This office is starting to glow and pulsate. It’s really awful not having windows. I think I’m going to go home and work from there. I wish I could figure out the Google Apps stuff already, so that I can work remotely from home more often!
Well, folks, it’s 1:30 in the morning and I just finished making chicken soup for tomorrow. This might not seem like a particularly Yiddish accomplishment, and frankly, it’s not really related but I thought I would share. (I’ve never made chicken soup before.)
Things have been moving so quickly these days. At Yugntruf and at my other job. The same thing is sort of happening at both jobs, where there’s a lot of big projects and I just want to stop time and catch up a bit to make sure the gears are still turning okay. At Yugntruf, I still haven’t created a space at my desk that works. I feel a bit like I’m floating on top of a mess. Like that boat that Yakov told me about, which discovered a sea of plastic twice the size of the U.S., just far enough under the surface of the water that it hadn’t been seen from satellites. Well, the boat didn’t discover it. Some dude did.
I got yelled at today in Yiddish, which is definitely less fun than getting yelled at in English, because you’re not quite sure what’s being yelled at you, and you can’t quite respond. It had to do with the newest issue of the Yugntruf magazine; in a nutshell, I haven’t yet sent the addresses to the printer because I’ve had to reformat the entire spreadsheet. (We’ve been sending copies to everyone who’s ever been a member, and not just to people who’ve paid their annual membership. That’s about, oh, double the size that it should be.) Anyway, the formatting is almost done, which is kind of beside the point, because you can’t pay me enough money to get yelled at, in any language.
Yakov was with me when I got yelled at, and halfway through, he started saying that I’m only the byuralistke, that it’s up to the board to make decisions. We talked about this afterwards, and I think it’s really important that I remember it, and take it to heart. I tend to get too emotionally invested–in jobs, in people, in what complete strangers think of me on the subway. This tendency can also be good in a lot of ways, but it leans towards being unhealthy. I should not have been so affected by this one person yelling at me; after all, I’ve just been doing my job!
Anyway.
(It’s not really one in the morning… I actually wrote this a couple of days ago.)
Announcing a new class in beginning conversational Yiddish from Yugntruf! This will be an 8-week course meeting on Sundays from 2:00 to 3:30. We will focus on the spoken language and preparing people to interact and converse in Yiddish. Students will also be introduced to other Yiddish events where they will get a chance to practice their new skills with other Yiddish speakers.
The cost to come to your first class is $75, but all subsequent classes are free. No textbook purchase necessary: all materials will be provided.
The first class will be held on March 2nd, at:
Yugntruf - Youth for Yiddish
45 East 33rd St. #203
New York , NY 10016
To register, or if you have any questions, please email office at yugntruf dot org, or leave a note here with a way I can reach you.
The tremendously awesome Jewish student magazine New Voices has an article on the recent changes at Yugntruf! Check it out here.
Also, if you think you might be interested in receiving New Voices, do Yugntruf a favor and send me your name and address. In exchange for new readers, New Voices may give us free advertising.
I recently drew a curved line to show Yakov what I thought learning Yiddish was like. He asked me why it was a curved line instead of just a straight diagonal, level of Yiddish over time. Here’s an approximation of the drawing, by the way:
I explained that (my rather impulsively drawn) line was curved because learning more Yiddish (or any language) makes it easier and easier to break out of a beginner’s level. Learning speeds up, in other words, as you learn more, because things stick better. It’s easier to read a book if you have enough of the vocabulary down, and if you’re reading a book, you’re learning even more vocabulary and cementing idioms and grammar, etc., etc.
As you can see on my utterly non-scientific “graph”, I believe I’m at the foot of a dramatic increase in my level of Yiddish. I simply need to be working harder to get there. To that end, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to only speak Yiddish with Yakov. My Yiddish is still bad enough to be embarassing, and I desperately want to get out of the stage that I’m in; it just feels wrong to speak (and write) crappy Yiddish at this point.
This decision came as a surprise–to me most of all. I very strongly felt that I could only be me in English, that there were shades of my personality that would get lost in translation when I speak Yiddish (or Hungarian, for that matter). How can I talk about Real Life and Real Problems with a clunky, error-ridden Yiddish? How can I navigate all the subtle varieties of speech and innuendo when I’m stomping around banging words against each other?
Well, I don’t know yet, but I’m trying. We don’t speak Yiddish 100% of the time when we’re alone, but it became a default much easier than I had imagined. It helps a lot to be married to Yakov because, frankly, I know that I’m going to be spending a lot of time talking to him in the future, so it’s okay to go slowly now, or to sound stupid. The mistakes I make are sometimes really funny; I’ll be in the middle of an earnest conversation and Yakov will burst out laughing because I’ve inadvertently said “I thought brains were grass” or “he’s always asking me to hide in pizzas”. I feel like a big kid and a little kid all mushed up together. I like it.
Oh, and in case you’re wondering what Yakov said about my explanation of the graph (after all, he majored in math and linguistics): he agreed, but felt that it should be more like a laid-back S, since advanced speakers would plateau after the sharp increase in language-acquisition. I just asked him to confirm that, and he said it would actually be a series of spikes and plateaus. (Perhaps the spikes would get smaller and further apart, since it would become harder and harder to improve?) Anyway, writing this out is terribly intimidating because I sort of want to get-Yiddish-quick. Feh!
I recently sent our accountant a few financial reports and figures from our last fiscal quarter. Since I haven’t posted in a while, and a lot’s been going on, I’m going to try and tackle all the updates by writing up a report of sorts here. Its structure comes from the handy-dandy to-do list I made when I first started my job.
And, you know, the same old preface applies: this is not an official Yugntruf blog, and if I state an opinion, it’s just my own. I know it might get a little confusing because I also will be talking about things that actually happened or are happening, and things that are officially in the pipeline. (Pipeline? Why did that just pop into my head? It sounds like something from Office Space.)
1. New website. We do not have a new website yet, but we do have a lovely temporary page up! The next step will be creating a simple, interim site that is both informative and attractive. Spending big bucks on a professional designer may have to wait a little longer than I originally thought, due to budget constraints.
2. Organize and create new email addresses. Oh, man. I finally was able to get Google Apps, which will allow Yugntruf peeps to have their own email addresses that are remotely accessible, and we’ll also be able to share documents, a calendar, and so on. And it’s completely free! I had some problems with verifying our domain–the tech stuff was above my head–but Yakov helped me yesterday and now we’re good to get organized.
3. Mailing lists. I think this is pretty connected to the last point; we can create a separate email address for mass emails.
4. Branding. A biggie. One of our board members is a talented graphic designer, with experience in marketing, and so a lot of stuff is percolating. When some of our huge time-sensitive issues get resolved (see numbers 6, 9, 13, and 14) we will have more substantial conversations about a specific Yugntruf “look”.
5. Three versions of the mission statement. Actually, I have to find the paperwork for when Yugntruf was incorporated, and see what our mission statement is! As much as this may feel like a start-up, it is not a start-up, and we need to refer to the original intent.
6. A budget. It’s a little naive to say that a fundraising and development advisor fell out of the sky to help us with creating a budget and getting us on fiscally responsible feet, but that’s what it seems like to me, Little Miss Uninitiated to the Yiddish World. Actually, Yudes B. (our advisor from the sky) was a very active board member a while back. The budget is so, so important, and everything else hinges on it. (It seems like everything hinges on everything.) Yugntruf has been very fiscally stupid, to put it bluntly; we have to cut costs wherever we can and constantly compare our programming to our mission. We also have to fundraise and bring money in!
7. A board of advisors from the larger Jewish/Yiddish community. This has been on the table since I started working at Yugntruf. I’m on the committee to examine the organization’s bylaws and structure, and it seems likely that we will be eventually building an advisory board in addition to our executive board, which handles the general operations. (Our board is far more involved in day to day operations than most, I presume, because we don’t currently have an Executive Director.) I’m pretty sure Yudes B. and a few others are already shoo-ins. (Who knows, maybe you’re reading this and thinking I might mean you….)
8. Learn how to write grant proposals. Yudes B. has pointed us towards The Foundation Center, whose resources we have not yet tapped, but will be. There’s actually already a grant that I’d like for us to apply to, and the deadline is mid-lateish February. Gotta start somewhere, right?
9. Figure out the future location of the Yugntruf office. This one is crucial and extremely time-sensitive; we have to leave the Arbeter Ring building by the end of March. We have a potentially interesting lead that might work out, but if not, we’re also poised to partake in a craigslist adventure. (I’ve done that for my own apartments, and it’s tiring, sketchy, and hilarious. One highlight was the loft apartment that was in between two stories of a toy factory. The forty-something guy who answered the door wasn’t wearing a shirt and was the self-proclaimed foot-fetish internet king of New York.)
10. The Yugntruf magazine. I’m waiting to hear back from the printer about the addresses that they’re waiting for–I’m calling them tomorrow. Basically, last year’s issue is about to come out. I recently learned that we’ve been sending Yugntruf magazine to everyone that’s ever been a member, and not just to the current members; it took hours last week to format the spreadsheet of members and clean it up. As far as a new issue goes, there’s not much to report yet, but we haven’t forgotten about it. I personally think that the magazine is the guts of this organization and has a huge potential to reach new people and spread Yiddish.
11. Classes. Another guts-of-Yugntruf item, in my opinion. Empower youth to speak Yiddish, sure, but how? Yiddish programs and Yiddish magazines and Yiddish environments are all well and good, but at the end of the day, we can’t just cater to current Yiddish students–we have to bring in Yiddish students. Blah, blah, blah; you can read about this on the original to-do list. My point is: Yakov’s going to start another beginner’s Yiddish class in three weeks (Feb. 24th). I’ll post more information this week, but if you’re interested or know anyone who would be interested, leave me a note and I’ll get back to you.
12. Identify and target different audiences. Formatting the spreadsheet of members was interesting, even if it was pretty tedious. This is a big part of our future marketing push, but for now, suffice to say that it’s also percolating.
A couple of other things that weren’t on the original list:
13. Yidish-Vokh. We’re currently figuring out how Yidish-Vokh will be run this year, and by whom. This is another time-sensitive item because Yidish-Vokh is a huge event to plan and there’s a lot to be done, like, right now. More to come.
14. Yiddish Break. Registration for our second annual Yiddish Break has begun! Check out the Yiddish Break website for more information. In the meantime, we will start the process of organizing the programming and logistics.
It’s been a crazy few weeks, but I think things are slowly (and a tad chaotically) coming together. I absolutely must blog more.
Oh, and I changed my schedule around! Now I am in the Yugntruf byuro on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, instead of Fridays. This has worked out much, much better.
Goodnight, dear blog. I’ll try to be more faithful to you than I was to my childhood diaries.
A big update is in the works, but in the meantime, I would like to share my current favorite Yiddish song, along with a beautiful animation. The song is by Itsik Manger.
See the animation here.
Read the lyrics in translation or in transliteration here.
I saw this at Yidish Vokh, and was so moved.
Edit: It’s interesting to read through the YouTube comments on the song. Quite a few say that the song is so cute, or that it brings up happy memories… I actually find the song to be sad and slightly bitter.
“I was overwhelmed with joy listening to my peers talk back and forth in rapid Yiddish. While I did not comprehend them completely, I did understand a lot more than I thought I was, and I followed their conversation from topic to topic. It was great to hear Yiddish being sprinkled with the occasional English word, rather than the other way around.”
This is from Warner Bass/Yisroel, who recently wrote an entry about a meeting we had a few Sundays ago. Check it out here.
So here’s the deal. I’m a terrible, terrible, terrible procrastinator. Or maybe I’m a really good one, because I procrastinate so much but everything has this weird tendency of turning out well.
Some procrastination highlights include: beginning to study for an 8 am final at 4 am, turning papers in six months late, and doing all the seating arrangements the night before and morning of my wedding. I’m not even going to mention some of the best examples of my procrastination because, frankly, it’s embarassing.
I think this is relevant to Yugntruf because it’s a habit that I must break in order to become a better employee. While it’s sort of thrilling to take care of things at the absolute last second, it’s a) not professional, b) extremely stressful, and c) just plain stupid.
For instance: I have to deposit some checks. On Friday I filled out a deposit slip, and endorsed the checks. Feeling vaguely nervous about entering them into Quicken (what if I do it wrong?), I put it off. I make a copy of the checks and deposit slip, thinking, “This way I can deposit the checks today and still have all the information for later.” And where are those checks now? In my desk drawer. What? That’s insane!
Please, you don’t need to tell me to stop procrastinating and get things done. Believe me, I know. I would say that it’s an addiction, but according to The Idiot’s Guide to Overcoming Procrastination, it’s just a bad habit. I plan to work on it… right after I finish this entry.
On Friday, I also had a nice conversation with the previous director of Yugntruf. I called her about a couple of questions, and of course she wanted to know how things were going in general. I felt pretty guilty, to tell you the truth, because I think I got really excited really quickly when I first started working here and then I neglected my actual job. Talking to her was helpful and focusing. Concentrate on operations, she said, and the other things will come with time.
I told her how hard it is for me to get work done on Fridays, which end up being so short, and we agreed that it might be better for me to come in a little bit every day (which means I would have to go to my other job five days a week instead of four). We talked about the upcoming relocation. She likes the idea (that’s been on the table for a while) of having a Yidish Hoyz: an apartment where Yiddish-speakers would live, and that would also be the office and event space. It would suit Yugntruf’s unique needs more than a desk in an office building would; it would be a real Yiddish svive (environment).
So despite the fact that my friend Leizer has been passionate about creating a Yidish Hoyz this whole time, it suddenly clicked for me. It’s a pretty fantastic idea. I don’t know how practical it is, or whether it will happen, but now I’m officially pro-Yidish Hoyz.
And anti-procrastination.
Today I’m leaving my other job early to go to the Yugntruf byuro, and then tomorrow I’ll be at Yugntruf only in the morning. Let’s see how this schedule goes.
In the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, here’s a list of what I consider to be the number one most important thing to do.
…It’s a list because there’s more than one most important thing to do, of course.
1) Catch up with all paperwork/emails and get paid!
1) Get access to the website/update the website/create banner for website or temporary image with Yiddish Break, Yidish Vokh, and Yidish Tog information/continue process of finding designer
1) Call accountant again and begin process of creating a budget
1) Location, location, location: what on earth is Yugntruf going to do after we have to move out of the building?
1) Structure/board/bosses/bylaws (I prefer to remain vague)
And I’m sure there are more number one most important things to do.
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