Czechmatediary

Igracek 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. (more…)

Can 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!

If you have not heard of those Czech tongue twisters, you have not lived your life to the full yet. It is truly an experience! My Czech Republic blog has them even recorded (in a fast and a slow motion) so you can get the real taste of those sounds! My favorite one is “Strč prst skrz krk”, meaning “Stick your finger through your throat”. I bet you burn few hundred calories just by repeating this one couple of times!

To listen to the recordings click here.

CZ: Je na case zopakovat si ceske jazykolamy a zlamat si par jazyku. Mam takovy dojem, ze kdyz si jich par zopakujete  nekolikrat dokola, tak taky par tisic kalorii zpalite. Ano, ano, odvolejte ‘gym membership’, sednete si pred zrcadlo, uvolnete si blicejove svaly a dejte se do jazykolamu!

Nahravky ceskych jazykolau jsou k mani na blogu My Czech Republic (kliknete zde).

Many of us , Czechs and Slovaks living in the US, have been on a desperate hunt for Czech/Slovak groceries. Some were more successful than others so  I got the idea to ask around and here is what my friends (thanks you guys!!) and I put together.

PS: I read through your great comments and added most of the new goodies in (highlighted in red).

CZ: Vetsina z nas, Cechu a Slovaku zijicich v USA, ma ten samy problem. Jsme totiz na nekonecnem honu po ceskych. (nebo alespon podobne chutnajicich) potravinach Nekteri jedinci byli uspesnejsi nez zoufajici vetsina a tak jsem dostala napad optat se v okoli. Toto je list, ktery jsme vytvorily s mymi kamaradkami (diky holky!!).

PS: Procetla jsem vase vzacne komenty a vetsinu novych vecicek jsem k listu pridala – jsou zvyraznene cervene

1. Trader Joe’s

• Trader Joe’s Yogurt cups  (vanila & Cream yogurt) – tastes just like “Pribinacek“
• Trader Joe’s rolls – Czech “rohliky“ (warm them up in the toaster oven)
• Czech beers -  Broucek, Starobrno, Krusovice, Staropramen
• “Slivovitz” (green bottle) – tastes the same as the Czech Slivovice
• Meringues (Trader Joe’s brand) – Czech “pusinky”
• TJ Potato chips – taste like the ones from the Czech Fair (chutnaji jako ty z poute: premastene a preslanene..vyborne!!)
• Mineral water – taste just like the one in Czech
• Melta (barley coffee-like beverage) – Pero brand is made in Switzerland, it’s very good (more…)

Josef Lada is a phenomenal, self-taught  Czech writer and an illustrator. Born into a poor cobbler’s family, Lada’s love for drawing made him a self-taught prodigy of a unique style of drawing. In fact, his style is so ‘Lada’ that it is almost impossible to make a mistake when identifying his drawings.

One of his more famous drawings is called “Hospodska Rvacka” (‘Bar Fight’) from 1943, in which he depicts about 50 individuals fighting in a local pub. Why are they fighting? Maybe the innkeeper told them there was no beer left to serve? Who knows… (more…)

I was thinking about making post about Czech jokes the other day, about how funny and yet so cruel they can be! The first google result brought me to the My Czech Republic forum where participants talk just about this particular topic. One of the participant’s response (Petr B) was especially helpful in forming these following ideas. He says: “About Czech jokes. I don’t think we have those “how many … takes to exchange a bulb”, “knock-knock” or “lawyer” jokes…”. He is right, I did not even realize that! Here are some of the categories that me and the forum guy came up with:

CZ: Chtela jsem napsat post o ceskych vtipech a pri svem googlovani jsem natrefila na forum My Czech Republic, kde se lide bavili prave o tomto tematu. Jedna osoba (Petr B) byla velmi dulezita pri formovani techto skupin:

1. Chauvinist/Feminist jokes

1. Feminists from all over the world are having a huge meeting. On the stage appears an English feminist and says: “I came home, I hit the table with my wrist and said to my husband:”I am not cooking from now on”. I see nothing the first week or the second week, but the first week I see my husband cooking dinner.” The hall vibrates with a great applause. The second guest speaker is a German feminist and says: “I came home, hit the table with my fist and said to my husband: ” I am not doing laundry from now on!”. I see nothing the first week or the second week. The third week, I see my husband doing the laundry.” Even greater applause came from the audience. Then the Czech feminist goes on stage and says: “I came home, hit the table with my fist and said to my husband: “From now on, I am not cooking or doing the laundry.” The first week I see nothing; the second week I see nothing; when third week rolls around I am starting to see with one eye.” (more…)

When were were back in the Czech Republic the last time my cousin asked my husband: “Why did you guys get married if you weren’t pregnant?” We gave him kind of a blank stare back, not knowing how to respond. For love? Isn’t that usually the reason why do people get married? But according to  the Ceske Noviny newspaper 59% of Czechs  did get married because of their offspring. What is interesting is that 70% of those who participated in the poll think of an ideal family as having 2 children – no more, no less. This has been a wide spread thought for quite some time, say  the statistical analysts. (more…)

Breaking news! The most popular Czech car fragrance is the vanilla-scented Wunder-baum tree! Second place belongs to the “Black Classic” scent which copies the man’s cologne and third place is taken by the “New car” scent (which is also my personal favorite). Out of the liquid car scents the “Anti-Tobacco” is the winner since it covers up the smell of cigarette smoke, something that many Czechs have to deal with on every day basis. (more…)

The New Valentine addition to my Czech crystal jewelry collection is finished. Every bead simply vibrates with love and devotion!  Take a look and if you like what you see don’t hesitate to contact me – remember Czechmate Diary email subscribers get a 10% discount!

CZ: Prave jsem dokoncila tzv. Valentynskou kolekci sperku, kde kazdy kristalovy koralek primo vibruje nesmironou laskou a oddanosti. Jestlize vam neco padne do oka, nevahejte a zkontaktujte me – nezapomente, ze ti z vas, co jsou zaregistrovani na Czechmate Diary pres email dostanou 10% slevu!
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Tomorrow is the Three Kings day, which is celebrated all over Europe. The Czechs do not celebrate it too much (at least we didn’t when we were kids) but I just found out from my Czech friend – who is married to a Spanish guy – that this holiday is even more prevalent in Spain than Christmas. In fact, the Spanish don’t even celebrate Christmas! Crazy, huh?

Anyhow, this is what Wikipedia says about how is this holiday celebrated in Central Europe:

‘A tradition in most of Central Europe involves writing the initials of the three kings’ names above the main door of the home to confer blessings on the occupants for the New Year. For example, 20 + C + M + B + 08. The initials may also represent “Christus mansionem benedicat” (Christ bless this house). In Catholic parts of Germany and in Austria, this is done by so called Sternsinger (star singers), children, dressed up as the Magi, carrying the star and singing Christmas carols. In exchange for writing the initials, they collect money for charity projects in the third world.’ (Read more about this holiday here).

What probably all of the Czech/Slovak kids know is the Three Kings song (My tri kralove jdeme k vam), which is sang usually together with other Christmas carols during Christmas time. Below is the video as well as the words of the song (translation of the words was done by me so it may not be perfect). Let us reminisce about the times of our childhood!

CZ: Zitra je tu svatek Tri Kralu, tak vam preji to nej, nej, nejlepsi. Je na case si zavzpominat na tu nasi pisnicku o Trech kralich  a tady je k tomu take pekne detske video: (more…)