MY STORIES

OPOL can kiss my shorts! / OPOL is muzete strcit za klobouk!

As many of you know my daughter is bilingual, she now speaks fluently English and Czech. One of her favorite things to do is to sing and dance (surprise!) and her all-time favorite Czech folk song is ‘Utikej Kaco, utikej!‘, meaning ‘Run, Kaca, run!’. The song is about this girl named Kaca, who was chased by a wild black cat.

This video is a living test case where the OPOL method (One-parent-onec-language) is not necessary. I speak Czech AND English with her (when there are friends/family members who do not speak Czech) and she is still quite the bilingual star.

Enjoy!

CZ: Ma 3-leta bilingvni dcera Hanicka je dukazem toho, ze tzv. OPOL metoda (One parent one language)neni ta JEDINA metoda, kterou muzete ucit sve deti dva jazyky. I kdyz se spolu bavime cesky i anglicky (pred znamymi/rodinou, kteri cesky neumi), ovlada oba jazyky vyborne.

HAHNA SINGS ‘UTIKEJ KACO, UTIKEJ!’ (click her to view the video)

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Monday morning? This one will make you smile!/ Pondeli rano? Tohle vam zlepsi naladu!

Now it’s official – I have been living in this country for way too long. Why? The other day my Czech friend sent me a short e-mail reply which contained the Czech words “my take”. In Czech it means “us too” but my brain read it in English rather than in Czech and it made everything look very confusing: “My take? What does she mean? Like ‘Yeah, that’s my take on the situation too’???”

Fortunately, my brain rebooted and clicked into the right gear…I got scared there for a bit!

CZ: Nedavno mi kamaradka poslala jakousi kratouckou odpoved pres e-mail, ve kterem bylo napsano: “My take”. Muj mozek se ale jaksi zasekl v anglictine a cetl to anglicky…..nejen ze jeji zprava nedavala vubec zadny smysl, ale pozdeji jsem si take uvedomila, ze tu uz ziju asi opravdu moc dlouho….:)

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Tagged as: Czech language

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Ode to Czechs / Oda na Cechy

I don’t want to sound like I am bragging but I came to the conclusion that the Czechs (and of course the Slovaks too) tend to have many talents. I don’t mean just in the field of music (hence the saying “Co Cech, to muzikant”, meaning “Every Czech is a musician”) or handy-work (hence the saying “Cesi maji zlate rucicky”, meaning “Czechs have golden hands”), I mean overall, like we are some kind of a resurrected Renaissance nation ;0)
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Tagged as: children, communism, music, my childhood, sports

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blogger on maternity leave / Blogistka na materske

We are happy to announce the arrival of our sweet daughter Ava (an English variation on the Czech name “Eva”). Although she was only 7 pounds, men she is eating her way into being a 20-pounder in no time!

Our other daughter is adjusting fine except that she is terrified when the baby starts crying and runs into another room :0))

CZ: S radosti oznamujeme narozeni nasi sladounke dcery Evy (nebo-li Avy v jazyce anglickem), ktera se rozhodla pred par dny rozhodla prijit na svet. Ackoliv vazi pouchych 7 poundu, chut k jidlu ji nechybi a vubec me neprekvapi, kdyz z ni bude za 2 tydny ’20-pounder’.
Nase prvorozena Hanicka, si zvyka na novy prirustek do rodiny docela dobre, akorat ze pokazde, kdyz miminko zacne plakat, tak se ho tak lekne, ze se bezi schovat do druheho pokoje :0)

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Becoming a Czech patriot is just a knit away!/ Nasadte si klobouk a stante se okamzitym vlastencem

Most of you know from my Facebook updates that during this pregnancy I have developed a serious knitting addiction. Not sure if it has something to do with the nesting syndrome, all I know is that I can’t put the needles down and have most likely developed a carpal tunnel in both wrists. However, as it is with all addictions, I don’t care!

I made mostly hats and purses (and cell phone holers..and buttons) – all with Czech themes (and if there is enough interest next year I will come up with Slovak themes too) – which make them to be wonderful Christmas presents or just presents for any occasion. Each piece is one-of-a-kind, something that NO ONE ELSE will ever wear. But if there is a need, I can also custom make more of them, in different colors or children sizes if you like.

“PURSES”

1. The Earthly Lion

This hand knitted bag is my favorite. The mixture of earthly colors and textures gives it a hippie look which is very much in style now. However, the bag is also very spacious so one can fit almost anything in it: books, groceries, towels when you go to the beach…anything. This awesome bag is about 15″ wide, 12″ tall and 2″ deep. The strap is 25″ long. And the price? Only $39.99 plus $5.00 for shipping and handling.

1. “Burgundy beauty”
A hand-knitted ladies purse from a shimmery, deep red (and thick!) yarn; measures approx. 12″ across and 9″ high. I added a unique decoration of the Czech flag print, which is sewn on in a fun, ribbon-like way across the front and back of the purse. The shimmering red glitters woven in the yarn itself give it a very festive look with which you could show up even in the White House if needed. Cost: $29.99
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Tagged as: Czech and Slovak merchandise, Czech and Slovak presents, my art

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To the gulag with you, landlubber!! / Do gulagu s tebou, ty pozemska kryso!!

I put my daughter Hahna into swimming lessons this year and boy, does the smell of the pool bring memories! It may be embarrassing to admit but I learned how to swim when I was 9 (!!) years old. We did have mandatory swimming classes ever since I was in kindergarten but they did not seem to help. Years and years of training and no results. You can imagine the communist government was not pleased with me. In fact, I am surprised they have not sent me to gulags or somewhere even worse where they deal with the ‘slower’ individuals!

I do have a good excuse, however. Those years of swimming were pure hell. You want a proof? How about if I told you that every Thursday morning my mom would wake me up – it was still dark out – to inform me to get up because it was time for my swimming class. The next thing I would do is threw up. I threw up EVERY Thursday because I was so scared of those darn classes! [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: communism, humor, my childhood, sports

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Not sure if you are Czech? Let’s see how you eat watermelon / Nevite, jestli jste opravdovy Cech? Podivame se, jak jite meloun…

I love watermelon. My whole family does and that is why we have been eating them like crazy this summer (actually, the summer has just started TODAY). There is a definite difference in the way each family member eats this luscious fruit. As a demonstration I took a picture of my final product and my husband’s final product:

Which one do you think is mine and which one is my husband’s? You can tell right away what poor, formerly-socialist-soul was gnawing on what piece ??;0)

CZ: Ahoj, tak jsme si s manzelem nedavno pochutnavali na vybornem melounu. Uhadnete, ktery talir je muj? Rozhodne se hned pozna, kdo vyrostl ve stradajicim socialistickem Ceskoslovensku ;0)

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Tagged as: food, humor

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Trouble with cherries / Problemy s tresnemi

Svěrák wrote a childrens’ song that talks about cherry earrings and my daughter and I like it very much. I have explained to her in great detail what cherry earrings are and was impatiently waiting for the first summer months until cherries finally appear in the stores. Then Hahna could taste them for the first time in her life, but most importantly, she gets to wear the true cherry earrings.

Cherry earrings bring a whole bunch of memories for me. They are the true signature of a Czech summer. How else would you spend a perfect summer afternoon than by sitting high up in a cherry tree, crunching on those big and juicy cherries right off the tree? I don’t know how about you but we would usually end up eating way too many of them and then have an upset stomach.

Anyhow, when we purchased our first bag of this summer season, I was kind of disappointed. The cherries were not as crunchy as what I remember them to be from my childhood AND the distributor cut the pairs in half so there was NO WAY one could make cherry earrings out of them! By miracle, I managed to find ONE pair that was left intact and I victoriously presented it to Hahna. I then proceeded to put it on her little ear – it truly felt like a wedding ceremony – the moment felt so significant for both of us! [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: children, humor, traditions

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The loosest slots – not so loose afterall/ ??? (preklad nefunguje)

I got a funny story for you. For the longest time, even after living in America for couple of years, I kept wondering about this huge highway billboard. It entertained the passing-by driver with a picture of three people having a very good time, laughing like crazy and giving you inviting looks to join them as soon as possible. The three people were usually 2 decently looking women and 1 man, all about 5o years of age. The sign said: “The loosest slots” (and then a name of some place which I did not know). Since spelling was never my strong side, I automatically thought that it said ‘The loosest sluts”, which kind of changes the whole meaning. For years I was completely appalled and flabbergasted about this commercial, for couple of reasons. One, America seemed like such a conservative and moral country to me, where brothels were forbidden and prostitutes were nowhere to be seen; two, why did they hire such old models? I mean, if they HAD to do it, why not hire someone who is more attractive? I was racking my brains about this for years!!!! [click to continue…]

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‘It must be your genes’ / ‘Podekujte vasim genum’

I went to get a facial and a massage which my dear hubby bought for my 30th birthday. The massage always turns out to be great; even the facial is always relaxing, but I tell you, the beginnings are rough – at least for me. As soon as I assume your position on the ‘facial table’ (don’t know the exact name for it) I get bombarded with quite the personal questions about what products am I using on my skin; what soap, what cleansing water, what night cream, what day cream, what eye cream, what wrinkle cream……I guess I would not be so annoyed by it if I did not feel so self-conscious. I just use one face cream (at least I think it’s a face cream and not a foot cream) and that’s it. And half of the time I don’t even know what brand it is! I find it in the grocery store in the cosmetics isle and it is on sale. What else can one want? When I was bombarded by those unpleasant questions this time, of course I had a brain fart and I forgot the name of the frickin’ cream again! So I said “huh….Neutrogena” – for some reason that name sticks to my brain. And I have also had a few products of that brand in the past…I think. [click to continue…]