Product Details
Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won't Do)

Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won't Do)
By Michael Wex

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Product Description

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.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #389782 in Books
  • Published on: 2007-10-16
  • Released on: 2007-10-16
  • Original language: English
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 320 pages

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This is not your bubbe's—or Leo Rosten's—Yiddish. Translator, novelist and performer Wex follows his witty and erudite Born to Kvetch with a colorful, uncensored guide to the idiomatic, use of Yiddish in such areas as madness, fury, and driving, mob Yiddish, insults and thirteen designations for the human rear (in declining order of politeness). Wex is knowledgeable about the biblical and Talmudic roots of some colloquial phrases; for example, he points out that tukhes (ass as he translates it) may be derived from Tuhkhes, one of the places where the Israelites sojourned on their way from Egypt to the Promised Land. While most of Wex's discussions of words and phrases are brief, he provides lengthier sections on five key, highly nuanced Yiddish words: nu (Well?), shoyn (already, right away), epes (something, somewhat), takeh (precisely) and nebakh (alas). Wex's advice on the complex usage of these words can help even the greenest Yiddish speaker. The book could have given more attention to regional dialects and there are a few organizational quirks. Still, Wex offers both fun and instruction for the non-maven. (Oct.)
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From AudioFile
The shock of recognition excites much of the hilarity in this volume of essays. Jewish humor delights in satirizing the foibles and cultural eccentricities of Òlandsmen.Ó The cleverer, the truer, the better. And, like WexÕs previous BORN TO KVETCH, this is plenty clever and awfully true. The Canadian author/narrator sounds like one of those too serious, nebbishy young rabbis who come off silly giving marital advice to couples twice his age. His deadpan delivery adds to the laughs. But his intent is sly and serious. He seems to be writing for secularized North American Jews who wish to gain insight into the culture theyÕve fallen away from. I laughed Ôtil I plotzed! Y.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Review

Praise for JUST SAY NU:
 
“With verve, élan and something only a non-Yiddish speaker would call chutzpah, Michael Wex returns to the linguistic mother lode that yielded Born to Kvetch, his brilliant cultural history of Yiddish. This time around in Just Say Nu, he gets down to the everyday business of putting Yiddish to use.”

--NY Times

“This is not your bubbe’s—or Leo Rosten’s—Yiddish. Translator, novelist and performer Wex follows his witty and erudite Born to Kvetch with a colorful, uncensored guide to the idiomatic, use of Yiddish in such areas as “madness, fury and driving.” Wex’s advice on the complex usage of these words can help even the greenest Yiddish speaker.”

--Publisher’s Weekly

Praise for BORN TO KVETCH:

“This treasure trove of linguistics, sociology, history and folklore offers a fascinating look at how, through the centuries, a unique and enduring language has reflected an equally unique and enduring culture.”
–Publishers Weekly
 
“Wise, witty and altogether wonderful…Mr. Wex has perfect pitch.” –William Grimes, The New York Times
“All the wonderful elements of Yiddish language and culture are represented here.  Highly recommended” –Library Journal
 
“A great read for those who know and love Yiddish, and those who just drop the occasional ‘schmuck’ into the conversation.” –New York Press