Reasons to choose an online Yiddish course

If you're on this page, you're probably looking for an online Yiddish course or online Yiddish lessons for any number of reasons.

One reason for an online Yiddish course is the convenience. Online Yiddish lessons are right in front of you. You don't have to go anywhere, and it's all there when you want it. Your city may not have a Workman's circle group. A lot of people don't feel comfortable going in person to a Yiddish class, they ae sort of intimidated. There are all sorts of Yiddish events, but they may be too far away, and you just don't have the time to travel for your Yiddish course.

Another main reason to look into an online Yiddish course because you are looking for something free, or at least cheap. You've already looked into traveling to Vilna (I know people who have! It's a real experience.) or Israel, and even if you have the time and energy, it just seemed like too much cash. Private tutors... a lot cheaper, but still expensive. Heck, even the Workman's circles group classes still cost you plus gas!

Online Yiddish courses can be a convenient and inexpensive option. The problem... well they still don't necessarily give you both convenience and still be inexpensive. Worse, some of them don't actually really help you learn Yiddish. They just focus on some very basic vocabulary, and teach you how to order in a restaurant... not something you usually have to do in Yiddish anyway.

When I say online Yiddish course, I'm including inexpensive Yiddish software - they are also convenient. There aren't that many Yiddish courses in existence. But same problems apply as above.

Online Yiddish options

There is an online Yiddish course we've found [Been 10 years now since I first wrote this, and I just looked again while I was updating and fixing the course Jan-21-21]  is the E-teacher Yiddish course. .. It's topnotch with professional teachers, the latest technology, the works. They are the same ones who have been giving a Modern Hebrew and Biblical Hebrew courses for years along side Hebrew University. They've finally just come out with an extensive online Yiddish course! [Update - I can't seem to find that they still do the Yiddish. The old school page is still there, but there's no professor listed like the Biblical Hebrew and Aramaic classes. And they don't have their regular fancy site, like for the Hebrew course.]

The E-Teacher course takes [used to take?]  a number of months to go through. I think you can even get college credit for it- it's taught by college professors. It's probably a little less convenient than other options, but it's still on your computer, and they work with you to fit your schedule with the teachers.

That's an option [if it's still there] if you're really serious about taking your Yiddish to the next level. Maybe you already took our online Yiddish course first and you want to go further. 🙂 Or maybe you prefer to have more feedback in a structured web environment. it costs about $1200 though, so it may be convenient, but it's a real investment!

So if it exists, E-Teacher is a very good option, but expensive.

I've done some looking around, and I saw that Worker's circle is supposed to have some Zoom classes, if you're more serious about time commitment - I can't find the description or price after looking online - you'll have to contact them directly. Also, you could probably find a university that will do an online Yiddish class. My comments about E-teacher apply. So Zoom classes and University is really what we're left with, if E-Teacher isn't around.

What we bring to the table:

Moyshe and I designed a course  - the Yiddish Academy Beginners' Course - that is about laying a foundation to actually be able to speak Yiddish. It's right here on this website. So you can start learning Yiddish right away. It's definitely inexpensive, and it's extremely convenient. And it's good! It really gives you a groundwork if you put in a little work. It's easier than a book, because we break it into steps. And of course, it has the audio.  It can really help you teach yourself Yiddish.  Hope you'll check it out.  Click here for that.

[Update: I was looking again at the E-teacher description of course goals:

• Have a basic vocabulary of 300 common Yiddish words - Yes, we give that to you. More.
• Know the basic paradigms of nouns and verbs - Yes to nouns. We focus on learning past and present tense well with verbs. There is future tense in the text and audio, but we think past and present is enough to master to give you a foundation.
• Be able to understand and conduct simple conversations read basic texts - For sure! Lots of that!
• Be on the way to reading classic Yiddish literature such as D. Bergelson, Y.L. Perets, I.B. Singer, Mendele Mocher Sforim. - We give you all the tools you need, but you will have to really invest to get to that point.
• Know more about the original meaning of Yiddish stories and jokes - Ummm.. We definitely have jokes! 🙂
• Produce written texts, form sentences using phrases, idioms and proper grammatical structures - We don't really focus on this. We want you to have fun, have a feel for the language, be able to have conversations, and get to the point where you can start doing that if you want.
• Improve their ability to read Yiddish Text - Improvement is infinite when it's from zero to something! Reading text is a focus. We give you the tools to read Yiddish in Hebrew/Alef-Beyz characters.  It's not the focus of the lessons, but it's incorporated. Every Yiddish word presented has Alef-Beyz, YIVO transliteration, English, and audio. So if you learn the alphabet and do our reading exercises, your reading is constantly reinforced.     So yeah! Our online yiddish course stacks up to theirs, at least on paper. It's not the same as having a private teacher like them, and all the other great things they have... but look, it's good, ok? Look, we're funny. Are they funny? Huh? I'm guessing E-teacher is not funny. And they have questionable existence. So there. Just go to our free lessons, and see what you think. That's all I'm asking: Free Lessons. After that look up YIVO, and Workers' circle and these other places. Then you can still get our course because it's a fun intro and gives you a head start, and then do all those things, and go to Klezmer festivals and all that. The important thing is that you go to some sort of Yiddish classes and start learning the language, whether the Yiddish classes are online Yiddish classes, or frontal Yiddish classes, or whatever.]

Hope you find an online Yiddish course that fits what you're looking for!