Czechmatediary

What is your most favorite time as far as visiting the Czech Republic/ Slovakia goes? Is it the Summer? Or the Winter? Each season has its pros and cons. Vote and then tell us more about your reasonings in the comment box bellow!

CZ: Kdy jezdite nejradeji do Cech/na Slovensko? V lete? Nebo v zime? Kazde rocni obdobi ma sve pro a proti. Hlasujte v nize uveden ankete a pak nam vysvetlete sve oduvodneni v komentari!
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I don’t know how about you, but I personally don’t remember much about the history of the Czech language. All I remember from the school days is ” blah blah blah…Constantine and Methodius…blah blah blah…Jan Hus burnt at the stake…..blah,blah,blah…ding-dong!!!! (the school bell finally rings)”. Now that I am older, I find myself finding this information actually interesting and I retain some of the stuff too! Here is some light lecture on the history of our language that I found (I already cut out some ‘non-important’ parts so hopefully I am not going to bore you too much!).

CZ: Ja nevim jak vy, ale ja si z historie ceskeho jazyka moc nepamatuju. Jedine co se mi vybavuje je: “bla,bla,bla..Jan Hus upalen….bla,bla,bla….Ciril a Metodej….bla,bla,bla….crrrrrr!!!! (hodina je konecne u konce)”. Cim starsi ale jsem, tim vic me tyto veci zajimaji – a dokonce si i z toho co studuju neco zapamatuju!! Tady je velmi kratka a lehoucka lekce o tom, jak ten nas jazyk vlastne vznikl (doufam, ze vas neunudim k smrti):

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If you are planning a trip to Czech or just have not been back for a while and would you like to reminisce in your living-room this is a good site for you. Virtual Czech (click here) allows you to travel virtually all over this beautiful country! This way you can decide which Czech  town/city is prettier to sight-see (a very hard task) or you can just visit the places where you grew up – everything over the Internet (crazy, huh?).

CZ: Jestlize se chystate na vylet do Ceske Republiky nebo jste tam zkratka jiz dlouho nezavitali a chcete si zavzpominat primo ve vasem obyvaku, tak pro vas mam prijemne prekvapeni. Pomoci Virtual Czech (kliknete zde) totiz muzete virtualne cestovat po celych Cechach. Kdo vi, mozna ze tam na tech satelitnich mapach uvidite sveho kamarada? Nebo sami sebe???

MICHAEL BOREK is like many of us. He is Czech to the bone and lives in the US. But he is also a photographer and a great one. I asked him if he would do an interview with me and he kindly agreed to it. I suggest you go on his web site and read this interview to get a better appreciation of his wonderful work :0)

CZ: MICHAL BOREK je jeden z nas: je totiz Cech do morku kosti a zije v USA. Je ovsem take fotograf a to nejen ledajaky fotograf – je velmi nadany! Zeptala jsem se ho, jestli by se mnou neudelal rozhovor a on s tim souhlasil. Doporucuji, abyste se mrkli na jeho stranky a precetli si nize uvedeny rozvhovor – budete tak moci ocenit jeho dilo do vetsi hloubky :0)

1/ Where you into photography even during your childhood? Were your parents supportive?

Yes, I did like to take pictures as a child, but I was not very systematic. When I wanted to actually develop these photos, the things got quite complicated: I had to take out the door out of our closet, put them on top of the bathtub, then put a bunch of bowls on top, each filled with a different chemical such as the developing bath, the interrupter and the fixer; I also had to put the red light bulb in  as well as the magnifier above the washer and that was all done in a a classic communist panelak bathroom, meaning that the space was VERY limited. [continue reading…]

We don’t really think about it as much anymore but it is mind-boggling how much the American culture influcenced the whole world, including the Czech Republic. Most of the the American ‘novelties’ cought up very quickly (the good ones and the bad ones) but some did not. The Czech Daily Word did a whole article on those items which did not do so well in Czech. One of them is a drinking fountain, for example (what a shame!); or the usage of checks; or…you will just have to read it (click here).

CZ: My o tom uz ani moc nepremyslime, ale Americky zpusob zivota opravdu ovlivnil cely svet a to vcetne Ceske Republiky. Vetsina Americkych ‘novinek’ se uchytila  (dobrych i spatnych) ale par  ‘cernych ovci’ se v Cechach proste neujalo. Jako napriklad fontanka na piti; nebo placeni cekem; nebo…..to si ale budete muset precist cely clanek v Czech Daily Word.

I have been living in the US for about 10 years now and I know that I have got (unfortunately?) an accent in BOTH languages. For those of you who are in the same boat as me, do you ever wonder how much of an accent do you have? Can you hear yourself that well so that you can tell? On a scale 1 to 10 ( 1 = the least amount of accent), are you like a ‘2’ when it comes to Czech and like a ‘5’ when it comes to English?
In case you would like to compare your Czech accents, I have attached a YouTube video of Petra Nemcova, a world-known Czech top model. Petra has left her home in Karvina (CR) also about 10 years ago and both of her accents are quite noticeable. However, one must also count it the fact that she may be quite nervous during her interviews, hence her accent gets stronger. [continue reading…]

“Plastic bags are one of the most visible symbols of the post-Communist Czech consumer society”, claims Radio Praha in one of its articles (and our friend  Jamie would agree as well ;0). These discarded, free-flying bags foul the countryside, endanger animals as well as the ecosystem around them. Supposedly about 3.0 billion bags are used in the Czech Republic annually, which makes  up to 9,000 tonnes of plastic waste. The Czech Environment Minister Martin Bursik is in the middle of his personal crusade to make people stop using these bags completely. He is in a process of creating a law where people will have to pay for them in the stores like it is done in Ireland for example. Will this decrease the overall waste in the Czech Republic? The fact is that the overall amount of plastic waste in the landfills has not gone down ever since their new ‘green’ law. [continue reading…]

While the world-known American Academy Awards are by far over with, the Czech-style ‘Oscars’ have found their new owners just couple of days ago. The Cesky Lev 2008 movie awards are not as flashy and crowded as the American ones but that does not mean that they don’t award good movies. The best movie for 2008 became The Karamazovs, a film adapted from a well-known roman by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Movie was directed by a talented director Petr Zelenka, who was also involved with other successful movies such as Samotari (Loners) and Knoflikari (Buttoners). Zelenka also received the Best Director of the Year award for this movie. [continue reading…]

Hi Everyone/ Ahoj vsichni,

This is the 3rd part of Ivana’s research paper on a current situation of Czech-Americans (myself included). I found these results rather intriguing (question no. 10) and also found myself pleasantly surprised at times (question no. 11 and 12). Check it out:

PS: for part 1 click here and for part 2 click here.

CZ: Zde je treti cast Ivanina veledila zabyvajici se  situaci soucasnych Cecho-Americanu.  Jsou to opravdu velmi zajimave vysledky, zejmena otazka c. 10 a otazky c. 11 a 12 mi udelaly velkou radost. Mrkntete na to:

PS: Prvni cast najdete zde a druhou zde.

•    Question no. 10 asked about the knowledge of the Czech language among respondents (159 total). More than half, 82 answered positively, 77 acknowledged their inability to speak Czech. Out of the 82 respondents with knowledge of Czech language 31 also use it at home, 23 were relearning the language in courses. 11 respondents mentioned the way the knowledge of Czech language disappeared in their families, they all concurred in the assimilation forces and their parents desire to blend fast in the major American society from which arose the disconnection of passing the language to other generations. [continue reading…]