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‘Trista tricet stribrnych strikacek…’

speech / global learning center imageI don’t remember when do native Czech kids learn to pronounce the sharp Czech ‘r’ and ‘r s hackem’ but our almost 6 year old Hahna is still can’t do it. I remember when I was in kindergarten I had to go to a speech therapy where they taught me how to say ‘r’ by substituting it with the letter ‘d’. So instead of ‘trenky’ (shorts) I would say ‘tdenky’. The trick is to say the word at first really slow, then increase the speed and with time and practice the magic starts to work and – voila – you get the word ‘trenky’.

Many times the process is not so easy and the kids are resilient to any kind of treatment. Well, any kind of standart treatment. One dad got supposedly so mad over his son’s inability to pronounce the correct r that he promissed him if he learns it he can yell the word ‘prdel’ (ass) out of the window every day at noon. And guess what? To the dismay of the neighbors it worked.

What speech impedaments do American kids have? Surely they cannot struggle as much as the Czech kids since ‘r’ with ‘hacek’ is without a question the craziest sound on this planet. In fact, I bet even aliens don’t have a crazier sound than we do. Does that makes us smarter than everybody else? Unfortunately no.

Anyhooo, I gathered some website info that deals with this issue. And here are some exercisers:

tra (pronounce as tda), trám (prononce as tdam), tráva(tdava), tradice (…), trafika, trafika, trápit, trápení, tramvaj, trať, trasa, trávník ,tref, trefit, trefí, trend, tréma, trenýrky, trénink, trénovat, treska, trepka, trestá, trest, trestat, trezor 

Whole sentences:

Strejda Petr ztratil svetr. Ztratil i triko. Strejda Petr je truhlář. Má strach z trestu. Petr z Ostravy má truhlu. Ostrý vítr v tropech fouká velmi rychle. Jeden decimetr má deset centimetrů. Metr má sto centimetrů. Já rád játra, ty rád játra. Petr v triku na trávníku hraje na trubku. Petra troubí na trumpetu – trů trů trů. Petra se chvěje strachy. U stromu sedí trpaslík. Petr trénuje u tribuny. Bratr má triko. Kmotra a kmotr jedí citrony. V Ostravě jsou stromy.

 CZ: Nepamatujete si, kdy se ceske deti nauci vyslovovat ‘r’ a ‘r’ s hackem? Nase male Hanicce bude za chvili 6 let, ale jeste to bohuzel neumi (a to se snazi!).  Ja sama jsem ve skolce chodila na logopedii, kde me pani ucitelka naucila vyslovovat ‘d’ misto ‘r’ a postupne ze s ‘tdenek’ staly ‘trenky’, takze myslim, ze v prvni tride uz jsem to umela. Ale jestlize zijou deti v cizine, pak je ten proces asi o trosku delsi…

Nasla jsem tu par pomocnych stranek, ktere se timto problemem zabyvaji a vycucla jsem z nich nejaka ukazkova cviceni. Jestlize toho chcete vice, jdete primo na one stranky.

Behem meho internetoveho studovani jsem procitala u clanku take komenty a jeden me opravdu pobavil. Nejaka pani tam zaluje na sveho manzela, ze kdyz byl pry maly tak byl naprosto imunni jakymkoliv logopedickym cvicenim a vypadalo to, ze se ‘r’ proste nikdy nenauci. Pak mu rozlobeny tatinek ve vzteku slibil, ze jestlize se ho nauci, tak muze kazdy den v prave poledne zakricet z okna slovo ‘prdel’. No a co myslite? Hned se mu rozvitilo v hlavicce!

http://www.prozeny.cz/magazin/deti-a-rodina/pubertak/15754-naucte-sve-dite-proklete-r?komentare=nejnovejsi

http://www.logopedie.unas.cz/?text=17-hlaska-r-1-cast-tr

 

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15 comments… add one
  • Ladi July 8, 2013, 7:43 am

    U nas s “R” nebyl problem ale ” ř” se muj syn (5 let) se naucil teprve pred mesicem. Zacali jsme se slovem “tři” – ttttttři – vyslovovat t rychle za sebou, rozvibrovat jazycek a pak uz se zaclo darit. Zpocatku u toho ř hrozne prskal, ale nyni uz je schopny to pouzit i v jinych slovech jako křídla, střikačka, třešně… Sem tam jeste dava prilis velky duraz na ř ale celkove je to dobre. A prskani taky prestalo 🙂

  • Romana July 8, 2013, 12:46 pm

    Ja taky rackovala, a taky jsem se ucila jako ty. ‘D’ misto ‘r’. Pak jsme odesli do Rakouska a tam rackujou vsichni, no a tady take. Muj manzej je ze mne cely vykouleny kdyz my ukazuji jak se zpravne vyslovuje ‘Romana’.

  • Tanja July 8, 2013, 9:20 pm

    Mne by zajimalo, kolik deti ma v Cechach problem s ‘r’ a s ‘r’ s hackem. Myslite, ze treba tretina ma problem s r a polovina ma problem s r s hackem?

  • Tanja July 8, 2013, 9:22 pm

    Romano, tak jak tu vlastne vyslovuji tvoje jmeno? RRomaana? Jako anglicke ‘r’ a pak dlouhe ‘a’? Nebo Romeina?
    Nemuze to byt horsi nez kdyz me tu lidi nazyvaji Tenzda 😉 (=Tanja).

  • Sean July 9, 2013, 4:35 am

    We live in Prague and speak English at home but my wife is Czech. My son was recommended for speech therapy two years in a row by the speech therapist who visited the school. I didn’t think it was necessary. Being bilingual he was a bit slower to speak than ‘normal’ but now, at six, he speaks both languages very well, with a pretty amazing vocabulary.

    Just a normal Czech ‘r’ took him quite a while and when he did finally pick it up he used it and still does to a great extent in English. He also uses more of a ‘v’ instead of ‘w’ in English, and and sometimes hardens the endings (using ‘d’ instead of ‘t’ or is it the other way around?) as Czechs do when they speak English. These are minor issues and I’m sure they will resolve themselves as so many others have without intervention.

    If you speak English at home it’s going to be harder to get a good balance with the two languages. My son mostly watches shows in English, not geared at small kids (like Batman cartoons) plus grown-up stuff with us and I think it helps his vocabulary.

  • Melissa S. July 9, 2013, 9:02 am

    Ha ha I’m pretty sure it is the craziest letter to say! I remember when I first lived in Prague, it sounded so impossible. I would practice saying words like “čtyři” out loud when I walked around the city or when I was waiting for the metro. I think I finally got it, but it took a lot of hard work!

  • Transient Drifter July 9, 2013, 5:50 pm

    Lucky me, I actually married into a name with a háček r, Jindrich. More poor dad had no chance when he was officiating at our wedding. And Melissa S, I did the same thing,walking around practicing ctyri, over and over, I’m sure everyone in Cheb thought I was mental. American kids often have trouble with the letter r also, just a little differently 🙂

  • Sean July 9, 2013, 11:09 pm

    When it comes to crazy to pronounce Czech words, I’m pretty sure the village that my FIL comes from, Třtěno, has to be in the top five. My wife can say this five times fast without batting an eye.

    https://maps.google.cz/maps?q=trteno&hl=en&ie=UTF8&nfpr=1&hnear=T%C5%99t%C4%9Bno,+Cho%C5%BEov&t=h&z=14&brcurrent=5,0,0

  • Ladi July 10, 2013, 5:50 am

    @Sean – how about Hřbitov in Třtěno 🙂

  • Romana July 10, 2013, 9:39 am

    Tanjo, moje jmeno je vylozene tady vrazdeno. Voslovuji ho ‘Woumaana’ :). Ale nekdy i Ramoona a i Amanda.

  • Tanja July 10, 2013, 9:52 pm

    All of you expats living in CR I am sorry you have to deal with this evil letter. And it does not even sound pretty! Although once you learn it, it kind of feels good saying it. Or maybe that’s just a Czech thing.

  • Tanja July 10, 2013, 9:54 pm

    Romano, nebo spis Woumaanooo, mne jednou sestricka v ordinaci volala pod jmenem Tahuana….ani jsem ji uz neopravila. Nastesti na moje jmeno nejsem nejak citliva, takze beru, co mi daj, je to jednodussi nez vsechno vysvetlovat od zacatku.

  • Sean July 12, 2013, 1:18 am

    @Ladi, hřbitov is a piece of cake compared to Třtěno. It’s saying the first ‘t’ and then immediately going into the ‘ř’ that kills me. Střiberny is hard for the same reason.

    I’ve noticed that little kids say ‘ř’ by first rolling the r and then saying the ‘ž’ if that makes sense, ‘ř’ becomes ‘rrrž’. I think I still do that to a certain extent, but my ‘ř’ is pretty good these days. It’s just a matter of practice.

  • Eva January 26, 2014, 7:16 am

    O tomhle mám taky historku ( i kdyz ne tak hezkou jako ta s tou prdelí).
    ja taky neuměla říkat “r” a” ř”..a měla jsem kamarádku, která byla o hodně starší než já ( bylo jí tenkrát asi 12 nebo 13) a ta měla doma křečka..a ja měla moc ráda zvířata..a tak jsem pořád chodila k nim na zahradu a škemrala: Vladěno půjč mi kfečka..a ona “Nepůjčím,dokud neřekneš křeček”..a tak já tam za dva dny přišla (po pilném tréninku) a toho křečka jsem opravdu říct uměla ..

  • Gabriela October 16, 2015, 8:02 pm

    Dobrý den,
    pokud by jste někdo potřeboval radu z oblasti logopedie, ať už v rámci poruch výslovnosti, opožděného vývoje řeči, koktavosti, vývojové dysfázie, afázie, huhňavosti, apod., můžete se na mě obrátit. Jsem klinický logoped, poradenský psycholog.

    Mgr et Mgr. Gabriela Smečková, Ph.D.

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