Czechmatediary

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…)

I was sitting out in the hall waiting for my Czech class to begin and trying to ignore a sore throat when an instructor in German came along. She noticed my Czech grammar book and asked me if Czech was a difficult language to learn. It struck me then and there; everything is relative. On the sliding, sore throat scale, German is definitely harder to speak than Czech, even with its letter ‚ch‘. I suppose the nasally French language may be the most soothing of all but I never took that language so I’ll have to make the typical ‚gallic‘ shrug on that one.

A ‚simple‘ formula for constructing a sentence in Czech:

1. pick a verb, any verb. Sip it, hold it in your mouth a moment; savor it. Does it have good ‚legs‘; does it decline well. You don’t want one of those hybrid verbs, half conjugation type 1 and half type 3 (probably should call these renegade verbs). And definitely stay away from the ‚landmine‘ verbs whose declined stem does not even look like the infinitive. (more…)

Here is a guest post of a gentleman named Michael whose enthusiasm for learning the Czech language is quite inspirational. See for yourself…

CZ: Je na case predstavit meho mileho hosta Michala. Je zakem druheho rocniku ceskeho jazyka na mistni universite a jeho nadseni k uceni tohoto sloziteho jazyka je proste nakazlive. Posudte sami:

“IF I HAD TO CHOOSE MY FAVORITE CZECH WORD…”

If I had to choose my favorite Czech word, “pokoj” comes to mind immediately. With its double meaning of ‘room’ and ‘peace of mind’, it is, to me, the perfect example of why one should learn the language to know the culture. (more…)