In my family, you’re not on pins and needles; you’re on shpilkes. When you’re down in the dumps, someone will ask why you’re so ongebluzen (or tell you to stop looking so ongebluzened). Bothering someone? They might tell you to stop “hocking my chainik.” In Yiddish, this means “banging the kettle,” but in the Americanized version of the expression, it means “stop bothering me.” For years, I didn’t realize these were words some people didn’t know if they aren’t Ashkenazi Jews, who mostly come from Eastern Europe. I used them freely in conversations at public school only to be met with some very confused expressions.