Cedar Rapids – the Czech headquarters / Cedar Rapids – ceska zakladna

Cedar Rapids, Iowa is definitely one of the main centers of Czech happenings in the US (i.e. see the monthly calendar of Czech activities and Cedar Rapids has always something going on). If you wold like to see a proof just take a walk through the district of Czech Village or visit the church of St. Ludmila or the church of St. Wenceslav (Czech Saints). And if you are still not persuaded go visit the the Czech and Slovak National Heritage museum – the only professional Czech/Slovak museum in the USA. The rich Czech history of the city has been building up since the 19th century Czech immigration wave. This influx of Czechs is the main cause why every 3rd person in Cedar Rapids was a full-blooded Czech. Today the number has decreased to about 10% where only few of these Czech descendants speak the language of their forefathers. To improve this situation and keep up its Czech pride the city created the Czech language summer school for children. The school lasts for 5 weeks and offers three grades/levels of difficulty. The registration fee is only $35 (!!) where the rest of the cost is covered by various Czech patriots and Czech organizations. Similar courses of Czech language have been offered in Iowa since 1870, making it historically the oldest ethnic school of this kind in the United States.

CZ: Mesto Cedar Rapids, Iowa, je bezpochyby jedno z nejdulezitejsich ceskych center v Americe. Jestlize tomu neverite, tak se jdete projit jednou z jeho ctvrti zvanou “Czech Village”, projdete si kostel Svate Ludmily nebo Svateho Vaclava, anebo si kupte listek do Ceskoslovenskeho Musea – jedineho profesionalniho muzea Cechu a Slovaku v USA. Bohata ceska historie tohoto mesta zapocala jiz koncem 19.stoleti, kdy jsem prisla obrovska vlna ceskych imigrantu. Diky tomuto prilivu byl tehdy kazdy treti (!!) obyvatel Cech! Dnes toto cislo kleslo k pouhym 10%, kde pouze par lidi z teto rady mluvi/rozumi cesky. Aby se tato situace zlepsila, tak se Cedar Rapids snazi podporovat nauku ceskeho jazyka a to v podobe letnich kurzu pro deti. Kazdy kurz trva pet tydnu, ma tri stupne obtiznosti a – pozor – stoji pouhych $35 ! Zbytek je hrazen rozlisnymi ceskymi spolky a vlastenci. Podobne kurzy probihaji v Cedar Rapids jiz od roku 1870, coz dela toto mesto domovem historicky nejstarsi etnicke skoly ve Spojenych Statech.

Source: www.krajane.net