Czechmatediary

I recently discovered this great website called “Cesta Slunce” (created by parents of physically or mentally impaired children) where you can actually listen to the Czech children songs and riddles! I found there some of my all-time favorites such as “Bezi liska k Taboru” ( “A fox is running toward Tabor”), “Holka modrooka” (”Blue-eyed girl”) or “Sly panenky silnici” (Girls were walking along the road” - I know, the translation sounds kind of weird..). I also found my new favorite song - “Bublanina“! (more…)

As I said before I am a Czech married to an American husband therefore our child is growing up in a bilingual home. So far these are my Top 10 recommendations that help me to keep talking in Czech with my 1-year old daughter:

1. talk to him/her in Czech whenever you can; it sounds like a no-brainer but when you keep switching from English to Czech it is sometimes easier to stay in the English “groove”.
2. When your spouse is around and you speak English so that he/she can understand what is going on, repeat some sentences in Czech to your child. I say “some” as I have tried to translate all of them at times and I felt like a parrot that had lost it.
3. Listen to the Czech music and fairy tales on tape (or rather CDs….or IPod or what ever it is nowadays..)
4. Keep the Czech riddles going! Some easy ones that I do over and over are: (more…)
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Hello everyone/ Nazdar vsichni!

I thought some of us moms - myself included - would like to brush up on Czech lullabies (Ukolebavky) so I went ahead and found some of them. Up till now I personally would usually just remember the first verse/sentece of a particular ukolebavka and then was left with brainless humming or substituting words than not only didn’t rhyme with the rest of the song but they also didn’t make sense (my poor child). Well, today is a new day, new beginning! I did not translate the content into English for one simple reason: I want to keep my sanity (I hope you understand).

CZ: Tak jsem si rikala, ze je na case, abych si oprasila znalosti ceskych ukolebavek. Pamet mi moc neslouzi, coz znamena, ze si vetsinou pamatuji prvni vetu z kazde ukolebavky a pak jsem odsouzena k prostemu broukani, nebo do pisne vlozim vymyslena slova, ktera nejen ze se nerymuji, ale take nedavaji vubec zadny smysl. Jestlize mate ten samy problem, tyto nize uvedena slova vam pomohou problem vyresit: (more…)

I have a 10-month old baby. Her name is Hahna; that’s right – H-A-H-N-A - for people to pronounce it the European way (although many times she is still called Hannah). Picking a name that would work for both “worlds” was very important to me. I didn’t want to name her something very ethnic like “Drahomira” so that she wouldn’t be ridiculed at school and my husband could pronounce it. I also didn’t want to name her something like Cloe; although I like the sounding of that name, as far as Czech language is concerned, it is unfortunately completely useless and that’s because: (more…)