Czechmatediary

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…)

How is visiting Czech through eyes of an American? Well, Mike (a great supporter of this blog as well as the occasional guest writer for CMD) and his lovely wife (who has Czech roots by the way) just came back from a trip from the Czech Republic. I don’t know how about you, but after I read his post, I felt like they went just about everywhere! Some of these places I haven’t even visited yet!! (more…)

Sue is my fellow blogging buddy from Atlanta (sueczech.wordpress.com) who happens to be married to a Czech guy. I asked her if she would be nice enough to jot down some thoughts about this Czech experience from her point of view and here is what she wrote: (great story! Thank you Sue!!)

CZ: Jake to je byt Americankou vdanou za Cecha? Sue - moje blogarska kamoska - je jednou z techto zen. Poprosila jsem ji, zda-li by nam o tomto celozivotnim zazitku mohla neco prozradit….

SUE’S STORY

I’ve known my husband for 10 years, and in that time I’ve seen him grow from very Czech, to very American, and now to a happy medium of the two. (more…)

Are you curious to what foreigners think of our Czech drivers? Are they willing to rent a car or would they rather just stay “safe” and take a bus? Gary is one of those foreigners living in Brno and here are his observations…

CZ: Premyslite nekdy nad tim, co si cizinci mysli o ceskych ridicich? Boji se pronajmout si auto, nebo by radeji zustali “v bezpeci” a pockali si na autobus? Gary je jeden z techto cizincu, ktery zije jiz nejaky cas v Brne. Jeho postrehy na toto tema si muzete precist zde..

I am nearing the end of the semester in my level 2 Czech language course and what have I learned? I’ve learned much about the structure of this language without a whole lot of confidence that I can dare speak it to anyone (unless they don’t know a word of Czech). We, the students, have been told (warned) that third level will be entirely in Czech – no cheating with English. Great worry on our part.

So, having presented my instructor with the traditional American symbol (an apple) of respect and thanks to a teacher for a job well done, where to go from here? Our end-of-semester final is in two weeks then my wife and I take the plunge, despite stiff economic difficulties, and will travel to the Czech Republic, she to visit the small villages of her forebears and me to likely stand mute when I have this wonderful opportunity to speak this language I have chosen to learn. No matter how my language skills work or do not work, this will likely be the most interesting trip I have ever made. (more…)

Damian subscribed to this blog for two reasons: 1/ he has a Czech heritage and 2/ he received an assignment at school to write en essay about ethnic group discrimination. Hence his decision on what particular topic to write about couldn’t be easier: discrimination (or no discrimination?) of Czechs. Enjoy.

Ethnic Groups and Discrimination: Czechs

My family’s origin is the region of Central Europe now known as The Czech Republic and Slovakia; however, from 1920 to 1992 these two countries were joined together as one nation called Czechoslovakia. Before then, the region underwent several changes in name as the result of wars and empirical conquests left the region under the rule of Austria, Hungary and the Holy Roman Empire, to name a few. However the main regions historically are Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia (Czechoslovak, 2008 p.1.) To avoid confusion, most individuals with genealogical ties to the region can claim Czech heritage, but might chose to further identify with any of the three regions for more clarification, with the best way to do this by finding out what town or geographical part of the region ancestors come from.
In terms of people from this region immigrating to America, it is difficult to finalize a total as census records before 1920 when census and government records of Czech immigrant origins and birth places included Austria, Austria-Hungary or Bohemia, with Slovakia and Moravia rarely found on such records (Kukral, 2004.) (more…)

Just a ‘simple’ day in the life . . .

. . . of a Czech language student. Lots of conditionals, imperatives, and motion verbs to think about and memorize; no big deal, just the simple life in a second level Czech language class. But, then there is that certain special day that puts it all into perspective; in fashion terms, gives it ‘bling’.

Our class is taught by a young ?eška graduate student. The university Slavic languages department is searching for a permanent faculty position in Czech language and literature. Each of the four candidates for this position has had to come and teach our class for one session with the search committee members looking on. The other day, we had our last candidate come to our class. I say ‘we’ and ‘our’ but this would be misleading. On this fateful day, of six students, only one showed up (a particularly poor comment on student attendance). That would be me. (more…)

Tell us your story… What led you to come to the US?
I came in August 2001 to visit my friend as well as to work as an au-pair. I also wanted to get to know this country a little better, learn English…the usual stuff. Originally, the plan was to stay just for a year and I have been here for 6 ½ years now:). I live here by myself, my whole family still lives back in Czech. At first I had started attending a local college to take some ESL courses, which turned into getting my GED and I have been currently finishing up a second year of the Business Management program here and I love it.

How is the Czech community in Atlanta? Was it easy for you to find new Czech friends?
I have met a lot of great people here. The Czech community in Atlanta is pretty big. We have a Czech supermarket here, Czech restaurant, as well as a Slovak restaurant. (more…)