Czechmatediary

The Praga-Haiti Project is a part of a Czech non-profit organization which drills water wells in Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Each well costs about 130,000 Czech crowns, so if you would like to financially contribute, further information can be found at the end of the following article.

CZ: Praga-Haiti Project je soucasti neziskove agentury, ktera na Haiti den co den vrta studny, aby meli jeji obyvatele pitnou vodu. Prumerna cena jedne studny je priblizne 130 000 korun. Skutecna hodnota je ovlivnena hloubkou vrtu a typem pouziteho cerpadla. Projekt je financovan z prostredku darcu a sponzoru. Jestli byste chteli na ucel teto vystavby prispet, blizsi informace najdete na konci tohoto velmi zajimaveho  clanku.

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How much of the Czech grammar can one forget when living abroad? According to my experience, a lot. How do I know that? Because I took this grammar exercise (click here) and I did not do so hot. And then sadistically I took yet another grammar exercise (click here) and I got another painful confirmation.

If you feel like you can conquer the mountains today, try it yourself. Don’t forget to have a handkerchief close by when it’s time for grading 😉

• Test 1
• Test 2

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The newly built cottages in Krkonose and Jizerske mountains lack style . The traditional so-called ‘roubenka’ cottages (see image below) are slowly being replaced by grandiose Canadian/Austrian-style cottages (see image below) which do not fit into the Czech countryside at all. That is why the Krkonose National Park came out with a new handbook for Czech contractors to guide them on what cottages should they be building in such landscape. [continue reading…]

Just a couple of days ago San Diego was having a Czech-Slovak festival which turned out to be so much fun that it actually appeared in the Slovak news!
CZ: V San Diegu se konal Cesko-Slovensky festival a bylo tam tak rusno, ze se to dostalo i do samotnych slovenskych zprav!

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)

I think everyone would agree that Americans are not  crazy about poppy seeds. The Czechs on the other hand put them into everything, including cakes (kolache), noodles and dumplings. Although each poppy seed is less than one millimeter in length it sure has a mighty power. Besides its culinary uses (condiment, decorative garnish, thickener, poppy-seed oil) poppy seeds have long been used as a folk remedy to promote sleep (opium) and fertility.

We are crazy about the poppies so much that we make movies about them too. Makova Panenka (= Poppy seed girl) is a Czech children cartoon which depicts a beautiful, big-eyed brunette whose skirt is made out of the petals of the poppy flower (see her image below). Heck, we even have a saying “You are such a poppy-head!” (= Ty jses takova makova palice!) meaning “You are so forgetful!”.

Why are we so obsessed about the poppies? How about if I tell you that the Czech Republic is  the number one producer of poppy seeds in the world?! We make  33,101 tons of poppies per year (2007) which is 54.32% of the world production!!!!! That explains everything….although it does not really explain WHY are we so fond of cultivating this plant (ideas anyone?).

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This has been a hot topic of discussion here at the CMD for a long time. Assuming you have lived abroad for a while, would you go back to the Czech Republic for good? Is the answer ‘yes, of course!‘ or ‘no way, are you crazy??‘ VOTE HERE!

CZ: Pro ty co ziji v cizine jiz nejaky ten patek: vratili byste se nekdy do Cech? Ne jen na dovolenou, ale navzdy? Zucastnete se nize uvedene ANKETY a v komentech popripade uvedte Vase duvody:
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What a great name for a blog – “Czech seldom asked questions (or Czech SAQs)”! Sorry the name has been already taken by Mr. Roberts who teaches political science at  Northwestern University. But where is his connection to the Czech Republic, you may ask? Well, it so happens that his dear wife is Czech (from Brno). They go back quite often and over the years  Mr. Roberts has become quite the expert on anything Czech.

Czech out his blog, it is quite entertaining and it gets you thinking about things you have never thought of. For instance, he describes the Czech-style ‘baby shower’ as follows:

‘Some friends who recently had a baby invited me to what they called a welcoming ceremony for their baby. What is this?

Known as the vitání občanků (welcoming of the little citizens), this ceremony was introduced by the communists as a sort of secular alternative to christenings. The ceremony usually takes place at the town hall and is presided over by a government official who makes a speech welcoming the infants to the community and gives them small gifts (like a scrapbook). Despite the fall of communism, the mostly innocuous ceremony remains relatively popular.’ [continue reading…]

Remember my post called Ode to Czechs? Well, enough of us bragging, here is the other side of the coin (and you are not going to like this side). According to a recent poll made by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Czech image in other countries is not good. The participating foreigners see Czechs as rednecks who make sunflower oil and tower clock. Zdenka Kuchynova from Radio Praha further explains: “We are not a nation abounding with prodigy hockey players and gorgeous girls, we are a primitive country inhabited by vulgar and overworked hillbillies. We are cheap laborers and excel in the  production of sunflower oil and tower clock..oh, and we tend to get melancholic.” [continue reading…]