Czechmatediary

Hi Everyone,

here is the 3rd part of Jana’s wonderful essay called “Growing up Cesky” and it is as interesting as ever! (For part I click here and for part II click here). The last part is coming some time next week.

CZ: Tady je treti cast Janiny krasne eseje zvane “Growing up cesky” a pro zmenu se opravdu nudit nebudete. Posledni cast rozhovoru si budete moci precist pristi tyden.

4/What do you like about the Czech culture and what do you dislike? How about the American culture? What do you like/dislike about it?
What I do not like about the Czech culture is that they do not make the distinction between American citizens and our political figures or government. We are 300 million people and each of us are different, have experiences that shape our opinions. We are not from the same mold so do not categorize us and say we are just like our president because not everyone voted for him eight years ago.
The lack of spirituality or religion which I see in the Czech Republic is disheartening. Whether it be Roman Catholic, Prostestant, Bahai, Muslim there is the thought that religion is for the weak minded.  No moral compass exists. If I cannot have it I can steal it by any means possible which happened a lot after the Velvet Revolution. Make money, make even more money and make piles of money. The government has made it tough for émigrés to vote in elections and to receive their citizenship. Just Czech bureaucracy in general is the worst as best described by Kafka.  The judicial system and the government do not seem to have the ability to return property confiscated by Nazis or communists to their rightful owners. There is a lack of prosecution of the communist leadership who were responsible for killing, torturing, stealing, defaming and ruining people’s lives. There is no sense of justice for people on both sides of the ocean and people do not have closure. Czechs have to meet on the street the same people who persecuted them under communism. I just do not think that is right. (more…)

I now have the option of creating polls on my blog and I am VERY excited about that. I have always liked numbers and statistics so bare with me if I happen to publish a new poll about 3 times a week now (just kidding!). The first poll that I have made is however a very significant one. What do we, Czechs and Slovaks, miss about our homeland the most? I left out the “family” option because that’s obvious (or maybe not?). If your answer is not part of the selected options, please feel free to comment bellow.

CZ: Diky nedavne rekonstrukci meho blogu ted mohu vytvaret jakekoliv roztodivne ankety! Vzdycky se mi zamlouvala cisla a statistika, tak vite co to znamena:drzte si klobouky - zacina divoka jizda!! Historicky prvni hlasovani se zabyva klicovou otazkou: po cem se nam tady “za velkou louzi”  (nebo i za jinymi, mensimi louzemi) nejvice styska?? (more…)

Jana’s introduction to Growing up Cesky (part I) received A LOT of response from the CMD readers. I guess a lot of people can relate to her “hybrid” life (including me). Today is your lucky day because the part no. 2 is here! Enjoy the ride….

CZ: Janino vypraveni “Growing up Cesky” (1.cast) obdrzelo od CMD ctenaru dosti ohlasu; hodne lidi (vcetne me) se s jejim “krizeneckym” zivotem ztotoznuje. Dnes je vas stastny den, protoze druhy dil jejiho pribehu je tady! Tak si to uzijte…

2/You have shared with me that you speak and write Czech fluently - that is very admirable. Is it all because of your constant communication with your Czech parents? Or do you have to be proactive and do some “maintenance” activities such as actively searching out Czech company, taking classes or reading/listening to the Czech language?
“Mluv cesky ne anglicky” was phrase I grew up hearing a lot. I grew up speaking not Czech but a Moravian dialect. Now when I travel to northern Bohemia people think I am Ukrainian and they laugh at my accent but I do not care. As a child, I learned English from watching Sesame Street or just being around people. My mother did not speak English at the time and it took some time before she spoke it fluently and my dad was afraid I would pick up bad linguistic habits from him. I do not really know how but by the time I started kindergarten I spoke English and never had any trouble making A’s in English. (more…)

I met Jana through the Czechmate diary couple of months ago. She has been very diligent with leaving comments on my site (thank you Jana!) as well as sending me a lot of useful info as far as Czech-American stuff goes. One day we struck up a conversation and I found out that she has a VERY interesting story. Just like Karin Gandalicova from my previous post, Jana was born abroad but both of her parents are Czech. “I bet she has so many interesting stories to tell!”, I thought to myself and then I acted upon that thought and a THRILLING interview with Jana was born (it’s kind of long so I had to brake it up into parts):

CZ: Janu jsem potkala pres Czechmate diary pred par mesici; je jedna z mych nejvzornejsich cternaru - zanechava koment skoro pod kazdym clankem (dekuji Jano!) - tak jsem si jednoho dne rekla, ze si ji trosku “proklepnu”. Zjistila jsem, ze tato mlada slecna byla narozena v cizine (US), ale jako je to s Krarin Gandalicovou z meho nedavneho clanku, oba jeji rodice jsou Cesi. “Ta musi mit tolik zajimavych zivotnich prihod!” pomyslela jsem si, a taky ze jo! Presvedcte se sami:

1/Tell us something about yourself. Where were you born? How did your childhood look like when having 2 Czech parents and growing up in the US? Do you have any funny childhood story (I am sure you got plenty) to share as far as being brought up in the midst of the 2 cultures (Czech and American)?
I was born in West, Texas USA in a multigenerational home, parents, grandchildren, grandparents. My mom teaches special needs children in the public school and my dad is editor, publisher, and owner of an over 200 year old Czech language newspaper, Hospodar, founded in Nebraska. It is one of two papers still being published in Texas entirely in the Czech language. As far as I know it was the one of the few western newspapers allowed into Czechoslovakia under communism.He did a blog cast a year or two ago about his paper.
As far as I know, I am not related to the author Ludvik Vaculik. Wouldn’t it be nice though? I love his fejetons and our family’s sense of humor is similar to his.  My father’s parents, great grandmother, great aunt emigrated while my mother’s parents and the rest of the family stayed in Czechoslovakia. My grandfather was born in Slovakia and emigrated in 1948 because of the communist coup. He managed to get across the border into an Austrian camp and then to Canada before communist agents were able to take him back. As a result of helping my grandfather escape, my great uncle Daniel spent five years in the silver/uranium mines in Jachymov. (more…)

Rosie Johnson is a columnist for Radio Prague and she recently wrote about her experience on learning how to drive in the Czech Republic. Many of you are probably not aware of the fact that in order to get your driving license the Czechs HAVE to take official driving lessons supervised by a certified instructor. And the lessons are NOT cheap. I personally haven’t had the “pleasure” to undergo this particular course but I have heard stories…And this story is one of them (click here).

CZ: Rosie Johnson je zurnalistkou Radia Prahy a nedavno napsala o jeji zkusenosti s ceskou autoskolou. Ja osobne jsem v Cechach nemela tu “poctu” timto kurzem projit, ale slysela jsem dosti hororovych prihod od mych ceskych kamaradu, kteri timto ucenim-mucenim prosli a vestina z nich take kupodivu prezila. Jestlize mate chut si jednu z techto historek precist, kliknete zde.

Katie is my yet another blogging buddy whom I recently met on-line. She is married to a wonderful Czech guy and together currently live in Berlin. Her passion is to inspire people to make creative homes  and I couldn’t think of anyone more qualified for this job. Why? Her new appartment in Berlin is 480 sqare feet and the kitchen is only 36. It takes a creative soul to fill all that space (or no space for that matter)! Anyhow, Katie recently made a post on her “Making this home” blog, which introduces Czech appartment living to the outside world. It’s a great reading accompanied by  great pictures. So, take it away (click here)!

CZ: Katie je jednou z mych novych blogarskych kamosek, kterou jsem potkala serfovanim na internetu. Je vdana za super ceskeho kluka a v soucasne dobe spolu ziji v Berline. Jejim konickem je inspirovat lidi, jak si vytvorit zajimavy a napadity domov. Jelikoz jejich novy byt v Berline meri 480 ctverecnich stop (sorry, jsem lina  to prepocitavat) a samotna kuchyne ma pouhych 36 ctverecnich stop, je na Katie, aby si tento prostor (nebo neprostor) tvurne zaplnila a jeji blog zvany “Making this home” je plny velmi zajimavych napadu, jak na to. Nedavno take napsala clanek o prazskych bytech a nejen ze je to velmi zajimave cteni, ale je take doprovazeno moc hezkymi fotkami. Clanek si prectete zde (kliknete zde).

What does it feel like to have Czech parents but being brought up in a foreign country? The good thing is that you will learn Czech from your parents: they will read you Czech fairy tales, tell Czech stories and teach you  Czech grammar so that you would not forget your Czech heritage. But how would the outside environment accept you? Is it a smooth transition or a hard rocky road to overcome? Karin Gandalicova was one of those kids. Her parents emigrated to Switzerland during communism and that is where Karin was also born. Later her whole family moved to Germany. What Karin remembers the most from the 1st grade was the feeling of shame. Not only she would get ridiculed because of her unusual last name but also  because her mom - used to the Czech ways - would order her to wear slippers at school so that her feet feel more comfortable. Well, that wasn’t the custom in German schools and she also paid for it by being mocked from the other kids like there was no tomorrow. They would gossip about her when her parents put her to ballet classes or when the whole family left for vacation. “Where do these immigrants get money to pay for these things?” they would say behind her back. It was hard to wake up every morning knowing that people think of her as someone who is inferior to them. (more…)

Hi everyone, I was browsing the net the other day to find anything interesting that would relate to the Czechmate Diary and I found this guy! Bouncing Czech! Karel was born in 1951 in Holesovice (Prague 10, I believe) - that’s when Czech was communist Czechoslovakia - and managed to escape in 1969 when he was only 18. He traveled all over the world and ended up in California. Karel’s website is full of enchanting stories from his life from which I picked one for today’s post. It’s called the “Odors of Communism” and after you are done with reading the story you will be able to smell those odors yourself….(click here to read the story).

CZ: Ahoj! Tak jsem vam nedavno serfovala internet a nasla jsem velmi zajimave stranky! Jmenuji se Bouncing Czech a jsou plne pribehu jednoho pana - Karla. Karel se narodil v roce 1951 v Praze-Holesovicich, kde take vyrost. v roce 1969 se mu podarilo uprchnout a od te doby cestoval po celem svete s konecnym cilem v Kalifornii. Stranky BouncingCzech.com jsou plne zajimavych pribehu z jeho zivota, a ja jsem pro dnesni “hodinu cteni” vybrala Karlovu prihodu s nazvem “Zapachy komunismu” (kliknete zde):

What Czech movies do Americans love? My blogging buddy Sue, who is an American married to a Czech guy, wrote a list of her “Top 8″ (click here ) in her blog. I agree with most of her choices except when it comes to “Little Otik” - that’s a little too much for me. Which movie on the list is your favorite?

CZ: Jake ceske filmy si zamilovali Americane? Ma blogova kamardka Sue (Americanka vdana za Cecha) sepsala list svych nejoblibenejsich “Czech-made” filmu, tak tady to je (kliknete zde). Souhlasim s vesinou, krome Maleho Otika, to je na me opravdu trosku moc….Ktery film je podle vas ta nejvetsi bomba?

These are my (Michael’s) impressions of Ceska Republika, truly the heart (and possibly the soul) of Europe.

Fields of Yellow (Pole Zlutych) … and not just pale yellow but as my wife exclaimed “botanical sunshine”. We first see these as we land at Ruzyne airport and even the Czech woman sitting next to us does not know what flowers or crop this is. No one knows though we ask and ask. It takes my wife googling some odd set of words later to find out that these are likely fields of rapeseed to be grown as a sort of biofuel source. The site also suggested that this was not without its detractors within the country (perhaps a separate Czechmatediary expose). These fields stayed with us through rain or shine, brightening each day no matter the weather until near the end, the flowers were almost gone from the plants. (more…)