Beginner IV Yiddish

Instructor: Nina Warnke

Who should take this course?
This course is for students who have previously taken three semesters of Yiddish.

Beginner IV Yiddish is the right class for students who took Intermediate Yiddish in fall 2020 or Winter Intensive Beginner III Yiddish in January 2021.

What topics will this class cover?
This class will enhance skills in speaking, reading, writing, and listening for students comfortable reading and conversing in Yiddish. Students should be relatively familiar with the past tense and both accusative and dative cases. We will build on that foundation to focus new grammar and conversational practice on the future tense, passive constructions, and the conditional. We will use a wide variety of texts (songs, poems, stories).

We’ll be listening to songs and will be reading poems, stories, and proverbs from a wide variety of sources, places and times—and, of course, about Passover—to deepen our knowledge of Yiddish culture.

Is knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet required?
Yes, knowledge of the Yiddish alphabet is required.

Course Materials:
The instructor will provide course materials digitally to students throughout the class, relying heavily on both Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, Volume I and In eynem: The New Yiddish Textbook, Vol I & II. Purchasing these textbooks is optional but encouraged. Students may find purchasing one or both will be useful for supplemental self-study. 

• Yiddish: An Introduction to the Language, Literature & Culture, Volume I by Sheva Zucker (Purchase)
• In eynem: The New Yiddish Textbook, Vol I & II by Asya Vaisman Schulman, Jordan Brown, Mikhl Yashinsky (Purchase)

Nina Warnke currently teaches online Yiddish language courses for Gratz College. She was born and raised in Germany, where she started to learn Yiddish before studying in the Oxford Summer Program and receiving her Ph.D. in Yiddish Studies from Columbia University. During that time she directed the YIVO zumer program for a few years. Since then Nina taught Yiddish language, literature and culture courses at Indiana University, the University of Texas at Austin and Vanderbilt University. She has researched and written extensively about the Yiddish theater and is also working as a translator of Yiddish and German texts.

**Become a member today, starting at $54 for one year, and pay the member price for classes! You’ll save $21 right now, and more on future classes and public programs tickets.