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July 27, 2013 | Yiddish

Foreign-Language Study: Window Into Another Culture?

I think that to learn much about culture, you actually have to study culture.

Throughout my life, I have heard how studying a language is a window into another culture. In case this website doesn’t make it completely apparent, I am completely enamored of the study of language. However, I have never felt…

August 1, 2013 | Yiddish

Mental Deficits

There are things wrong with my brain, and I'm wondering how common this is among language lovers.

I have been considering what it is about my brain that makes it love language so much. I am just back from a three-day trip to Boston, where I very happily ran a series of seminars in business writing and…

August 3, 2013 | Yiddish

Dreaming in Yiddish

In which I have a Yiddish dream and I get new Yiddish books.

Last night I dreamt I was walking down a street in New York City with a woman around my age, having a conversation in Yiddish. As I talked, I automatically corrected my own pronunciation at one point, replacing a

August 11, 2013 | Yiddish

Speed of Reading (Definitely Not Speed Reading)

In Yiddish I am slow.

I continue to enjoy reading Yiddish words and sentences in my Basic Yiddish grammar, which I have now nearly completed, but I also continue to marvel at how much like a grade-school kid I feel when I am…

August 21, 2013 | Yiddish

Field Trip: Yiddish Forward

I head to Maiden Lane and am reminded that I can't actually speak Yiddish.

One of the things on my list of to-do’s for Yiddish was a visit to the offices of the Forward. The Forward has a long history, one important to the modern story of Yiddish and of Jewish life. …

August 31, 2013 | Yiddish

Yiddish Roundup

I slacked off a bit, I admit, but I still learned many fascinating things.

In recent days, books and other resources on German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian have been pouring in. This is not by coincidence: I requested them from publishers in the U.S. and in other parts of the world, too. …