July 2010

Igracek is back! / Navrat Igracka

igracek www.radio.cz imageIgracek was a communist classic line of plastic toy figurines, which in the past could be found in every Czech/Slovak child’s toy basket. Supposedly a knock-off of the famous German Playmobil brand, Igracek was meant to educate kids about real-life professions, creating plastic figurines of doctors, nurses, mailmen, chimney man (no offense, but how many chimney men are still out there? I think I have seen like one in my whole life…) and so forth.

After the Velvet Revolution the Igracek company (Igra) went bankrupt since the Czech market was flooded with new and enticing foreign-made toys and only until recently Igracek became simply an expensive collectible. The new company Efko bought the rights to the brand, including the actual chemical recipe to make the mold used to make the original figurine.

Today’s updated Igracek is not bigger but it is definitely better: “The main change of the figurine was to give it new arms, with movable wrists. The arms used to be connected to the hands of the figurine, now the hands can be moved. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: children, communism

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Lednice and Valtice: are they in England, Turkey or Moravia? / Lednice a Valtice: nachazi se v Anglii, Turecku nebo na Morave?

lednice google imageThe Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape is a lesser known part of the Czech UNESCO heritage, which is spread over the vast area of a beautiful Southern part of Moravia. It contains a romantic château (Lednice), a picturesque village (Valtice) and the largest park in the country. ‘Since Lednice was first passed into the hands of the House of Liechtenstein in the mid-13th century, its fortunes had been tied inseparably to those of that noble family.’  The current area of Lednice is laid out in a beautiful English garden style, covering almost 300 kilometers squared. Not only can visitors encounter unique types of trees and flowers but the park is also filled with serene ponds, luscious meadows, fancy sculptures and even replicas of ancient Greece ruins. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: Moravia, travel, UNESCO, YouTube

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Czech and Slovak hockey is in trouble! / Cesti a slovensti hokejiste maji problem…

Czech NHL google imageWhile it is a well-known fact that the Czechs and Slovaks are phenomenal hockey players, the NHL draft for this year shows otherwise:

CZ: Cesi a Slovaci jsou velmi nadani na mnohe sporty, kde hokej je definitivne jeden z nich. Letosni vybery do NHL to bohuzel ale vubec neilustruji:

‘The situation in the Czech Republic and Slovakia is sad. Virtually no prospects are playing in their leagues and only a hand full play in the Canadian League. This is an area of concern for hockey.’

Even if you are not exactly a hockey fan, the rest of the article is worth reading (click here).

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Tagged as: sports

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The longest word…./ Nejdelsi slovo…

the longest word google imageCan you guess which language has the longest word? Just to let you know, I disregarded all the chemical names.

CZ: Ktery jazyk ma nejdelsi slovo, anglictina nebo cestina? Mozna, ze to uz vite, ale kdo to nevi (nebo se nad tim jeste nikdy nezamyslel), zde jsou vysledky:

  • English: antidisestablishmentarianism ( = opposition to the disestablishment of the Church of England)
  • Czech: nejnedoobhospodařovávatelnějšího (= the most maintained one, as far as farming goes)

The English word has 28 letters while the Czech one has 32 letters – the Czech language won! But I got to tell you if the Czechs did not have declinations we would be cutting it short here!

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Tagged as: Czech language

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Umberto Eco’s next novel targets Prague / Posledni novela Umberta Eca je o Praze

Prague cementry google imageRemember that scary movie called The Name of the Rose? It was based on the equally-named book written by an Italian medievalist and a philosopher Umberto Eco. After more than 30 years the author’s writing creativity has turned to Prague, specifically to the Prague cemetery ( you can hear sound of the hauling wolfs in the background).

The central figure of the novel is this cynical spy who is being sought after by the whole Europe in order to carry out various clever espionage or an assassination tasks. “Il cimitero di Praga” has 450 pages  and uncovers in detail the politics of the 19th century which also shines an uncomfortable light on today’s historical and political face of Europe. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: history, literature, Prague

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“Do you have any wishes?” / “Co si prejete?”

dictionary google imageMy linguistic  buddy Jamie had a great post idea. I am to ask people what kind of strange English phrases were they taught back in Czech/Slovakia?

Here is his experience for example:

‘When I arrived at the hotelovka (vocational school for waiters and hospitality services), they were training kids as servers to ask restaurant customers, “Do you have any wishes?” When I first arrived in the CR, nearly everyone was pronouncing “sweater” as “sweeter”, and when we would correct them, they would protest that “sweeter” was “British English”, but the British don’t say it. They also taught the kids to call the školník the “school servant”, which, as far as I know, is only used in Singapore.’

Isn’t it so funny? I myself don’t remember any stupid English phrases I was thought (I am sure there were many) I just know we were thought some STRANGE pronunciation ;0)) [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: humor, school

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Potato nation out of potatoes? / Bramborovy narod nema brambory?

uhappy potato google imageThe Czech Republic covers luscious, fertile land which produces various types of fruit and vegetables. It may seem surprising to you (as it was  to me) that most of the produce is imported! For example, 51,000 tons of last year’s crop of domestic apples were exported, while 71, 000 tons of apples consumed by the Czechs came from abroad. This quite ineffective system weakens the local economy, increases the prices of local goods and the constant semi-truck movement across the border worsens the air pollution.

The Czech Republic is a potato nation (almost every other folk song is about potatoes) but strangely most potatoes are currently being imported from Germany and also Poland. As far a garlic grown in Czech goes, it is pretty much impossible to find it in the stores. Where does it come from? Over 80% of it comes from China (!!) which is 21,000 km away. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: ecology, economy

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