I recently discovered this great website called “Cesta Slunce” (created by parents of physically or mentally impaired children) where you can actually listen to the Czech children songs and riddles! I found there some of my all-time favorites such as “Bezi liska k Taboru” ( “A fox is running toward Tabor”), “Holka modrooka” (“Blue-eyed girl”) or “Sly panenky silnici” (Girls were walking along the road” – I know, the translation sounds kind of weird..). I also found my new favorite song – “Bublanina“! [continue reading…]
I might have told you that my husband had tried to learn Czech in the past. Now I would like to tell you little more details about it because it is pretty unbelievable. We were searching for a Czech language course all over at that time but unless my husband was willing to travel a couple of hours, 3 times a week to a large university, there was no way for him to learn the language. Until the day when Keith finally came accoss a “hidden”,self-paced Czech course at a local college. When I heard the word “self-paced” though, I cringed. “Self-paced Czech? That’s rough!” I thought to myself. Little did I know that was just the beginning of a grim reality which my husband would slowly reveal to me. Let’s start with the teacher: the “Czech language” professor was not Czech, in fact she didn’t even speak it, she was American but taught about 6 different Slavic languages, including Czech (beats me!!). How about the textbook? The book was published in 1968, typed – as typed on a typewriter (!!) – remember? That manual thing that had a lot of buttons with letters on them and made an incredible amount of noise? Yeah, that one… [continue reading…]
On August 19th a brave Czech swimmer managed to swim the Strait of Gibraltar both ways in less than 9 hours. He has become the 5th person in the world and the 1st Czech person to do that. By the way, do you know what his name is? David Cech ( = David Czech)! Read more about this “dude” right here (click here).
CZ: 19. srpna leta Pane 2008 jeden statecny plavec preplaval Gibraltarsky pruliv (ze Spanelska do Maroka a nazpatek) za necelych zazracnych 9 hodin. Stal se tak 5. osobou na svete (a 1. Cechem), ktere se neco takoveho vubec podarilo.Vite jak se tento chlapik jmenuje? David Cech! Vice si o Davidovi prectete zde (kliknete zde).
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Thanks to the Warsaw Pact the Soviet army occupied Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic from 1968 until 1991. During those 23 years those troops caused a lot of environmental damage to our lands. They operated in 73 localities from which 60 were left in a very bad shape. What were the main environmental problems?
- contamination of ground water by fuels like petrol or diesel
- dumps with hazardous waste
- unexploded ammunition (!!) [continue reading…]
Currently the big news in Peking Olympics is that the Czech decathlon star Roman Sebrle did not win a golden medal this year – he ended up on the 6th place. The first place for the next 4 years belongs to a 28-year-old Bryan Clay from Texas. Roman suffered a lot of injuries during the training this year and that retarded his physical abilities during the Olympics; as he summarizes it “It was just a bad season this year, that’s all..”. How are the other memebers of the Czech team doing? The most recent gold medal was won by Barbora Spotakova in women’s javelin throw. Since she beat the Russian athlete on the 21st of August, Barbora says that the victory is extra-special to her because she had won it on the 40th anniversary of the Russian Invasion in 1968. [continue reading…]
Ivana, a graduate student from the Czech Republic is asking if we could do her a favor and possibly fill out one of her questionnaires for her research thesis. Her topic concentrates on Czechs/Czech-Americans living in the US and how it affects our overall Czech cultural heritage; do we retain it? Or do we lose it?
If you could be so kind and fill it out (it’s really short) that would be great. Ivana promised to give us the “results” one she is finished!
CZ: Ivana je postgradualni student z Cech a poprosila me, zda-li by ctenari Czechmate diary nemohli vyplnit par otazek pro jeji diplomovou praci. Pise totiz o Cesich/Cecho-Americanech zijicich v Americe. Budte tak hodni, a pomozte ji tim, ze anketu vyplnite – je to opravdu kratoucke. Dekuji! Ivana mi slibila, ze se pak podeli s vysledky!!!
Research questionnaire for Czechs/Czech-Americans living abroad
Once you fill them out, email them to i.stavarova[at]email.cz. Thank you!
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Do you remember Prague’s most boring (sometimes the most dangerous) quarter – Pankrac? Well, now it is not only the new Business center of Prague but it will be the changing station for new Metro D line. The city is planning to build 2 postmodern skyscraper buildings in the shape of the letter “V” but the plans had to come to a stop for a while. The UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee did not approve of the buildings because they are supposed to be 104 metres high, which exceeds the UNESCO 70-meter building limit; anything taller than 70 metres goes against the preserved historical city panoramas. What is the final verdict? [continue reading…]
Czechs abroad
If you ever wonder how many of Czechs are living abroad and where, here is a very comprehensive table (for the complete table click here). I was surprised that Arentina, for example, is a home to about 30,000 Czechs! Rwanda, on the other hand, has only about 2 Czechs, so let’s hope they have a good relationships with each other! Take a look yourself:
CZ:Premyslite nekdy nad tim, kolik nas, Cechu, vubec ve svete je? Webovka czech.cz o tomto tematu poskytuje dosti souhrnny seznam (pro celkovy seznam kliknete zde). Prekvapila me napriklad Argentina, kde zije kolem 30 000 Cechu! Rwanda na druhou stranu, ma pouze 2 Cechy (doufejme ze se znaji, a ze spolu vychazi!). Mrknete se na to sami: [continue reading…]
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Hi everyone/ Ahoj,
So my WordPress upgrade is going a little slower than expected but bear with me it’s almost done! Give us couple more days and then we are back to normal with pictures and all!
Tak rekonstrukce tohoto blogu se trosku protahuje, ale nebojte se, uz jsme skoro u cilove cary! Dejte nam jeste par dni a pak budeme zase se vsim vsudy v plnem provozu…
Have a good Saturday/ Mejte se moc pekne,
Tanja
If you liked this post buy me a coffee! (Suggested:$3 a latte $8 for a pound) Thanks!
Do you know what is the hardest job position to fill in the Czech Republic? Grave-digging! Some current gravediggers work at as much as 7 graveyard locations. Why is it so hard to fill these spots? Besides the fact that one has to deal with dead bodies all the time, there is also a required course that a potential gravedigger has to take in order to become the real deal. It costs 4,000 Czech crowns and does have a final examination at the end of it. The exam consists of 2 parts: [continue reading…]
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