What's Lobster in Yiddish?: Teaching Yiddish to Senior Citizens

Helen Kurzban, Brooklyn-born native Yiddish speaker and former administrator in the New York City public schools, describes how after retirement she volunteered to teach a variety of Yiddish-related courses to senior citizens.
To learn more about the Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project, visit:
www.yiddishbookcenter.org/tell-your-story

Пікірлер: 42

  • @garybanglebangle7949
    @garybanglebangle79494 жыл бұрын

    You are never too old to learn something. Thanks.

  • @ascenbach1
    @ascenbach16 жыл бұрын

    In Paul Adelson's English-Yiddish Encyclopedic Dictionary (1915) the word for "lobster" is given as "yam-rahk." "Hummer"or "hommer" is from the German which possibly derives from the French "homard." Even for traif, Yiddish offers variety. LOL

  • @rembrandttip4861

    @rembrandttip4861

    Жыл бұрын

    Interesting that, very reminiscent of Russian яма (jama) & рак (rak). I suppose that would make it a hole-crab which I rather like :)

  • @crunchy_kvass

    @crunchy_kvass

    8 ай бұрын

    Since "yam" can mean "sea" I take it to come from that. Remarkable, truly, and a funny name for lobster: "sea-crab" or such. Yiddish is a product largely of circumstance, sometimes tragedy, but it is overwhelmingly cosmopolitan and endlessly interesting.

  • @fredd8556
    @fredd85564 жыл бұрын

    I love how she says "call" and "store".

  • @brooklyndave5596
    @brooklyndave55964 жыл бұрын

    I love this lady she's hysterical what a sense of humor!

  • @richardg9638
    @richardg96387 жыл бұрын

    interesting how much the yiddish word for lobster (ruch) is similar to roach; roach being the family of bugs to which lobsters are genetically connected.

  • @iceomistar4302

    @iceomistar4302

    6 жыл бұрын

    Yeah all Germanic languages

  • @argonwheatbelly637

    @argonwheatbelly637

    5 жыл бұрын

    Lobsters are Crustaceans. Roaches (as in Cockroach) are Insects. They're both Arthropods.

  • @thecaveofthedead

    @thecaveofthedead

    4 жыл бұрын

    Wow. As a non-Jewish, non-Yiddish familiar person you just blew my mind. Is it a German connection?

  • @haharmageddontv6581

    @haharmageddontv6581

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@argonwheatbelly637 Sea roach?

  • @argonwheatbelly637

    @argonwheatbelly637

    4 жыл бұрын

    @@haharmageddontv6581 : Maybe in the minds of those who coined the word.

  • @annakelman6627
    @annakelman66272 жыл бұрын

    What a fascinating lady! 🦐 is yummy anyway. It's full of minerals and nutrients. The word shrimp sounds a bit Yiddish, too. Or schrimp. The story around the lobster goes off on an interesting tangent.......

  • @davidfryer9359
    @davidfryer93592 жыл бұрын

    Shrimp is not Kosher, either. Whats next, bacon? Oy gevalt geshrigens!

  • @cuimreach
    @cuimreach10 жыл бұрын

    I love this lady's dialect of English. It has to be one of my favourite varieties of English, even though, as a linguist, I shouldn't really pick favourites! But I wonder if anyone can tell me what she means by 'snow bird'? At 0:48 she says, "we were still snow birds". Thanks in advance :-)

  • @christawhitney

    @christawhitney

    10 жыл бұрын

    I know it as a term for people from the Northeast of the U.S. who spend the winters in Florida or the south. In other words, they "fly south" to escape the snow.

  • @cuimreach

    @cuimreach

    10 жыл бұрын

    christa whitney Thank you very much for the information! I am a little curious as to why this would be accepted by an organisation for their employee, especially in the United States, where I thought annual leave (maybe you call it 'vacation'?) was quite minimal. Snowbirding sounds like something only rich people could afford. Do they own two homes - one in New England and one in the South, then? Does it have a reputation of being a well-off person's lifestyle? It kinda reminds me, in a way, of the Golden Girls! With Sofia and Dorothy being from Brooklyn...!!!

  • @christawhitney

    @christawhitney

    10 жыл бұрын

    cuimreach Good point. I failed to mention that it's mainly "observed" by people who are retired or semi-retired.

  • @cuimreach

    @cuimreach

    10 жыл бұрын

    christa whitney That's really interesting information. Thanks :-)

  • @chadwaldron6329

    @chadwaldron6329

    6 жыл бұрын

    I live in the south, Winter Haven, Florida. The folks who come down from the north were dubbed "snow birds" years ago. They come from Canada, New England, the Great Lakes area, the upper mid west, etc. In the summer time all you see here are Florida auto tags but in the winter there are tags from all over.

  • @ArletteNL
    @ArletteNL4 жыл бұрын

    Hi, can anyone out there help me translate a hand-written Yiddish letter from my grandfather into English? I can help you in exchange with English, French or Dutch!

  • @leonamay8776

    @leonamay8776

    4 жыл бұрын

    People on reddit may help. There are various Jewish subs.

  • @Goldenoldies4ever
    @Goldenoldies4ever2 жыл бұрын

    Shes a regular riot!!

  • @adamshaverlive4948
    @adamshaverlive49485 жыл бұрын

    💧

  • @cuimreach
    @cuimreach10 жыл бұрын

    I've done a bit of research, and I can't find the word 'lobster' in Yiddish, either. I don't think that it exists!

  • @physicist6151

    @physicist6151

    9 жыл бұрын

    The word lobster does exist in Yiddish, it's האמאר similar to the german"hummer" which means lobster

  • @Larry11215

    @Larry11215

    8 жыл бұрын

    Harkavy's dictionary lists ראַק as the Yiddish word for Lobster, which is used in Russian for crawfish and sometimes lobster. "Rak" (рак) also means "cancer", in Russian and in Yiddish, so there may be some reluctance to use the word. But האָמאַר is correct as well, and is in fact the Polish word for lobster. (The French word as well - homard).

  • @physicist6151

    @physicist6151

    8 жыл бұрын

    polish has Homar for lobster,russian has Омар, french homard and yiddish has האָמאַר. similar words are also used in almost every germanic and slavic language. The french word comes from german and the german word comes from old norse humarr. the word is possibly a cognate of latin cammarus which reminds me of spanish word camaron, shrimp in english. so I would say that this word is the proper one.

  • @idubbzz7790

    @idubbzz7790

    7 жыл бұрын

    This lady was my principal in grammar school

  • @samlefkowitz297

    @samlefkowitz297

    6 жыл бұрын

    homar is also Hungarian

  • @andrewlankford9634
    @andrewlankford96344 жыл бұрын

    Odd. I figure senior citizens would be teaching Yiddish to younglings.

  • @DeYiZhiMusilin
    @DeYiZhiMusilin Жыл бұрын

    Why would Jews bother about how to say lobster in Jiddish since lobster is not kosher anyway?

  • @jacobginer9418

    @jacobginer9418

    Жыл бұрын

    There have been and continue to be secular Jews who speak Yiddish; I don't personally eat lobster, but I know other Yiddish-speakers who do!

  • @jameshudson169
    @jameshudson1694 жыл бұрын

    Reagan was a mensch!

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