Having grown up with a small sprinkling of Yiddish words in my parents' vocabulary, I agree with Sasha Baron Cohen's character in The Dictator, where he says "I

Having grown up with a small sprinkling of Yiddish words in my parents' vocabulary, I agree with Sasha Baron Cohen's character in The Dictator, where he says "I like Yiddish, the words sound like what they mean". I actually made this same comment to my Dad 15 years ago, and he told me it only seems that way since my brain learned the words in context. My grandfather grew up in Brooklyn with Yiddish as his primary language. On his first day of Kindergarten, probably 90 years ago, the teacher held up a fork and asked the class what it was called. He answered "Gopel". On his first date with my grandmother, he wanted to take her to the Yiddish theatre in NYC. But my grandmother refused, not being proficient enough. Today the idea of live vaudeville Yiddish theatre in the USA is almost unfathomable. And some of this Yiddish is still getting thru to my kids. Eg, they'll say they bumped their keppe (head, pronounced 'keppy'). I've always liked the sound of that. My wife even heard our Italian baby sitter here in London, at the playground babysitting another child, say in Italian accent "aww did you bump your keppe?" My favourite Yiddish quote : "A pish on a fartz iz vi a regn on a duner". Translation : To pee without farting is like rain without thunder.