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New calendar of Czech activities is out! Lots and lots of Czech festivals are out there and you know what that means: lots and lots of great Czech food!! So enjoy…

Calendar of Czech events for June 08

CZ: Tak se zda, ze je Amerika (zejmena US) dosti vylidnena, co se tyce Cechu. Od jedne “blogarske” kolegine jsem se dozvedela ze je pry “okurkove obdobi” - tedy ze vetsina Cechu odjizdi domu do Cech. I presto jsem ale nasla dosti aktivit, a to zejmena ceskych festivalu!! Vite co to znamena? Hodne dobrych ceskych dobrutek!!! Tak si to uzijte

Ceske akce pro cerven 2008

89% of young Czechs believe that Czech Republic has discrimination issues. According to the Ipsos Tandor statistical poll 75% of these people thinks that Czech nation discriminates mostly against race, where as 43% of them also think that women are discriminated against as well. The article doesn’ t go into the race discrimination issue at all, which is a shame because I would like to know more about it. But it sure goes on and on about the discrimination of women:

• 52% thought women are not being treated fairly at the work place
  • maternity leave becomes a problem
  • lower salary (more…)
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I was flipping the channels last night and guess who appeared on the screen: Vaclav Klaus! The C-span channel had him as a speaker to promote his new book called the “Blue Planet in Green Shackles” (see the whole speech by clicking here). Besides focusing on the environmental issues during his current visit to the US he is also going to meet with the vice-president Dick Chaney with whom he will be discussing the hot topic of Anti-missile radar base. Klaus is flying back home on Thursday afternoon. (more…)

 Did you know that ever since teh 1950’s the Czech Republic owes Poland about 370 hectares of land? In 1958 the Soviet Union ordered Czechoslovak-Polish border to align a little more so that it would be easier to guard. Because of this act Poland lost some of its land. How will this be solved  50 years later? Read about it by clicking here.

CZ: Vite, ze Ceska Republika dluzi Polsku kolem 370-ti hektaru zeme?? V roce 1958 totiz tyto dva staty dostaly rozkaz od Ruska, aby sve hranice trosku “vyrovnaly” (mohou se tak totiz lepe strezit). Diky tomu Polsko ztratilo cast sve zeme. Jak se tento konflikt po 50-ti letech vyresi? Kliknete zde.

The opening night of ex-president Vaclav Havel’s new play Odchazeni (Leaving) turned out to be a great success. It is a story of a prominent politician who is ending his term in the office and all of the drama that goes with it. In this particular play was Havel inspired by such masterpieces as Cechov’s Cherry Orchard or Shakespeare’s King Lear. The play preparations went very smooth until the lead actress, Dagmar Havlova (Havel’s current wife), quit due to health reasons. (more…)

Are you curious to what foreigners think of our Czech drivers? Are they willing to rent a car or would they rather just stay “safe” and take a bus? Gary is one of those foreigners living in Brno and here are his observations…

CZ: Premyslite nekdy nad tim, co si cizinci mysli o ceskych ridicich? Boji se pronajmout si auto, nebo by radeji zustali “v bezpeci” a pockali si na autobus? Gary je jeden z techto cizincu, ktery zije jiz nejaky cas v Brne. Jeho postrehy na toto tema si muzete precist zde..

Tereza Kerndlova, the 21-year old daughter of a famous Czech jazz musician Ladislav Kerndl, did not make it into the Eurovision 2008 finals. The performing song called “Have some fun” have gotten her far enough mostly for her looks then the actual singing (see the YouTube video bellow). Teresa and her dancer crew even received a nickname from her fellow contestants - the Czech Beuties! Out of the 43 competing European countries only Serbia, France, Great Britain and Spain made to the semi-finals. (more…)

According to the National Security Council of the Czech Republic more than 390,000 immigrants came to the Czech Republic in 2007. That is 22% increase when compared to the last year’s figures. Why this sudden increase?

1. Czech economy is doing great
2. unemployment rate is low (5%)
3. government subsidizes programs for various industries

Although it is easier to get in the Czech Republic when compared to other countries in Western Europe, it is much harder to stay, which a lot of immigrants don’t know.Marie Jelinkova, the spokesman of the Prague Multicultural Centre further explains: “You can come to the CR when you have a certain purpose (job, study). Once you lose you purpose, you are expected to leave..“. And what countries do most foreigners come from? (more…)

The Czech literature is in trouble. Especially the current novels. The writer Jiri Kratochvil made a very good observation when he wrote “after a long, long time the Czech literature is not only free but also turns its back on any kind of ideology, mission and service to the nation”. When the Czech magazine Tyden had its “The Best Book of the Century” contest in 1998 the only current novel that had placed in the first 50 places was Sestra (Sister) by Jachym Topol - it won the 26th place. Lidove Noviny announced their “Book of the Year” list in 1991 with following 5 novels placed among the winners:

• Nesmrtelnost (Immortality) by Milan Kundera (more…)
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Have you ever found yourself translating Czech idioms into the English language? I have; and once you do there is no way out. No matter how serious the topic is, once you throw in the “…you can kill two flies with one swap that way….” (an equivalent of “kill two birds with one stone”) or “...that’s totally a Spanish village for me….” (meaning “I have no clue on this one”) you are bound to get confused looks from your English-speaking listeners and the serious conversation is over because everyone starts to laugh. Anyhow, here is some more of these play-on-words thingies that I found or thought of. Feel free to add some!

CZ: Taky vzdycky udelate tu samou chybu a prelozite jeden z nasich ceskych idiomu do anglictiny? A taky dostanete zmatene pohledy? Ja jsem v tomto ohledu “nevylecitelna”. Jestlize vam repertoar jiz dochazi, tak tady si jich par muzete pripomenout…

• Take your legs on your shoulders = vezmi nohy na ramena (take to your heels)
• Like soaked hen = vypadas jako zmokla slepice (you look glum)
• Throw it behind your head = hod to za hlavu (forget about it)
• To have a milk on your chin = tece mu mliko po brade (to be still very young and naive) (more…)
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