (ass as he translates it) may be derived from Tuhkhes, one of the places where the Israelites sojourned on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land. While most of Wex's discussions of words and phrases are brief, he provides lengthier sections on five key, highly nuanced Yiddish words: nu (Well?), shoyn (already, right away), epes (something, somewhat), takeh (precisely) and nebakh (alas). Wex's advice on the complex usage of these words can help even the greenest Yiddish speaker. The book could have given more attention to regional dialects and there are a few organizational quirks. Still, Wex offers both fun and instruction for the non-maven. (Oct.)
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Review

Praise for JUST SAY NU:

 

“With verve, élan and something only a non-Yiddish speaker would call chutzpah, Michael Wex returns to the linguistic mother lode that yielded Born to Kvetch, his brilliant cultural history of Yiddish. This time around in Just Say Nu, he gets down to the everyday business of putting Yiddish to use.”

--NY Times

“This is not your bubbe’s—or Leo Rosten’s—Yiddish. Translator, novelist and performer Wex follows his witty and erudite Born to Kvetch with a colorful, uncensored guide to the idiomatic, use of Yiddish in such areas as “madness, fury and driving.” Wex’s advice on the complex usage of these words can help even the greenest Yiddish speaker.”

--Publisher’s Weekly

Praise for BORN TO KVETCH:

“This treasure trove of linguistics, sociology, history and folklore offers a fascinating look at how, through the centuries, a unique and enduring language has reflected an equally unique and enduring culture.”
–Publishers Weekly

 

“Wise, witty and altogether wonderful…Mr. Wex has perfect pitch.” –William Grimes, The New York Times

“All the wonderful elements of Yiddish language and culture are represented here.  Highly recommended” –Library Journal

 

“A great read for those who know and love Yiddish, and those who just drop the occasional ‘schmuck’ into the conversation.” –New York Press

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (October 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312364628
• ISBN-13: 978-0312364625
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #478,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > Education & Reference > Dictionaries & Thesauruses > Foreign Language > Yiddish
  • #26 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Instruction > Yiddish

More About the Author

Author of Born to Kvetch, columnist, bon vivant and raconteur, Michael Wex has been called "a Yiddish national treasure;" Born to Kvetch, the bestselling book ever written about Yiddish, was hailed by The New York Times as "wise, witty and altogether wonderful."

A native of Lethbridge, Alberta, Wex has worked in virtually every area of contemporary Yiddish. Some of his songs have been recorded by such klezmer bands as Sukke, The Flying Bulgars, and 2007 Grammy winners, The Klezmatics.

Wex's teaching and lecture activities-a unique combination of learning, stand-up comedy and probing investigation into the nature of Yiddish and Yiddishkayt-have taken him from Toronto to Budapest, and to many points in between. His approach is so unique and appealing that his annual series of classes at Klezkamp (a yearly Yiddish cultural event in upstate New York) has been renamed Wexology-and not at Wex's instigation. The only complaint ever heard is that people are enjoying themselves so much that they forget to take notes.

You can find Michael Wex at www.michaelwex.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Linguistics and Laughs, October 21, 2007

By 

Heiko Lehmann - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won't Do) (Hardcover)

Oy, Shprintse, what a book! It's a lecture on Yiddish, no doubt, and also on religion as the essential part to understand what's going on in the language. And it's so funny on such a high level that one may think the jokes will be missed -- but that's what I feared when I read "Born To Kvetch" already which has turned into a hit instead. Wex is not resting on the success of BTK (don't even think of Dennis Rader or the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company). JSN risks to introduce its own transliteration on top of YIVO's. But, hell, it works and turns pronunciation into fun! This is not a Yiddish for Dummies. Kvelling on scholarship, life and love, Just Say Nu manages to unite science, fun and understanding of a language that -- and this book proves it -- has SURVIVED hell.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No Kvetching Here- Wex Has Done it Again!, November 25, 2007

By 

Rachael Kafrissen "Rootless Cosmopolitan" (NY, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won't Do) (Hardcover)

With Just Say Nu, Michael Wex has again given us something rare in popular literature about Yiddish, a laugh out loud synthesis of scholarship and humor. It's an entry point to Yiddish that I wish had been around when I started studying the language as an undergraduate.

In fact, Just Say Nu should probably have been published before Born To Kvetch. It covers the basics that Kvetch (which covers much more advanced cultural contexts of Yiddish life) skipped over. Just Say Nu literally starts at the beginning, covering the nuances of language basics (like greetings and interjections) and delves into the many non-verbal aspects of Yiddish conversation.

Just Say Nu will give the you the conversational tools to handle any Jewish situation, whether it's running into Rabbi Goldberg at the burlesque house or getting your pain in the ass brother or sister to pass the milk at the table.

I only have one quarrel with Mr. Wex. He claims that Yiddish is unique in that it can diminish human misery without providing a concomitant increase in happiness. Yiddish brings me closer to the entirety of Jewish experience, both the good and the bad, the cursed and the blessed, the happy and the reserved. Just Say Nu, and the richness of Yiddish within it, did indeed provide an increase in happiness.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent for people who already know Yiddish, December 29, 2008

By 

Eliezer ben Avrohom (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won't Do) (P.S.) (Paperback)

This is a great book with all of the idioms of "real" Yiddish, that you will never learn at a YIVO class. The author describes the "zaftike" expressions of "poylishe yidn" with great talent. Frankly there were one or two places where his etymology is suspect (at least to me) and his transliteration system takes some getting used to (even for those of us who speak Yiddish fluently.) Notwithstanding these minor shortcomings it is an excellent work that deserves to be in the bookshelf of every serious Yiddish student, teacher, and speaker. Alot of these expressions are dying out even among the Yiddish-speaking Orthodox communities, where subtle language shift is taking place, and some of the racier expressions are never used by them in any case. Familiarizing yourself with these idioms will make it a helluva lot easier to read Isaac Bashevis Singer (and others) in the original.

It is less "cutesy" than "Born to Kvetch", which I also recommend highly.