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"ER REDT FUN HAYNT BIZ MORGN"*
*Yiddish for "He talks from today until tomorrow
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe
Syosset, New York
The New York Times carried an article by Ron Lieber ("Your Money," 5/29/2010) about an NYU graduate, Cortney Munna. This piece caught my eye because I graduated from NYU in 1958, when tuition was about $25 a credit.
Ms. Munna, who is now 26-years-old, has nearly $100,000 in student loan debt. And the interest on the loan continues to pile up. Lieber says, "Ms. Munna does not want to walk away from her loans in the same way mortgage holders are." She is "ahf tsores" (in trouble)!
Like Lieber, I question why Cortney didn't attend a cheaper college, and why the university's financial aid office did nothing to stop it? She graduated with an interdisciplinary degree in religious and women's studies and now earns $22 an hour working for a photographer.
Her comment: "I don't want to spend the rest of my life slaving away to pay for an education I got for four years and would happily give back. It feels wrong to me."
Let's go back to a second article by M. P. Dunleavey (The New York Times, 8/23/08) titled, "Feeling Broke? Talk It Out."
According to the columnist, people are talking about money. Not griping...or bragging. "People seem to be confused about the present, uneasy about the future and a bit more willing to open up to family, friends, neighbors or even co-workers about money" says Dunleavey.
I was taught two expressions:
"Vos veyniker me redt, iz alts beser." (The less you talk, the better everything is.)
"Redn iz zilber, shvaygn is gold." (Speech is silver, but silence is gold.)
In Yiddish, we have many expressions dealing with money:
. "Me zol nit darfn onkumen tsu kinder!" (Pray that you may not be a [financial] burden to your children.)
. "Der rekhening iz do, ober dos gelt iz nito." (The bill is here, but the money is not.)
. "Gelt tsu fardinen iz gringer vi tsu haltn." (It's easier to earn money than to hold on to it.)
. "Es iz nit azoy gut mit gelt, vi es iz shlekht on gelt." (It is not so much that it's good to have money, as it's bad to be without it.)
. "Der oreman hot veynik faynt, der raykher hot veyniker fraynd." (The poor man has few enemies; the rich man has fewer friends.)
. "Der dales farshemt di khokhme." (Poverty gets in the way of wisdom.)
. "Oyf gelt shteyt di velt." (Money supports the world.)
In a Reader's Digest "Campus Comedy" column, Mary H. Olenchalk told this wonderful story:
For many years my father, A. E. Hunt, was business manager of Eastern New Mexico University. Part of his job was to review loan applications from students, many of whom were veterans with families to support. Frequently there were applicants who did not qualify for a university loan, and Dad would just lend them money from his own pocket.
He was greatly amused one day when he
overheard one young man telling another,
"I'm getting a loan on the vowel plan.
You know--A. E. I. O. U."
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Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe says that college
has become so expensive ("teier") that
even "fusbal" (football) players are writing home for money.
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Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe is the author of
two books:
"Yiddish for Dog & Cat Lovers" and
"Are Yentas, Kibitzers, & Tummlers Weapons of Mass Instruction? Yiddish
Trivia." To order a copy, go to her
website: MarjorieGottliebWolfe.com
NU, what are you waiting for? Order the book!
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