I’m totally going to have to read Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All Its Moods, by Michael Wex, which is reviewed in today’s New York Times.
To be Jewish, in other words, is to kvetch. If the Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” had been translated into Yiddish, Mr. Wex writes, “it would have been called ‘(I Love to Keep Telling You That I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (Because Telling You That I’m Not Satisfied Is All That Can Satisfy Me).'”
Love it.
On a related note, read A Yiddish Pale Fire, a sad and poignant essay on Yiddish by Michael Chabon.
The NYT book review always makes me want to spend money on books. It’s a plot! ;-)
I enjoyed my one quarter of introductory college Yiddish and got to practice pleasantries with an older professor. My favorite regular exchange:
me: Vos makhstu?
‘How are you?’
prof: Freg mir bekhaire ikh veys vi zol ikh makhn!
‘Ask me as if I know how I should be!’