Czechmatediary

Hi Everyone,

here is the 3rd part of Jana’s wonderful essay called “Growing up Cesky” and it is as interesting as ever! (For part I click here and for part II click here). The last part is coming some time next week.

CZ: Tady je treti cast Janiny krasne eseje zvane “Growing up cesky” a pro zmenu se opravdu nudit nebudete. Posledni cast rozhovoru si budete moci precist pristi tyden.

4/What do you like about the Czech culture and what do you dislike? How about the American culture? What do you like/dislike about it?
What I do not like about the Czech culture is that they do not make the distinction between American citizens and our political figures or government. We are 300 million people and each of us are different, have experiences that shape our opinions. We are not from the same mold so do not categorize us and say we are just like our president because not everyone voted for him eight years ago.
The lack of spirituality or religion which I see in the Czech Republic is disheartening. Whether it be Roman Catholic, Prostestant, Bahai, Muslim there is the thought that religion is for the weak minded.  No moral compass exists. If I cannot have it I can steal it by any means possible which happened a lot after the Velvet Revolution. Make money, make even more money and make piles of money. The government has made it tough for émigrés to vote in elections and to receive their citizenship. Just Czech bureaucracy in general is the worst as best described by Kafka.  The judicial system and the government do not seem to have the ability to return property confiscated by Nazis or communists to their rightful owners. There is a lack of prosecution of the communist leadership who were responsible for killing, torturing, stealing, defaming and ruining people’s lives. There is no sense of justice for people on both sides of the ocean and people do not have closure. Czechs have to meet on the street the same people who persecuted them under communism. I just do not think that is right. (more…)

Jana’s introduction to Growing up Cesky (part I) received A LOT of response from the CMD readers. I guess a lot of people can relate to her “hybrid” life (including me). Today is your lucky day because the part no. 2 is here! Enjoy the ride….

CZ: Janino vypraveni “Growing up Cesky” (1.cast) obdrzelo od CMD ctenaru dosti ohlasu; hodne lidi (vcetne me) se s jejim “krizeneckym” zivotem ztotoznuje. Dnes je vas stastny den, protoze druhy dil jejiho pribehu je tady! Tak si to uzijte…

2/You have shared with me that you speak and write Czech fluently - that is very admirable. Is it all because of your constant communication with your Czech parents? Or do you have to be proactive and do some “maintenance” activities such as actively searching out Czech company, taking classes or reading/listening to the Czech language?
“Mluv cesky ne anglicky” was phrase I grew up hearing a lot. I grew up speaking not Czech but a Moravian dialect. Now when I travel to northern Bohemia people think I am Ukrainian and they laugh at my accent but I do not care. As a child, I learned English from watching Sesame Street or just being around people. My mother did not speak English at the time and it took some time before she spoke it fluently and my dad was afraid I would pick up bad linguistic habits from him. I do not really know how but by the time I started kindergarten I spoke English and never had any trouble making A’s in English. (more…)

I met Jana through the Czechmate diary couple of months ago. She has been very diligent with leaving comments on my site (thank you Jana!) as well as sending me a lot of useful info as far as Czech-American stuff goes. One day we struck up a conversation and I found out that she has a VERY interesting story. Just like Karin Gandalicova from my previous post, Jana was born abroad but both of her parents are Czech. “I bet she has so many interesting stories to tell!”, I thought to myself and then I acted upon that thought and a THRILLING interview with Jana was born (it’s kind of long so I had to brake it up into parts):

CZ: Janu jsem potkala pres Czechmate diary pred par mesici; je jedna z mych nejvzornejsich cternaru - zanechava koment skoro pod kazdym clankem (dekuji Jano!) - tak jsem si jednoho dne rekla, ze si ji trosku “proklepnu”. Zjistila jsem, ze tato mlada slecna byla narozena v cizine (US), ale jako je to s Krarin Gandalicovou z meho nedavneho clanku, oba jeji rodice jsou Cesi. “Ta musi mit tolik zajimavych zivotnich prihod!” pomyslela jsem si, a taky ze jo! Presvedcte se sami:

1/Tell us something about yourself. Where were you born? How did your childhood look like when having 2 Czech parents and growing up in the US? Do you have any funny childhood story (I am sure you got plenty) to share as far as being brought up in the midst of the 2 cultures (Czech and American)?
I was born in West, Texas USA in a multigenerational home, parents, grandchildren, grandparents. My mom teaches special needs children in the public school and my dad is editor, publisher, and owner of an over 200 year old Czech language newspaper, Hospodar, founded in Nebraska. It is one of two papers still being published in Texas entirely in the Czech language. As far as I know it was the one of the few western newspapers allowed into Czechoslovakia under communism.He did a blog cast a year or two ago about his paper.
As far as I know, I am not related to the author Ludvik Vaculik. Wouldn’t it be nice though? I love his fejetons and our family’s sense of humor is similar to his.  My father’s parents, great grandmother, great aunt emigrated while my mother’s parents and the rest of the family stayed in Czechoslovakia. My grandfather was born in Slovakia and emigrated in 1948 because of the communist coup. He managed to get across the border into an Austrian camp and then to Canada before communist agents were able to take him back. As a result of helping my grandfather escape, my great uncle Daniel spent five years in the silver/uranium mines in Jachymov. (more…)

Happy belated Halloween! Although I am not a big of fan of Halloween ( why the heck would I celebrate ghosts and witches and dead people??) I do like to dress up. You see, the Czechs don’t have Halloween at all; we celebrate the All Saint’s Day on November 2nd which is nothing like Halloween. People basically go to the cemeteries during the day and lay candles on their beloved’s graves to honor and remember them. “Well, do you guys ever dress up??”, you may wonder. And yes, we do! Except it is not on any particular day; it may be any day of the year and we call it the Carnival. I used to love carnivals when I was a kid. My mom would always make us our costumes, some year better than others, depending on if she was in a “carnival mood” or not. One time she made my brother a robot costume made out of old cardboard boxes and a bunch of aluminum foil. My brother won that year. (more…)

Czech students are such brats now. Don’t believe me? Ask the teachers. Close to 90% of them complain that their kids are increasingly difficult to manage. My mom is a high school teacher in Czech and she keeps saying the same thing: her students are not as polite and well-behaved as they used to be. She told me once that the teachers at her school are sometimes afraid to actually turn away from the classroom and write on the blackboard in fear of what might happen if they are not looking. Who should we blame? The parents. Why? Read the answer right here (click here):

CZ: Z ceskych zacku jsou ted pekni haranti. Neverite mi? Zeptejte se ucitelu. 90% z nich si stezuje, ze sve zaky mohou jen ztezi zvladat. Moje mama je ucitelka na stredni skole (v Cechach) a stezuje si na to same: zaci uz nejsou takova zlaticka, jako to byvalo. Jednou mi rekla, ze se ucitele pry boji odvratit od tridy a psat na tabuli, aby se v jejich “nepritomnosti” neco spatneho nestalo - jim nebo ostatnim detem. Kdo by se mel vynit? Rodice. Proc? Odpoved najdete tady (klikntete zde).

What does it feel like to have Czech parents but being brought up in a foreign country? The good thing is that you will learn Czech from your parents: they will read you Czech fairy tales, tell Czech stories and teach you  Czech grammar so that you would not forget your Czech heritage. But how would the outside environment accept you? Is it a smooth transition or a hard rocky road to overcome? Karin Gandalicova was one of those kids. Her parents emigrated to Switzerland during communism and that is where Karin was also born. Later her whole family moved to Germany. What Karin remembers the most from the 1st grade was the feeling of shame. Not only she would get ridiculed because of her unusual last name but also  because her mom - used to the Czech ways - would order her to wear slippers at school so that her feet feel more comfortable. Well, that wasn’t the custom in German schools and she also paid for it by being mocked from the other kids like there was no tomorrow. They would gossip about her when her parents put her to ballet classes or when the whole family left for vacation. “Where do these immigrants get money to pay for these things?” they would say behind her back. It was hard to wake up every morning knowing that people think of her as someone who is inferior to them. (more…)

Did you know that since the year 2000 only 277 kids have been adopted by foreign parents? Why so little of them? Compared to the parents of other nationalities, the Czech biological parents tend to be very picky as to who gets their child. They require almost a warranty, which guarantees them that their child will be always healthy, extremely talented, get good marks at school and go to the university. (more…)

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“! (more…)

As I said before I am a Czech married to an American husband therefore our child is growing up in a bilingual home. So far these are my Top 10 recommendations that help me to keep talking in Czech with my 1-year old daughter:

1. talk to him/her in Czech whenever you can; it sounds like a no-brainer but when you keep switching from English to Czech it is sometimes easier to stay in the English “groove”.
2. When your spouse is around and you speak English so that he/she can understand what is going on, repeat some sentences in Czech to your child. I say “some” as I have tried to translate all of them at times and I felt like a parrot that had lost it.
3. Listen to the Czech music and fairy tales on tape (or rather CDs….or IPod or what ever it is nowadays..)
4. Keep the Czech riddles going! Some easy ones that I do over and over are: (more…)
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Remember I wrote a story about my experience with the Czech versus the American educational system? Well, here is yet another guy that can expand your horizons on a similar topic. His name is Bill Cohn, the New York born lawyer who is also a professor of Ethics and Media at the University of New York in Prague (if you can make sense out of that name). Bill did an interview with the Radio Prague where he spoke on the topic of Czech students and how they differ from the American students. He is kind of wishy-washy with his answers (probably didn’t want to upset either side) but after some time of decoding his “politically correct” sentences, this is the bottom line: (more…)