Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion

by Michael Wex

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.

Genres: Language, Jewish, Judaism, Nonfiction, Humor, Judaica, Linguistics

320 pages, Hardcover

First published October 16, 2007

About the author

Michael Wex is a novelist, professor, translator (including the only Yiddish translation of The Threepenny Opera ), and performer (of stand-up and one person shows). He has been hailed as a Yiddish national treasure and is one of the leading lights in the current revival of Yiddish, lecturing widely on Yiddish and Jewish culture. He lives in Toronto.

Reviews

[Caldwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fabulous. It was a book on tape which I highly recommed. It's read by the author, And I love his voice, also since it's about a non english language, hearing the pronounciations makes it much easier to get a feel for what's going on. Again, loved it. I have no background in yiddish but I found it terribly interesting and funny. I can't say that I learned that many actual words or phrases per se, but I feel like I have a much better understanding of Yiddish as a whole, how it is constructed, how it's construction affects what is expressed, and a number of it's idiosyncricies. I can only imagine how incredibly amazingly phenominally interesting and informative it would have been if I went into already knowing some yiddish.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fun book. I learned a lot of new words, learned a lot about how phrases and emotions and attitude in Yiddish comes to be, and then how better to use it in the little bit that I know or remember. It wasn't easy to read straight through, although I'm glad I forced myself to do it mostly at once, but very fun to read in pieces.

[Larry Hostetler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a book I picked up because it was the right price and I had a Barnes and Noble gift card to use. I had no interest in learning Yiddish, but learning about the culture in which Yiddish is the primary language was interesting. There was also enough etymology and humor to keep me reading.I enjoyed reading it, and may use it as a reference in the future. I already used it for one blog post (larry-whatsthegoodword.blogspot.com) and have enough still to cover to fill another two posts at least.

Of great interest to me was the various explanations of the words in relation to Jewish rites and Biblical passages. I recommend this book as a good way to visit another culture from the comfort of your home.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author/reader's voice was very annoying. But if you can eventually overlooked it, you can hear some of the humor. Most of it comes in the examples. An example was a conversation that he imagined that Saul Bellow had with his father when he won the Publitizer Prize. Or another explanation of the Evil Eye and a mother whose daughter has won two Nobel Prizes-one for Economics and one for Home Economics. One thing that threw me is that his list for "common diseases" includes chlorea, diptheria, typhoid and consumption. All of these diseases have been stamped out in North America since the mid-1950's. So it made me wondered about the health system of Toronto where the author is from.

[Martin]

Michael Wex has helped me rediscover my Joy for Yiddish. His first book, "Born to Kvetch" gave the history of Yiddish, while this book reads a lot like a "Yiddish for Dummies" book. As a matter of fact, if I could find a book on Hebrew written in this style, I might actually finally learn the language. This book is quite funny and surprisingly potty-mouthed, so a flag of caution there. Actually, the heck with caution, try it this book speCIFically for the "leeb mit tren" chapter. :-)

[Leila · Rating 5 out of 5]

thoroughly entertaining with good insight into the psyche of the yiddish speaker. Easy phrases to adopt. loved it!

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and informative. I figured out what my grandmother was saying all those years ago when I pestered her. "Go sleep on the ocean."

[Lynnnadeau · Rating 4 out of 5]

expressive, worth thinking about, .. .

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting book of expressions,
subtleties of shmuk, shlemiel, shmeggedeh, shmendrik, shlemazel etc etc etc

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Christmas book...and what a nice present. Smiles all around.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Same idea as his first book, but a little less funny.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh...

[Gayle · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a hard read, even with how much I wanted to. Also, reading the word "niggardly" in a book written in 2007 rubs me the wrong way...say what you will, its just my two cents.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of wish I did this one on tape! Very funny nonetheless, and I really enjoyed trying some of these out with my parents and grandparents!

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great guide to, not only vocabulary, but contemporary usage! You'll learn how to complain about anyone and anything in Yiddish.

[Melvin Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most comprehensive book on every day Yiddish I think I have ever seen.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting. A little too scholarly for a reader who is not a student of Yiddish.

[Jill M Caldwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun book if you have only minimal familiarity with Yiddish. It also explains the difference in pronunciations among Yiddish speakers. It's entertaining, too!

[Melodie Wendel-Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed Born to Kvetch, and this is great companion piece: this book is all about the language.
His humour is throughout and glad finally finished this. There are a few phrases I'd like to use.

[Mariah · Rating 5 out of 5]

ZEFTIG, BABY

[Sara Goldenberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably interesting if you don't know the language at all.

[jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful and humorous guide to knowing just when and how to utter the right turn of phrase for most social situations.

[Jacob Glick]

nu, nu!