Drek!: The Real Yiddish Your Bubbe Never Taught You

by Yetta Emmes

One doesn't have to be Jewish to recognize the words that have made their way into every fold of popular language: Chutzpah, Mensch, Tokhes, Mishmash, Nudge, Shtick, Schmaltzy, Schlep, Icky, and so on. Then there are phrases whose meaning and syntax are borrowed from Yiddish: "bite your tongue", "drop dead", "enough already", and "excuse the expression". This hilarious, concise guide includes chapters on the Basic Descriptions of People (the good,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452278996
• ISBN13: 9780452278998
• Release Date: December 1998
• Publisher: Plume Books
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.3" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Very Funny

If you grew up with Yiddish speaking relatives, this is great. Even if you didn't it's still hysterical. Yiddish is a really funny language. For those of you not familiar with it, it is a hodge-podge of Hebrew and German. It was a language that united Jews by giving them a common language in Europe and Russia. A lot of the vernacular, expressions, words, etc. have made it into the American style of English language. I laughed my rear end off with this one.

Laugh a little!?

This is a very funny book, I enjoyed it a lot and plan to share it with all my crazy relatives.

contents

What a fun book!! Easy to remember words with the translations right next to them. Even some history on the language of Yiddish. Very enjoyable.

Learning Yiddish - You Need This Book!

As one learns a langauge, knowing what "not to say" can be as important as knowing what you can say. In addition to the "colourful" Yiddish it will show you, this book includes many perfectly acceptable words and phrases for many occasions or places in the life of a Jew. It includes a brief synopsis of Yiddish grammar as its final chapter. Its author's transliteration scheme is a bit unusual, but given this book's strengths, that's a minor flaw.

Vat every Yiddisa Jew knows and everyone else should know!!

Yiddish to those who don't know, is a language derived from German (although if you ask three Jews for their opinion as to the origin of Yiddish, you'll get four opinions back at you darling!!). To the Jew who grows up in a Yiddisah "Stub" or house, learns many good expressions, and so many not so good ones! Drek takes a wonderful, factual approach to this dying language via the humorous road!This book dares to expose to the secrets, words, and expressions that only a Yiddisah-cupe would know!I recommend this book to anyone; Jew or non-who wants to have a great laugh, return to their childhood roots or just to pick up some very bad words indeed!My Wife, Helene and I laughed out loud and are going to buy a crate full of "Drek" for our friends and family!My only complaint is now I may not be able to talk behind people's backs so easily - they have the Drek! Who knows for sure!Gay-cach-and-yam to all, and to all a goodnight!!