Tonight, my two sons wanted to learn a few words of yiddish. So I started with two very common expressions, exactly the ones I started with:

  • Kratzt er a bisl !
  • Ikh hob a sakh arbet

Ok, ok, i could also have started with these other expressions, also very common :

  • franekepots in toukhes
  • feyet

But that's clearly less polite...

I still remember that wednesday, ages ago, my grand'pa Chaïm and my grand'ma were taking me to the park for a few hours, and my grand-father asked me with his bad french something like "how go at school ?" and I answered "kh'hob a sakh arbet". I saw a spark of joy and pride on his face beause I answered in yiddish. I still remember it very clearly. I was 5 years old.

That was the "yiddish is a dying language" minute, you can now go back to work.