This is the book to get if you want to learn Yiddish the old way: some grammar, some vocabulary, some reading, followed by more grammar, more vocabulary and more reading...thirty chapters of it. Beware about the "College" part of the title; this book is laid out like college books were long ago, which makes it different from the appearance of the $250 French 1 text you'll find in your college bookstore in 2014. Weinreich is systematic and serious-minded, pitched to the attention spans and English reading skills of the college students of his time (the 1940s, 50s and 60s). When you're done with this book, you'll be able to read the Forward, Peretz, Asch and the others: very satisfying. That's what I was looking for, hence my five-star rating.
On the other hand, this is not the right book for you if...
1. You don't want to learn the Hebrew alphabet. (In that case, you can try Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish , which spells everything in Latin letters. Nothing wrong with that, except you won't be able to read real Yiddish elsewhere. Like it or not, the Yiddish alphabet is the Hebrew alphabet.)
2. You mostly want to learn to speak, not read, Yiddish. There's no CD or online component. Of course you might be fortunate enough to be using this in a course with a real teacher...
3. You're mostly interested in picking up pithy sayings and learning about the culture. In that case, try Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods (P.S.) , or The Joys of Yiddish , among many others. (Each chapter here does end with an interesting couple pages of cultural interest, but of course the main thrust is teaching the language.)
I have a couple of complaints. The end-of-chapter vocabulary lists (though not the end-of-book general vocabulary) are alphabetized awkwardly; "das leben" comes before "zorg" because dalet comes before zayin. So it takes longer than necessary to find words. Compounding this problem are two more: the indentation is awkward, and the vocabularies miss some words, so you waste time. I'm commenting on an older edition, though, so maybe the newer ones have been fixed...
On the other hand, this is not the right book for you if...
1. You don't want to learn the Hebrew alphabet. (In that case, you can try Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Yiddish , which spells everything in Latin letters. Nothing wrong with that, except you won't be able to read real Yiddish elsewhere. Like it or not, the Yiddish alphabet is the Hebrew alphabet.)
2. You mostly want to learn to speak, not read, Yiddish. There's no CD or online component. Of course you might be fortunate enough to be using this in a course with a real teacher...
3. You're mostly interested in picking up pithy sayings and learning about the culture. In that case, try Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods (P.S.) , or The Joys of Yiddish , among many others. (Each chapter here does end with an interesting couple pages of cultural interest, but of course the main thrust is teaching the language.)
I have a couple of complaints. The end-of-chapter vocabulary lists (though not the end-of-book general vocabulary) are alphabetized awkwardly; "das leben" comes before "zorg" because dalet comes before zayin. So it takes longer than necessary to find words. Compounding this problem are two more: the indentation is awkward, and the vocabularies miss some words, so you waste time. I'm commenting on an older edition, though, so maybe the newer ones have been fixed...
