Tito Suarez really does speak Yiddish

This article follows up a previous article titled Yiddish-Speaking Tito Suarez. That article focused on a short dialogue that takes place between the band conductor Tito Suarez and Max Kellerman right before the talent show. Max tells Tito that his resort business is changing because people can fly to Europe on their summer vacations.

That conversation begins with Tito and Max saying something that is unintelligible, and I guessed that they are speaking in Yiddish.

Recently an anonymous commenter of that article confirmed that they indeed are speaking Yiddish. The commenter provided a transliteration and a link to an article titled Yiddish in Movies. Based on this information, I write the dialogue as follows:

Tito Suarez
Hei, Landsman, vos hert zikh mit dir?
?װאָס הערט זיך מיט דיר, מיסטער קעלערמאַן

Hey, compatriot, what's to hear with you?

Max Kellerman
Freg nisht.

.פֿרעג נישט

Don't ask.

I watched that part of the movie, and I indeed did hear those words, now that I know what they are.

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Yiddish is similar to German. If you can read some German, then you might recognize the following.

Tito Suarez
Hallo, Landsmann, was hört sich mit dir?

Max Kellerman
Frag nicht.

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The Yiddish word Landsman (German Landsmann)  means someone who comes from the same Land (German region) that you yourself come from. Google translated the German word as compatriot, which is a fair translation, except that the word compatriot is a bookish word that never is said in casual spoken English.

I would freely translate Landsman into English as fellow, which has the same sense and casualness.

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I would freely translate vos hert zikh mit dir as what's new with you?

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When I was a university student, I majored in Slavic languages. In order to earn my Master's degree, I was required to study one non-Slavic language, so I studied German.

One time I came across a Yiddish textbook in the university library, so I checked it out and studied it for about a month. Because I could read German, I was able to learn to read quite a bit of simple Yiddish during that month. Yiddish is basically a German dialect written with Hebrew letters.

I was interested in East European Jews because their culture was largely immersed in the huge Slavic-speaking populations.

Recently I came across that same textbook -- not the very same book, but the same publication -- at a library book sale, and I almost bought it. However, I realized that if I start studying Yiddish again, I won't have enough time to write all the articles about Dirty Dancing that I want to write. So I reluctantly put the book back down.

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The guy who wrote the linked article identifies himself only as Ben, whose interests include the Yiddish language. His blog, called Positive Anymore, was active from 2005 to 2009. I don't know if he is the anonymous commenter of my article.

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Of course, it doesn't make sense that the character Tito Suarez speaks Yiddish. I speculate that this absurdity happened in the following manner.

The character Tito Suarez probably was supposed to be a Cuban musician in a non-speaking role. There also was some other unnamed character who was a Jewish assistant to Max Kellerman and who was supposed to speak this dialogue bit with Max in native Yiddish.

Those two bit actors were replaced -- at a request from the movie's choreographers -- by an old African-American tap dancer named Charles "Honi" Coles so that he could earn some money. Then, because union rules required much higher payment to Coles if he spoke some dialogue, he was assigned to speak that Yiddish sentence.

Therefore, Coles -- an African-American dancer from Philadelphia -- plays a Cuban band leader who speaks Yiddish.

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Since we are on the subject of Yiddish, I am including again this video of Jennifer Grey singing in Yiddish. You all must watch it now -- even if you already watched it in my previous post. Click on the video image and then click on the words Watch this video on YouTube.