A bagel and a shmear: New Yiddish course comes to Duolingo, plus free nosh
The course, which has taken five years to develop, launches on Tuesday, April 6.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFLearn Yiddish on Duolingo. (photo credit: Courtesy)
Duolingo, a website and app that has helped millions worldwide learn languages, is adding Yiddish to its course catalog. And, Americans are eligible for free bagels for signing up.
The course, which has taken five years to develop, launches on Tuesday, April 6. Screenshot from the Yiddish language course on Duolingo. (Credit: Courtesy)
Free bagels and a spread of choice will able available for Duolingo users on launch day at select locations across the US. The bagels must be ordered in Yiddish.
Here's how: "Ken ikh hubn a baygl mit shmirkeyz," (I would like a bagel with schmear.) The free bagels will be available at Katz's Delicatessen in Manhattan, Manny's Cafeteria & Deli in Chicago, Zak the Baker in Miami, Pigeon Bagels in Pittsburgh and Factor's Famous Deli in Los Angeles. The phrase customers will be required to say in order to receive their free bagel in celebration of the launch of the Yiddish language course on Duolingo. (Credit: Courtesy)
According to an announcement by the company, It it will teach users how to speak using the Hungarian dialect of Yiddish, how to read and write in Yiddish, as well as Yiddish grammar.
Currently, there are over 10,000 people signed up to get notified when the course launches.
Yiddish joins languages taught on Duolingo that are endangered, including Navajo, Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Hawaiian and Welsh.
Yiddish is over a millennium old, at one point spoken by 13 million people, and is used widely today all over the world.
"Its vocabulary and grammar can trace Ashkenazi Jewish communities' stories of immigration, survival and adaptation," reads a press release. Screenshot from the Yiddish language course. (Credit: Courtesy)
Yiddish as a culture experienced a boom particularly in the years between World War I and World War II.
For example, New York saw a rich and vibrant Yiddish theater scene.
"The Holocaust resulted in the deaths of millions of Yiddish speakers" while those who survived immigrated to other countries, where they adopted the spoken language there.
