Can you guess which language has the longest word? Just to let you know, I disregarded all the chemical names.
CZ: Ktery jazyk ma nejdelsi slovo, anglictina nebo cestina? Mozna, ze to uz vite, ale kdo to nevi (nebo se nad tim jeste nikdy nezamyslel), zde jsou vysledky:
English: antidisestablishmentarianism ( = opposition to the disestablishment of the Church of England)
Czech: nejnedoobhospodařovávatelnějšího(= the most maintained one, as far as farming goes)
The English word has 28 letters while the Czech one has 32 letters – the Czech language won! But I got to tell you if the Czechs did not have declinations we would be cutting it short here!
Remember that scary movie called The Name of the Rose? It was based on the equally-named book written by an Italian medievalist and a philosopher Umberto Eco. After more than 30 years the author’s writing creativity has turned to Prague, specifically to the Prague cemetery ( you can hear sound of the hauling wolfs in the background).
The central figure of the novel is this cynical spy who is being sought after by the whole Europe in order to carry out various clever espionage or an assassination tasks. “Il cimitero di Praga” has 450 pages and uncovers in detail the politics of the 19th century which also shines an uncomfortable light on today’s historical and political face of Europe. [continue reading…]
My linguistic buddy Jamie had a great post idea. I am to ask people what kind of strange English phrases were they taught back in Czech/Slovakia?
Here is his experience for example:
‘When I arrived at the hotelovka (vocational school for waiters and hospitality services), they were training kids as servers to ask restaurant customers, “Do you have any wishes?” When I first arrived in the CR, nearly everyone was pronouncing “sweater” as “sweeter”, and when we would correct them, they would protest that “sweeter” was “British English”, but the British don’t say it. They also taught the kids to call the školník the “school servant”, which, as far as I know, is only used in Singapore.’
Isn’t it so funny? I myself don’t remember any stupid English phrases I was thought (I am sure there were many) I just know we were thought some STRANGE pronunciation ;0)) [continue reading…]
The Czech Republic covers luscious, fertile land which produces various types of fruit and vegetables. It may seem surprising to you (as it was to me) that most of the produce is imported! For example, 51,000 tons of last year’s crop of domestic apples were exported, while 71, 000 tons of apples consumed by the Czechs came from abroad. This quite ineffective system weakens the local economy, increases the prices of local goods and the constant semi-truck movement across the border worsens the air pollution.
The Czech Republic is a potato nation (almost every other folk song is about potatoes) but strangely most potatoes are currently being imported from Germany and also Poland. As far a garlic grown in Czech goes, it is pretty much impossible to find it in the stores. Where does it come from? Over 80% of it comes from China (!!) which is 21,000 km away. [continue reading…]
If you have not heard of those Czech tongue twisters, you have not lived your life to the full yet. It is truly an experience! My Czech Republic blog has them even recorded (in a fast and a slow motion) so you can get the real taste of those sounds! My favorite one is “Strč prst skrz krk”, meaning “Stick your finger through your throat”. I bet you burn few hundred calories just by repeating this one couple of times!
CZ: Je na case zopakovat si ceske jazykolamy a zlamat si par jazyku. Mam takovy dojem, ze kdyz si jich par zopakujete nekolikrat dokola, tak taky par tisic kalorii zpalite. Ano, ano, odvolejte ‘gym membership’, sednete si pred zrcadlo, uvolnete si blicejove svaly a dejte se do jazykolamu!
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)
known for its high quality (on the home front and worldwide)
it has been around since the 13th century
Czech crystal chandeliers decorate the opera house in Rome, Milan’s La Scala or Versailles
19th century Czech artist Bedrich Egermann pushed ahead the ‘crazy’ thought of glass becoming a new form or sculpturing material
3. Charles the Fourth (1316 – 1378)
The most well-known Czech king ever, known as the Father of the Land
He took over the Czech lands when they were in a terrible shape and made them out to be the most powerful state (Roman Empire) in Europe
A founder of the first university in Central Europe (Charles University in Prague), Prague’s Charles Bridge and other magnificent structures [continue reading…]
Texas Czechs developed a very nice Czech language series on YouTube. I found so far only the first 4 beginner lessons but I am sure more will be coming in the near future. For those who would like to learn this difficult language these videos are a perfect opportunity. They are simple and entertaining.
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! [continue reading…]
I have been lately into listening to Karel Kryl’s songs. This guy was such an interesting person! He died quite young at the age of 49 but his songs are going to be cherished by the Czechs and Slovaks forever. By the way, his music skills are just one slice of the Kryl-pie. He was a great poet and a painter as well.
CZ: Posledni dobou se mi nejak zalibily Krylovy pisnicky a dosti casto je ted posloucham. Nic moc jsem o Krylovi pred tim nevedela, pouze ty zaklady, tudiz jsem se rozhodla udelat jakysi Krylo-vyzkum, co se tyce jeho zivota a dila. Pro zmenu to byla opravdu velmi zajimava a dobrodruzna osubka. Nejen ze byl nadany na poezii a hudbu, byl take vybornym malirem. Zbytek textu je v anglictine, protoze na cesky preklad uz jsem nemela cas ani silu. Sorac.
Karel Kryl was born and raised in a Moravian town called Kromeriz, where his grandfather established a printing business, one of the best ones in pre-communist Czechoslovakia. Thanks to this book-friendly surrounding Karel was in love with literature ever since he was a little boy. When he was just 5 years old the communist party won the elections and few months later he was forced to watch, while the communist army destroyed all of his family’s printing machines. That was the end of prosperous times at the Kryl family. His father had to start working at the local factory and Karel later followed his footsteps. [continue reading…]
Can you guess which language has the longest word? Just to let you know, I disregarded all the chemical names.
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