Czechmatediary

She is an American and she has been living in Prague with her Czech husband Radek for the last 7 years. Her Czech language skills are proficient enough to order food in Czech restaurants, conduct transactions at the post office and talk to her daughter’s preschool teacher. Emily knows one thing for sure, however: no matter how long she lives in Czech or how much time she dedicates to studying the language, she will never be Czech. If you want to find out why, read the Prague Daily Monitor’s article right here (click here).

CZ: Emily je Americanka a zije v Praze se svym ceskym manzelem Radkem jiz 7 let. Cesky umi dostatecne dobre, aby si mohla objednat obed v restauraci, domluvit se na poste nebo se bavit s dcerinou ucitelkou ve skolce. Vi ale jednu vec na jisto: at v Cechach zije jak dlouho chce, nikdy z ni Ceska nebude. Proc? Odpoved si prectete v Emiline clanku (Prague Daily Monitor) zde (kliknete zde).

Remember, when you guys were filling out a Ivana’s questionnaire in order for her to complete her Master’s thesis on Czech-Americans? Well, the results are here! Ivana did a great job and since it is quite a long and meaty essay I cut it up into parts (I did not want our brains to explode):

CZ: Pamatujete is lidicky, jak jste pred nedavnem vyplnovali Ivanin dotaznik? Iva ho totiz potrebovala k dokonceni sve diplomky, zabivajici se tematem dnesich Cecho-Americanu. Moc se ji  esej povedla, ale jelikoz je to kusanec poradne prace, rozdelila jsem to na casti, aby se nam z tech informaci neprevarily mozky:

21st century – the Czech-Americans questionnaire survey

by Ivana Stavarova

Following the time line this chapter describes the lives of Czech-Americans in the 21st century. There are very little sources concentrating on this particular group of people now when borders are open and there does not exist any severe political, religious or social pressures that stand as push factors, especially any factors serious enough to push the citizens of an independent, free, and relatively prosperous Czech Republic to move to the USA and seek better lives there. [continue reading…]

The Roma Realita association recently wrote a letter of complaint to Barack Obama himself. The representatives of the Roma minority (commonly also known as Gypsies)  in the Czech Republic raised 2 main points that they are concerned about: 1/ the expansion of nationalistic extremists and 2/ the unresolved issue of the “defamation of the Romany Holocaust in the Czech Republic”, calling it a “historical shame”. During the World War II the Czech Republic had 2 Nazi camps for the Roma people (the letter also stresses that all of the guards were Czech, not German). The Roma Realita complaints that neither site has a memorial and one of those sites is currently occupied by a pig farm. What is interesting, however, is that the new Minister of Human Rights and Ethnic Minorities, Michael Kocab, already promised to the Romanies in early January of this year that the monument/pig farm issue is on his priority list (so why to complain about this since it is being dealt with? Or is it not being dealt with?). [continue reading…]

Since February is a love month (i.e. St. Valentine’s Day) I decided to provide you with a sweet recipe – the Palacinky!! Palacinky are the French-style crepes but better. The wonderful thing about them is that you can have them sweet-style (like in the recipe provided bellow) or you can serve them salty-style, filling them up with some warmed-up spinach, bacon, roasted garlic, shredded cheese – and I cannot write about this anymore since my mouth is filling up with drool – you get the point. Enjoy!!!

PS: I attached a very fitting  YouTube video which will entertain the little ones but it can also be used as a language learning tool since the piggies talk quite slow :o)

CZ: Jelikoz unor je mesic lasky, recept na sladoucke palacinky se sem hodi jako ulity! Nic vam o nich nemusim vysvetlovat, kazdy tento bozsky pokrm zna. Co je ale dobre na tomto receptu je to, ze jsem ho predelala do americkeho (nemetrickeho) systemu. Prilozene je take kratke palacinkove video, urcene zejmena  pro ty nejmensi. Dobrou chut! [continue reading…]

HAPPY VALENTINE’S day to all!!!! Today I picked a cute, contemplative story written by my fellow blogger, Petr Boruvka. Petr is a cool Czech guy who lives in Brno (CR). What is mind-boggling, however, that his English is completely flawless!!! At least to my “ear”. Anyway, in a following post Petr talks about his view on St. Valentine’s Day. As I said, it is a pretty cute story :o)

To read Peter’s post click here.

CR: Stastny a Vesely Valentyn (jestli se to tak vubec v cestine rika)!!! Pro tento svatecni den jsem vybrala clanek meho blogarskeho  kolegy Petra Boruvky. Petr zije v Brne, coz neni az tak zvlastni. Co je ale uzasne je, ze jeho anglictina je naprosto bez chyby!! Presvecte se sami, a prectete si jeho zamysleni nad dnesnim svatkem lasky – je to velmi hezke poctenicko :0)

Hi Everyone,

Besides the fact that my Czech vocabulary has decreased quite a bit (read my article on “Let’s talk Czenglish “), I also keep realizing that the longer I live in the States the more often I find myself struggling with the Czech grammar. I always thought: “That would never happen to me!”, and here I am, thinking if  the word “vikend” (weekend) is written with “y” or “i”. Or do I say “tvuj sesit” or “svuj sesit” (both expression mean “your notebook”)? I find myself repeating these expressions over and over in my head to see if one or the other will “click” as (hopefully) the correct version. How about you, what do you struggle with? Share your experience in the following poll: [continue reading…]

You desperately want  to send your mom flowers or some nice chocolate for her upcoming birthday. But you got a problem: your mom lives in Czech and you live in the US (or elsewhere). What do you do? One of our readers, Martina, gave me the greatest tip ever:

Her favorite gift delivery services are www.zlasky.cz, which deliver anything from chocolate, candles, flowers and teas to jewelery, underwear, toys or anything else you can think of. She also said to check out “ptakoviny” (or “silly things”) which offer some unusual gift options ;0))

The other gift delivery website Martina recommends is called www.krasnekvetiny.cz. These people are mostly about flowers, wine and stuffed animals.

So you don’t have to drag heavy packages to the post office and pay $100’s of dollars in shipping fees just to send your mom some chocolate and coffee! You don’t have to be afraid that the Czech mailman eats through your box of chocolates! Now your mom receives it personally at her door and you don’t have to move a finger (besides the one that clicks the computer mouse)!

Thanks so much for the tip, Martina! [continue reading…]

The European Parliament fears that the Czechs will make all of the EU women  become unappreciated stay-home moms. It fears that all of the women will end up locked up in the kitchen for the next 6 months, barefoot and with their kids, while all of their belongings will be taken away, except for the wooden spoon and an apron. Why? Because the Czech presidency dared to propose ‘children to be considered an adequate alternative to a professional career’. The EU wrote in its informal discriminatory report that ‘this vision points to the traditional division of work between a man and a woman, where the man works full time and the “invisible hand” (woman) takes care of his needs, the household and their children’ (man, someone’s unhappy wife must have written this document). These harsh comments were not taken well by some Czech members of the Europarliament like Mr. Jaroslav Zverina, who responded accordingly: ” I believe that this critique comes from a pure feminist ideology, where the woman’s anatomy is equal to the man’s, without a uterus and that woman’s reproductive organs are really not that important to the world”. [continue reading…]

Michael’s last trip while visiting Czech was Marianske Lazne. I have to shamefully admit I have never been there myself but after reading his great story I so want to go! I am just not sure if I would do any spa treatments :0))

CZ: Michalova posledni zastavka v Cechach byly Marianske Lazne. Musim se vam priznat, ze jsem je sama jeste nenavstivila, ale pote, co jsem si precetla Michalovy zazitky, uz me nic nezadrzi. Jenom si nejsem jista, jestli bych si zaplatila nize uvedene lazenske taktiky :o))

THE ‘SPA’ EXPERIENCE

Marianske Lazne is a ‘spa’ town, one of at least three famous ones in the Czech Republic.  You may of heard of it by its German name ‘Marienbad’ and is famous as the place King Edward VII of Great Britain took the ‘cure’.  That Good King Edward only lasted nine years as King is no slander on the spa.  With our intentions of experiencing all things Czech, we took a spa package at one of the town’s hotel/spas.  [continue reading…]