Czechmatediary

Karel, also known as the Bouncing Czech has finished another one of his delicious stories! This time he reminisces about the ‘abundance’ of Czech restaurants in Hollywood in the past…and about this crazy guy named Boruvka (Blueberry) ;o). You can read the whole story here.

Karel (take znamy pod jmenem Bouncing Czech) dopsal dalsi ze svych vrcholnych del, tentokrat se v pribehu zabyva ceskymi restauracemi v Hollywoodu….a taky nam predstavi ceskeho typka jmenem Boruvka ;0) Povidku si muzete precist zde.

“Ta nase pisnicka ceska, ta je tak hezka, tak hezka…” (”That Czech song of ours is so beautiful…”).These are the words of one of the most famous Czech songs of all times. In fact, the catchiness of the tune made it almost an unofficial hymn of the Czech people - the old sing it and the young ones do too. It was created by Karel Hasler, a talented Czech composer, singer and an actor  known from his early teens through the early 40’s. Hasler paid dearly for the words of this song but his spirit lives and will live forever. Not only through his countless songs and a famous Czech candy called “Haslerky” but also through his son whom he had never met - through Tom Hasler. Tom recently contacted me via Czechmate Diary and enlightened me on his amazing life story. He  was born to a German mother, Karel Hasler’s fiance, a month after Karel was brutally tortured/murdered in the concentration camp. When Tom was 7 years old, he and his mom emmigrated to Australia and from there to the United States where he lives up to this day. (more…)

The more I speak Czech to my daughter the more I am finding myself saying bad words. I mean, they are not bad in Czech language but they sound bad to the English ear. Here are some examples:

CZ: Cim vic mluvim s mou 2-letou dcerkou Hanickou cesky, tim casteji se nachazim v situaci, kdy rikam sprosta slova. Ne ze by byla sprosta v cestine, ale bohuzel zni sproste v anglickem jazyce. Tady jsou uvdene nejake priklady:

1. bic (whip) sounds like bitch
2. du-du (binkie) sounds like du-du (poop)
3. pi-pi (bird sound) sounds like pee-pee (urine)
4. fakt (really?) sounds like fu***d
5. kakat (to poop) ; slightly offensive word for poop
6. pusa (mouth) sounds like pu**y
7. mimi (baby) sounds like my friends name (her name is Mimi)

Got anything else to add to the list?

I did couple articles on Czechs in America but how about those Slovaks (many of you might not know that my grandfather was Slovak)? True, those two groups get intermingled quite a bit since we were part of a one country for quite some time (1918-1991). There is fortunately quite a lot of information on this topic. The first Slovak who set his foot on the American soil was Isaac Ferdinand Sarosi, who immigrated in 1695. Isaac served as a teacher and a preacher in a religious colony in Pennsylvania called Germantown and (because of his homesickness??) returned back to Slovakia in 2 years of time.  About 100 years later an army of 300 Slovaks, who called themselves the “Blue Hussars”, came to fight with George Washington’s army in the War for Independence. After the war was over the surviving men settled in Maine.

A large-scale emigration wave from Slovakia  was caused by the cholera epidemic in 1873 and the subsequent crop failures all over the country. This movement was fueled also by coming of industrialization, in which many farmers lost their jobs.

During this unhappy time a world traveler named Daniel Sustek decided to purchase about 80 acres of land in Iowa in a hope to build a new thriving Slovak colony there (the article does not say if in fact his dream was fulfilled). (more…)

One of you guys sent me an updated dictionary of Czech teenage words and expressions. I gotta tell you, some of them I have never even heard of!  I got reminded of my used-to-be favorites, back when I was young young, such as ‘prudic‘ (nuisance), ‘zevlit‘ (killing time), ‘husty‘ (that’s crazy)….But word such as ‘alien‘ (retired person), ‘kobra‘ (hot chick) or ‘krab‘ (an adult, like a parent or a teacher, who keeps bugging you for ‘no reason’) are completely new to me. OK, here it is, sorry, I have to go now - got some studying to do :0)
PS: Sorry, the vocabulary is available only in Czech :((

CZ: Jedna z vas, oddanych ctenarek, mi poslala vyborny (nebo mela bych spis rict ‘husty’?) slovnik aktualnich pubertackych vyrazu a musim vam rict, ze se mam co ucit! Slova jako ‘in’, ’socka’, ‘typ’ to pro mne za mlada byla samozrejmost. Ale odkud se vzaly slova jako ‘alien’, ‘kobra’, ‘krab’ nebo ‘lowe’? Nebo ‘vygeb’????? Pomoc!!!!

Výkladový slovníček

Alien: Důchodce, tj. každý, kdo přesáhl hranici 35 let. Pochází z anglického výrazu pro vše cizí, nepřátelské, mimozemské. (negativní pojem) (more…)

I was humbled by my American girlfriend the other day. On our walk we talked about some little clever things that would save us money in this current economical situation. Among other things, this is what she said:” Oh, and I almost forgot, I make my own detergent….”. I was looking at her with my mouth open, thinking “Excuse me, I thought that I am the more frugal one! I was brought up in a poor communist country!” And here she is, this cute California girl, making her own detergent! I thought that was awesome…She said that it saves a bunch of money, then she gave me a recipe and I decided to share it with with you. I don’t know, I just think that having that recipe on hand fits perfectly with our frugal Czech personalities. (more…)

At a strike of a each hour, a bunch of excited tourists swarm underneath the Prague’s famous astronomical clock. You can hear English, Japanese, German, Italian or Chinese spoken, but Czech language is a rarity. Once the clock strikes, the commotion begins: bells start to ring as a parade of 12 apostles circles in and out of the clock, with a scary figure of an antique skeleton finishing up the round, while ringing his sad little bell.

A similar performance can be seen now in Slovakia as well. Yesterday marked a historical unveiling of a new astronomical clock in Stara Bystrica - the first moving astronomical clock in Slovakia ever! (more…)

How is the Czech Republic dealing with the current economic crisis? Not so hot. Czechs seem to be saving on food a lot. The grocery stores have to stock up on salami since they are cheaper than ham or chicken and restaurants now offer cheap, simple and filling meals for the price of 55 t0 60 crowns (about $2). The restaurants in Prague decreased their profit by one third and it is expected that a fifth of Prague restaurants will be closed down. Even the fancy Prague Culinary Institute is now offering special classes where the clients learn the art of cheap cooking (c’mon, what Czech doesn’t know how to cook cheap?!).

Now that we know that the regular folk is trying to be frugal, guess who else is following their steps? The government! (more…)

Some English words are just priceless; there is no quick and easy translation for them in the Czech language, hence it is hard to keep them out of one’s (or at least my) Czech vocabulary. Here is the list that  we have so far:

CZ: Nektera anlicka slova jsou proste k nezaplaceni; do cestiny se nedaji jednoduse prelozit a pro nektera z nich ani zadny cesky vyraz neexistuje. Je tedy nekdy opravdu tezke se techto slov v ceskem jazyce vyvarovat (zvlaste kdyz zijete v anglicky mluvici zemi)!
(more…)

MaryLena is a very lovely lady who agreed to share one of her emails she wrote to me in the past. She and her husband are a die-hard travelers who have traveled all over the world, including the Czech Republic. Many years ago her family was also kind enough to host an exchange student from Japan who has become like a son to them. Here is one of her wonderful stories about Akira’ culture shock with America. Since it is about hugging - and most Czechs would much rather shake hands - I thought I would share it with you:
CZ: MaryLena je jedna fanjova pani, ktera s manzelem procestovala cely svet, vcetne Ceske republiky. Dovolila mi, abych jeden z jejich emailu (adresovanych mne) publikovla, protoze se mi opravdu moc libil. Zabyva se totiz tematem kulturniho soku a to objimani (misto potrasani si rukami), tedy neco na co vetsina Cechu neni moc zvykla:

Dear Tanya,
I have one funny story I will share with you which was the real beginning of our awakening to cultural differences.
Our oldest son brought home his college roommate “for dinner”. During the course of the evening, he explained that Akira’s family would have to restrict their funding of his education to address some health issues of his father. (Both Akira’s parents were children in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped. Both were left with lifelong injuries to their internal systems and Akira’s daughter has a mutation to one kidney which we believe goes back to her grandparents’ early exposure to radiation.)
Our son suggested if Akira could live with a family, work parttime, and attend a community college instead of continuing in a residential private college, he would have a better chance of finishing his education before the funds ran out. We agreed and he stayed three years. (more…)