Becoming frum: how newcomers learn the language and culture of orthodox Judaism

摘要

Becoming Frum is about a sort of immigration - a movement of people from one community to another, a new community with its own linguistic variant. While immigrants to new countries can practice speaking, reading and writing the languages of the countries they have moved to, those who enter Orthodox Jewish communities do not have the option of studying the grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and intonation patterns of their new friends and neighbours. These entrants are called BTs, the initials standing for ba'alei teshuva ('those who return/repent'). They have entered the world of the FFBs 'frum [i.e. religious] from birth'. These sets of initials are part of the vocabulary of what may be called Orthodox Jewish English, or Yeshivish, or Frumspeak. BTs learn the language of FFBs by immersion, or by asking questions, or both.