Michael’s story: Travels in Czech (part 3) / Michaluv denicek: cestovani po Cechach (cast 3.)

A few apt remarks about language:

As I’ve noted before, all the sights and tastes of Czech cannot equal the thrills I felt speaking the little Czech I know to the people there.  While I believe the people are friendly to all, they seemed especially so when they heard us speak a little of their language.  What enormous respect it is to the people of any country one visits to learn at least the rudimentary polite phrases in their language.  It is the key to unlock the delight found in most people that someone else respects them enough to learn a little about them, their culture or their language.  A few examples:

Telling the woman walking her dog that the dog was nice in Czech.  She beamed.  And, when I said I was a veterinarian as well, she beamed even more.

Talking (haltingly) with the police officers either after being stopped going the wrong way or asking for directions in the middle of traffic in Josefov.  Perhaps they would have been forgiving or helpful if I could not speak Czech (remember, my wife is better looking than me) but I like to think they were a little more forgiving or helpful because I spoke to them in Czech.

Asking the woman directions to the Chateau (Zamek) in Mikulov in the pouring rain (had I walked 10 feet more I would have seen it but . . .).  Had I asked in English, she might or might not have said anything but in Czech, she stopped, smiled, told me and pointed me in the right direction and then nicely corrected my Czech (do zamku, ne do zameku) reminding me forever about the ‘fleeting e’ of the Czech language.  She must have been a teacher.

Talking to the man of the house where my wife’s great grandfather lived.  He of the one-word-of-English (Chicago) and I who didn’t yet know ‘great grandfather’ in Czech so had to say my wife’s father’s father’s father’s house.  We probably didn’t understand one fifth of each other’s words but we smiled and had fun with it.

Trying to make the gate-keeper at the church tower in Tabor understand that I was a student (I had my University of North Carolina student card with me) and so should receive a 5 crown discount for the privilege of climbing yet another hundred or so steps to gaze yet again upon another beautiful scene from above.  It worked!

And, my favorite.  One of my Czech textbooks has a discussion of how to say or request things in the most polite fashion.  I learned this by heart before the trip.  My wife wanted to know how much a piece of glassware cost in a little shop in the Mala Strana section of Praha.  So, I (boldly?) walked up to the proprietress of the shop and said in my best textbook Czech “Nevite, nahadou, kolik to stoji? (“Do you not know, by chance, how much it costs”).  As a small smile crept across her mouth, she winked at me and said “nahadou, vim” (“by chance, I know”).  We smiled at each other and we both knew, at that instant, that I was trying, she appreciated that I was trying but that I was being way too bookishly polite.

Tanja’s note: If you haven’t read part one ( click here ) or  part two do so otherwise you are going to miss out on things big time !! :0)