Yiddish! in Berlin

Well, it has finally begun- my Yiddish language circle. This past Monday I met with a professor, a very nice native Yiddish speaker, two middle aged women, and a girl a bit older than me to speak Yiddish. Besides myself and the native Yiddish speaker, all were German. The evening was very nice- we read some Peretz and spoke for a bit. There was however quite a bit of code switching going on- I was never quite sure when I should have been speaking in German or in Yiddish. This may have something to do with the fact that all the members of the group were German speakers and their Yiddish was fairly influenced by German- but it was nevertheless confusing. I spent most of the summer attempting (with varying degrees of success) to break myself of my "daytshmerish" Yiddish habits, that is my overuse of Germanisms. Now I find myself flung into a world were either they are switching languages willy-nilly, or their Yiddish is so inflected by German that I cannot tell what they are speaking!

Now some may say, hey Jenna, wait a sec, aren't Yiddish and German really similar?? Well, yes and no. There are very different vowel sounds, constructions of the past tense, and basic rules of word order in Yiddish. Often, these giveaways seemed to be missing, and I wasn't sure what we were speaking- but I guess I'll figure it out. Previously it is always been very clear for me when someone is speaking German and Yiddish. Hopefully we'll figure this odd group of people together.

Beyond the confusing code switching taking place, the evening was a success. I was able to speak some Yiddish and was invited to Shabbat at the very nice Yiddish man's house this Friday night. He is a Holocaust survivor, and as I mentioned, a native Yiddish Speaker. At language circle, he kept asking me what songs I knew in Yiddish and seemed to like me, so I think it'll be good. I am to come a bit early, so we can speak Yiddish together. I have the feeling that I may be invited every Friday night, which means...Yiddish every Friday night! Way to go!