[Ipg-smz] Yiddish

[Stephen Lawton]

To your last comment, Esther, me too. :)   If my parents didn't want us to understand, they spoke French. My mother barley knew Yiddish and to a much lesser degree, German, but my dad spoke it those languages to his friends. I took both French and German in school -- did terribly with both languages and finally decided on geek. (Lots of grunts, guttural sounds and cursing - just like Yiddish.) 

-----Original Message-----
From: Ipg-smz [mailto:ipg-smz-bounces at netpress.org] On Behalf Of Esther Schindler
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2019 12:39 PM
To: ipg-smz at netpress.org
Subject: Re: [Ipg-smz] Yiddish

My grandparents were native English speakers, but their parents spoke Yiddish. My father told me that his parents would speak in Yiddish “so the children couldn’t understand,” which meant that, of course, the children were motivated to learn it.

But only as listeners. My father could understand what someone said in Yiddish (and in his youth apparently liked Yiddish theater), but couldn’t speak it very well.

And I, of course, know only the idioms.
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