In the Mir Yeshiva in Yerushalayim, many of the shiurim are delivered in Yiddish [including the MOST POPULAR daily shiur on the planet given by the legendary Rav Asher Arieli Shlita]. So in BMG in Lakewood, so in Brisk and so in other Yeshivos. In YU the shiurim used to be in Yiddish until the students couldn't comprehend anymore and now all of the shiurim are in English [except for a few Hebrew shiurim]. When I go to Williamsburg or Boro Park and I need to ask for directions [I usually do...], I try to ask a woman b/c the women generally speak a much better English than the men. It is almost painful listening to the men trying with all their might to explain themselves in broken English. "M'giyt straiiiiight und den m'macht a rrrighttttt on Hooper Street, dorten is a groy'se supermarket...." The women, in contrast, are fluent and their English is not spoken with a European accent [but a Brooklyn accent... Close].
Why is this? Why don't we just adapt and speak the language of the country?
Great lesson!!! It is a wall against assimilation! In pre-war Europe many or even most of the frum Jews didn't speak the language of the country but rather spoke Yiddish. This was premeditated.
It is fun being American and knowing English fluently, but there is a spiritual price we all pay.
One way to find a balance is to speak the Yinglish many of us speak [myself included] with a healthy dose of Hebrew and Aramaic thrown is. A language all our own for a people that dwells alone.
What about Modern Hebrew - "Ivrit", I hear the zionists in the crowd saying!!! Why can't we all speak that?? THAT is an authentic Jewish language - not the corrupted German that is Yiddish!!!
There is an answer to that question. In lieu of a response, I quote the pasuk "כבוד א-להים הסתר דבר".
