Never Done: Paid for an iPhone App
I know. I said I wouldn't do it. I said I had to draw the line somewhere. I said if I bought one, I would start buying them all the time. I said only free apps. I even sounded self righteous about it. I know.
And then I went and bought one. OK, actually, I bought two. But it's not really like I bought two, because they were created by the same person, and one is the second version of the first. Really, I'm not defensive, really, I'm not.
I bought Yiddish for Kids: Alef Beys (alphabet) and Yiddish for Kids 2: Verter (words.) I always get confused by the letters kof, khof, khes, tof, and sof. When I read Yiddish, I tend to give up on those letters, and see if I can figure the word out from context. I usually can't, because those words are usually Hebraic words, which I have very little reference for. I can usually figure out the Yiddish words I don't know if they come from German or French, or even the Slavic words. But the loshn koydesh words (literally, the Holy Tongue) -- the ones that come from Hebrew -- are completely foreign to me, and they also tend to be the ones with the letters that confuse me the most.
So my hope is that this little app will keep me from giving up. Remember when I wrote about going running, and all of a sudden realizing that I wasn't running anymore, without having decided to stop? And then realizing that I had stopped because I had had a negative thought of some sort (usually disconnected from running) which had made me give up? Well, the letters kof, khof, khes, tof, and sof are like negative thoughts that make me stop reading Yiddish.
Josh is reading a short story by Chaim Grade right now, who was a brilliant Yiddish writer, and also a Mussarnik. Ever since he told me that Chaim Grade is a Mussar guy, I've been wanting to read him myself, but I read so painstakingly slowly that I haven't gone for it. It goes like this: I read so slowly, sounding out the words as I go, that by the time I get to the end of a paragraph, I've forgotten the beginning. I know that the way to get better is to do it. I used to do it -- back when I took lots of Yiddish courses, 12-15 years ago. I surely have the mental capacity to do it. It would be good for me to summon the patience to do it. And now that I have the iPhone app to help me with those tough letters, is there really any excuse?
I'll put it on a list of things I've never done: read a Yiddish short story on my own, not part of an assignment.
Also, I've never gone to Ikea.
Hey Jen, Mazel tov on the app. In learning to read in English, its important to practice, but to practice at an independent level, keeping frustration to a minimum and then build slowly to the next level. When you have help from a teacher type person, you might be better able to take on a more difficult text, but only for practice on the hard stuff and for shorter periods of time, building reading stamina slowly over time. I don't know if this applies to reading yiddish or adult learning but just wanted to share what works with young early readers. Love you, Judi
ReplyDeleteJane there's an IKEA in a nearby suburb here (of course); I take this as yet another sign you need to fly out and spend some time with me. I'm not sure you'll find much yiddishkeit there, though. We'll have to visit other fun parts of Chicagoland for that.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should create a Mussar/"Never Done" app for iphone? I'll leave it to your discretion as to whether you'd charge ppl for it... :)
Thanks Judi! That's the same thing that Paula said, and she's a (Yiddish) teacher-type person too. So I'll take advice from both of you.
ReplyDeleteWhile I definitely need to fly out there and spend time with you, Karen, I also can't do everything with you because I have to spread these Never Done things out so I can do them one a day. Unless I move there and spend the rest of the year with you. But then that would create some other issues. As for the Never Done app, well, that is just brilliant. For you? $1.99.
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