I'm working on a story about growing up as the grandchild of Holocaust survivors, and as part of the work, I want to include a lot of Yiddish to convey what my grandfather was like. He loved telling jokes in Yiddish, so I looked around online to see what I could find (and falsely attribute to him, but whatever - that's why it's a memoir and not a biography; lower standards of accuracy).
My good search yielded this hilarious woman, Millie, who has an blog in which she dispenses little Yiddish lessons. She is completely adorable and her joke (which I sadly am not able to embed - never mind; I found it on YouTube, so see below) is good for quite a laugh. Definitely check it out.
It's more how she tells the joke than the joke itself, but the joke strikes me as a very good example of one of the cleaner ones my grandpa used to tell. Millie reminds me of some strange cross between my mom's mom (Granny) and my dad's mom (Bubbe). I just want to hug her!
Hey Shonda, that's funny. The word you are thinking of is shande and it does mean shame or embarrassment. Husband once used the only Yiddish phrase he knew (shande fur die Goyim, or embarrassment in front of the Goys) when he was trying to get a better price on bulk baked goods at a kosher bakery for a cultural fair he was working on when he was an undergrad. In the sense that your blunt and honest assessment of a situation may be embarrassing to some people, I would agree that your name is appropriate. But I think there's no shande in your ways.
Hi Suzanne
ReplyDeleteGlad you found me and enjoyed "my joke." I've been telling that one for years and just love telling it!
It makes me happy to find someone who appreciates "yiddish!!
Good luck on your yiddish project
Speaking of Yiddish, I hear my name, Shonda, means something like a shame or ugly. So, I would say that I was named appropriately.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to the project. you are doing.
Hey Shonda, that's funny. The word you are thinking of is shande and it does mean shame or embarrassment. Husband once used the only Yiddish phrase he knew (shande fur die Goyim, or embarrassment in front of the Goys) when he was trying to get a better price on bulk baked goods at a kosher bakery for a cultural fair he was working on when he was an undergrad. In the sense that your blunt and honest assessment of a situation may be embarrassing to some people, I would agree that your name is appropriate. But I think there's no shande in your ways.
ReplyDelete