Czechmatediary

National Geographic has some BEAUTIFUL images of Prague. I don’t know how about you but I can never get enough of them.
CZ: National Geographic ma opravdu NADHERNE fotky Prahy. Ja nevim jak vy, ale ja se takovych fotek nikdy nenabazim.
Here are the pictures (click here).

Have you checked lately if your name is one of the top ten most common names in Czech? The list has not changed much since I was little…. until you come to the most common surname no. 9  which is NGUYEN. The Czech Republic has 21, 110 Nguyens!!!!!!!!! Those are immigrants from Vietnam who own many street stands as well as grocery stores in Czech. They are known to be hard working and their children at school are one of the most excelling ones.

CZ:  Vsichni vime, ze jestlize se jmenujete Dvorak, Novak, nebo Svoboda, tak jste v Ceske republice jeden z tisicu. Novinka je takova, ze kdyz se jmenujete Nguyen, tak jste v Cechach take uz jeden z tisicu. Vietnamska komunita tam totiz kvete.

THE MOST COMMON CZECH SURNAMES

(Nejpočetnější příjmení)

RATING/ SURNAME/ TOTAL

(Pořadí/ Příjmení/ Počet)

1 Nováková 35681

2 Novák 34218

3 Svobodová 26669

4 Novotná 25485 [continue reading…]

Did you know that the whole EU is free of genetically modified fruit and vegetables? In fact the EU is sooooo anti-GMO that the Czech scientists would like it to embrace more liberal attitudes toward this issue. Proffessor Drobnik who teaches biotechnology at the Charles Univeristy in Prague believes that genetically modified crops are safe and better for the environment than conventional plants because they require smaller amount of pesticides and herbicides. This in turn makes them less expensive and their yields are higher since fewer plants get damaged by pests. [continue reading…]

Czech and Slovak group  in NY posted a great video from NY Times on how to make a rustic bread without kneading. If you have ever attempted making a rusting bread, you know that kneading is a very important part of the whole process. If you don’t do that particular step correctly, you end up with a flat and hard pancake which would be more useful for self-defense than for eating.

This video frees you of this painful step and you can become a professional baker in no time :).

CZ: Skupina Cechu a Slovaku v NJ a NY postovala vyborne video z NY Times o peceni chleba. Jestli uz jste nekdy zkousely pect cesky chleba, bohuzel to neni jen tak. Hneteni je dulezita cast procesu a kdyz se to neudela spravne, z chleba se stane naprosta tvrda placka, ktera je dobra spis na sebeobranu nez na jezeni.

Toto video vas osvobodi od nekonecneho hneteni a umozni vam stat se profesionalnim pekarem behem peti minut ;).

According to Calgary Herald the Czech Republic recently banned all sales of liquor with more than 20% of alcohol after a handful of people died from drinking homemade vodka and rum containing poisonous methanol.

If I am not mistaken that means only beer and wine have less than 20% alcohol so will the Czechs be able to survive on that??
Read the rest of the article here (click here).

CZ: Cetli jste jiz nejnovejsi alkoholove novinky v Cechach? Pry je nyni zakazany prodej jakychkoliv lihovin s obsahem alkoholu 20% a vice. Pokud se nemylim, to zanecha na potravinovych regalech pouze pivo a vino. Preziji Cesi tuto krizi??

I knew that the Czech Republic is very bicycle-friendly but I had no idea stuff like this was going on – czech this out! A city in the Czech Republic called Hradec Kralove decided to built a huge muli-level, super ecological and super hi-tech garage for bikes. Here are the features:

• it can take up to 116 bikes
• bike will be automatically taken up by an elevator and automatically parked in its assigned spot
• bike will be safe from bad weather and thieves

Any biker will be able to park his bike there for only 5 Czech crowns which is a very good price.

CZ: Vzdycky jsem si byla vedoma toho, ze Ceska republika je velmi vstricna vuci cyklistum. Cyklisticke stezky existuji snad vsude, divim se, ze jedna z nich nevede pres stred Staromaku ;). Nasledujici clanek me ale opravdu (mile) zaskocil. V Hradci Kralove totiz stavi cely garazovy dum pro kola! Jak to bude fungovat? Kolo automaticky dopravi na misto vytah. Nejen ze bude chranene od spatneho pocasi, ale lupicove si tu taky ani neskrtnou. Garaz bude moci udrzet az 116 kol. A cena za parkovani? Pouhych 5 korun!

Hahna recently turned big 5 and therefore it’s time for my semi-annual update about her language skills. From now on I am also going to be including her little sister Ava, since she is almost two (21 months), and her fun-loving personality is starting to come out (including her bilingual skills).
The first exciting thing I want to mention is that they are bravely keeping up with the rule #1 which is ‘we speak Czech when only mom (or Czech tetas) is around’. They really do! They talk and talk and talk and even when I am in another room they talk Czech. Hahna is teaching Ava Czech words and making her repeat them. Thanks to her chattering busy sister, Ava’s language skills are well above her average. Every morning Ava says: “Mami pisla (Mommy came)!”. Or “Ci bonbonty (I want candy)”. Or “Co to bylo? (What was that?)”, “Co to je?” (‘What is that?’), ‘Ja ci videt’ (I want to see) and so forth. But when daddy or grandma are around they both ‘magically’ switch into English – even Ava! It’s truly amazing. [continue reading…]

I am sorry I don’t mean to be biased but this is the cutest video ever. My 20-month-old daughter is singing her favorite Czech traditional song “Brambory peceny” (‘Baked potatoes’). She is doing so good with her pronunciation – I am amazed! And you know, it takes a lot to make some critical Czech like me to feel impressed ;).
Miminko Evicka zpiva ‘Brambory peceny’ (kliknete zde).
CZ: Ja vim, ze to neni v ceske nature, aby se clovek vytahoval, ale tohle opravdu za vytahovani stoji. Ma 20-ti mesicni dcera zde zpiva jeji oblibenou pisnicku ‘Brambory peceny’ a jeji vyslovnost je opravdu velmi dobra. Posudte sami – neni roztomila??
Baby Ava sings ‘Brambory peceny’ (click here).

Here is an introductory letter from the president of the school herself:

(An abbreviated English version is here)

Vážení rodiče a milé děti,

Prázdniny se nám chýlí ke konci a je opět čas na učení! Doufám, ze jste si letní měsíce náležitě užili a máte spoustu energie na to, abyste si prohloubili své znalosti českého jazyka ve škole. My všichni v české škole jsme celé léto neúnavně pracovali na tom, abychom mohli v září otevřít dveře naší oficiálně registrované neziskové organizace prvním studentům a tento den se nezadržitelně blíží.

Pokud máte zájem přihlásit své děti do české školy a stát se tak součástí naší „české rodiny“, dejte nám co nejdříve vědět, ještě máme několik volných míst. Od září otevíráme předškolní i školní kurzy češtiny ve dvou lokalitách a to na severu San Diega v Rancho Santa Fe a na jihovýchodě v El Cajonu.

Součástí zahájení školního roku bude promítání klasické české pohádky Tři oříšky pro Popelku na velkém plátně pod širým nebem v českém znění s anglickými titulky, na které všechny srdečně zveme. Promítání se bude konat 30. srpna 2012 v 6:30 PM v Carmel Valley. Bližší informace budou následovat v pozvánce. Na všechny se moc těšíme – přiveďte příbuzné i známé J. [continue reading…]