Just Say Nu, Michael Wex
Just Say Nu, Michael Wex
List: $22.99 | Sale: $16.09
Club: $11.49

Just Say Nu
Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won't Do)

Author: Michael Wex

Narrator: Michael Wex

Unabridged: 6 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/16/2007

Synopsis

Just say Nu is a practical guide to using Yiddish words and expressions in day-to-day situations. Along with enough grammar to enable readers to put together a comprehensible sentence and avoid embarrassing mistakes, Wex also explains the five most useful Yiddish words–shoyn, nu, epes, takeh, and nebakh–what they mean, how and when to use them, and how they can be used to conduct an entire conversation without anybody ever suspecting that the reader doesn't have the vaguest idea of what anyone is actually saying. Readers will learn how to shmooze their way through such activities as meeting and greeting; eating and drinking; praising and finding fault; maintaining personal hygiene; going to the doctor; driving; parenting; getting horoscopes; committing crimes; going to singles bars; having sex; talking politics, and talking trash. People have finally started to realize that there's nothing in the world that can't be improved by translating it into Yiddish. Just say Nu is the book that's going to show them how.

About Michael Wex

Michael Wex is a novelist, professor, translator (including the only Yiddish translation of The Threepenny Opera), lecturer, and performer. He's been hailed "a Yiddish national treasure" and is one of the leading lights in the current revival of Yiddish, lecturing widely on Yiddish and Jewish culture. He lives and shmoozes in Toronto.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Caldwell on December 31, 2007

This book was fabulous. It was a book on tape which I highly recommed. It's read by the author, And I love his voice, also since it's about a non english language, hearing the pronounciations makes it much easier to get a feel for what's going on. Again, loved it. I have no background in yiddish but......more

Goodreads review by Larry on August 31, 2013

This was a book I picked up because it was the right price and I had a Barnes and Noble gift card to use. I had no interest in learning Yiddish, but learning about the culture in which Yiddish is the primary language was interesting. There was also enough etymology and humor to keep me reading.I enj......more

Goodreads review by Kim on February 13, 2012

The author/reader's voice was very annoying. But if you can eventually overlooked it, you can hear some of the humor. Most of it comes in the examples. An example was a conversation that he imagined that Saul Bellow had with his father when he won the Publitizer Prize. Or another explanation of the......more

Goodreads review by Sara on September 28, 2012

Same idea as his first book, but a little less funny.......more

Goodreads review by Gayle on October 31, 2019

It was a hard read, even with how much I wanted to. Also, reading the word "niggardly" in a book written in 2007 rubs me the wrong way...say what you will, its just my two cents.......more

Quotes

“The cleverer, the truer, the better. And, like Wex's previous BORN TO KVETCH, this is plenty clever and awfully true. His [Wex's] deadpan delivery adds to the laughs...I laughed 'til I plotzed!” —AudioFile, Earphones Award Winner

“Wise, witty and altogether wonderful…. Mr. Wex has perfect pitch. He always finds the precise word, the most vivid metaphor, for his juicy Yiddishisms, and he enjoys teasing out complexities.” —William Grimes, The New York Times on Born to Kvetch

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