S/O Are you chassidish? Poll

↑ dankbar ↓

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 10:43 am

zaq wrote:

Not to get overly pedantic (oh, ok, let it be pedantic) but wouldn't that be more correctly translated as "Hashem said" and "hot gezokt", not 'geredt'? 'spoke' and 'hot geredt' would be the proper translation for 'vayedaber.'

Ok. Yes. You're hired as the dikduk teacher. I was just trying to bring across how many non-chassidish people can know/understand/or speak in Yiddish from different resources like hearing it from a grandma or from their cheder boy, even if it's not a Yiddish speaking home

amother

↑ Ruby ↓

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 10:44 am

FranticFrummie wrote:

Hard for me to say.

I grew up secular, and I'm a Breslover now.

I'm pretty hippy-dippy in my personality, so I really don't think I would ever fit into any other chassidus. I don't know of any other group that still wears tie-dye. Wink

I know that a lot of other chassidish people do not consider Breslov to be a legitimate chassidus, and tease us about our "dead rebbe".

On the other hand, I have a good friend who is Breslov, and she wears the shal year round, except when she's indoors. She covers everything from top to toe, shaves her head, and even wears turtlenecks under her blouses, with a vest on top. WOW, talk about commitment! Still she insists it's not too hot, even on 100+ degree days. I'm in awe of her.

She's also one of the most NORMAL people I've ever met, and she blows away all of your preconceived ideas of what a shal lady is.

Tie dye is very in right now Wink

amother

↑ Ruby ↓

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 10:47 am

amother [ Pink ] wrote:

You got it! We were forced to teitch into Yiddish for Chumash all through elementary school. It was torture. Pure memorization. Most kids learned less Chumash because of it.

Should probably be a spin-off, but yup I hated both Chumash and Yiddish for this reason. I had teachers who wouldn’t even translate to English so we literally had no idea what we were saying. My parents complained all the time to the school and they said they can’t change things from the way R’ Aharon did things. My father swore R’ Aharon would never condone this.

↑ zaq

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 10:58 am

amother [ Ruby ] wrote:

I don’t know anyone who isn’t chasidish who knows Yiddish anymore. In my generation (high 30s) we learned a little in a litvish school and heard it from our grandparents, but I don’t see the younger generation knowing much at all.

In the US there is a growing culture of secular Yiddish speakers, complete with conversation groups, social events featuring klezmer music, and online forums discussing fine points of grammar, usage and pronunciation. Few if any are Yiddish speakers from childhood, nor is Yiddish their primary language. Rather, Yiddish is their hobby, but speak it, read it and write it they do.

Foremost among them is the amazing Aaron Lansky, founder of the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA. Outside of the chassidish community, he has arguably done more for the preservation of Yiddish in America than anyone since Uriel Weinreich. If you've never read his book, Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books, you should.

https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/about/staff

amother

↑ Fuchsia

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 11:10 am

amother [ Ruby ] wrote:

One of my childhood friends attended a BY. My Yiddish-speaking father, overhearing her teitshing chumash into Yiddish and only Yiddish, asked her if she knew what she was saying. She said "No, we just translate." He was highly amused. I thought it was just weird.

↑ Mommyg8 ↓

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 11:14 am

amother [ Ruby ] wrote:

I think it's Rav Shmuel Kamenetzky who says that schools should translate into English instead of Yiddish... if the children come from an English speaking home.

amother

Copper ↓

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 11:21 am

Chabad non yiddish speaking home. Kids all learned a solid yiddish in school. My boys have stories from mivtzoyim where they meet old (not frum) Russian men who are deliriously excited that there are people who speak Yiddish nowadays. It's very cute.

PeanutMama ↓

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 11:37 am

I married a chasidish guy but I was living in Flatbush after my geirus so what a chassid would think it’s wrong I would think “there’s nothing wrong with it no big deal”

It’s mostly the most stupid external stuff, like having a smartphone with filtered internet could be okay in Flatbush and not okay in willi or Monroe (some people can think differently though)
Or like someone from Flatbush could be aghast at thick seamed tights while someone from willi would say black tights are modern what you doing?!
(I was actually told this! I said I always wore black tights. During the summer I did wear beige but I’m back to black now.) or frown upon transparent tights

Or whether one should wear human hair or not...
Or have internet at home or not...
Really small stupid stuff.

Refine

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 12:24 pm

RE Yiddish being similar to english- they really are not, but do share some thing interesting. Some words that have a silent gh in English have a gutteral sound in Yiddish.
For example: light= licht, high= hoich, night=nacht, eight=acht

↑ nchr

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 12:36 pm

Hashem_n_Farfel wrote:

Really not small or stupid stuff in our culture....

amother

↑ Ruby ↓

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 12:41 pm

Mommyg8 wrote:

I think it's Rav Shmuel Kamenetzky who says that schools should translate into English instead of Yiddish... if the children come from an English speaking home.

That’s good, but not sure why he even needs to be bothered with such an obvious concept.

↑ Mommyg8

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 12:45 pm

amother [ Ruby ] wrote:

That’s good, but not sure why he even needs to be bothered with such an obvious concept.

Can you explain your comment? I'm not sure I understood you. Do you think Rav Shmuel Kamenetzky should not be commenting on this topic, and why not?

↑ dankbar ↓

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 1:18 pm

Refine wrote:

Could be German ( where yiddish derives from/similar) and English originates from Latin

amother

Magenta ↓

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 1:21 pm

nchr wrote:

A significant portion of this site is Chassidish but that may be surprising to non Chassidish posters who wouldn't pick up on certain nuance in the responses.

It's always been pretty obvious to me. I can usually tell from the writing style and am never surprised when an anonymous poster says she is Chassidish.

amother

↑ OP ↓

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 1:38 pm

nchr wrote:

A significant portion of this site is Chassidish but that may be surprising to non Chassidish posters who wouldn't pick up on certain nuance in the responses.

I think according to the poll it’s safe to say that about half the posters are chassidish!

↑ lilies

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 1:41 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I think according to the poll it’s safe to say that about half the posters are chassidish!

There may be many users included - ones who just browse. I don't believe it's an accurate representation of the vocal 'population' on here.

amother

Violet

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 1:41 pm

amother [ Coffee ] wrote:

Yiddish is not that hard to understand if you know certain languages...
Is it hard for English-speakers?

I thought it was very similar...

Well, today the chassidish BP yiddish is half English words, so yeah, thats why it sounds similar! Wink

"Vi azoy zugt men vindow in English? Ich darf zugen far di cleaning lady zti cleanen di vindow!" Laugh

Quote:

We always teitched amar redden and daber zugen

Thats really wrong.

↑ dankbar ↓

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 1:45 pm

nchr wrote:

Really not small or stupid stuff in our culture....

You have to realize from where she is coming from. Have to go slowly. Every thing is new for her. Huge sacrifice on the big ticket items.
Everything is a new undertaking.

Whereas you grew up FFB so many things you were used to already

↑ PeanutMama ↓

Fri, Oct 16 2020, 1:47 pm

nchr wrote:

Really not small or stupid stuff in our culture....

That’s why me and my husband butt heads sometimes 🤷‍♀️😆

I’m working on it... 🙈😅

I always admire those couples who have different ways of thinking and they still get along