I don’t want to sound like I am bragging but I came to the conclusion that the Czechs (and of course the Slovaks too) tend to have many talents. I don’t mean just in the field of music (hence the saying “Co Cech, to muzikant”, meaning “Every Czech is a musician”) or handy-work (hence the saying “Cesi maji zlate rucicky”, meaning “Czechs have golden hands”), I mean overall, like we are some kind of a resurrected Renaissance nation ;0)
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WARNING: this post is going to be VERY boring for someone who is NOT a Czech mother living abroad. For that reason I am not even going to attempt to translate it into English. If you are a Czech mother living abroad pull out your handkerchief and weep because the good times are over…..
CZ: Kamaradka mi poslala novinky ohledne prispevku na deti a porodneho. Jeden poplatek se snizuje a druhy (porodne) plati jen pro prvorodicky. Ano, je na case vytahnout si vsechny ubrousky a kapesniky co mate po kapsach a horce si zaplakat.
Dosud pobírají rodiče u čtyřleté varianty rodičovský příspěvek v základní výměře, tedy ve výši 7600 korun měsíčně, do 21 měsíců věku dítěte. Od ledna bude příspěvek v základní výměře poskytován pouze do dovršení desátého měsíce věku dítěte.
Sníženou výměru, tedy 3800 korun měsíčně, tak rodiče na čtyřleté rodičovské dovolené budou pobírat již od desátého měsíce věku dítěte na rozdíl od současného 22. měsíce. [click to continue…]
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My daughter Hahna loves to watch Czech cartoons I used to watch when I was little. I like to watch them with her when I get a spare moment (and don’t blog..or knit…). And during those times something finally dawned on me. Most of these cartoons feature bugs and animals that are – I have to admit – ugly! I could not help but compare them with some other well-known American cartoons such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Winnie the Pooh, Bugs Bunny or Bambi. OK, so here we have a mouse, a duck, a teddy bear, a bunny and a fawn. These are some really cute animals in a real life, right? Now let’s look back at the Czech selection: we have a mole (Krtek), an ant (Ferda Mravenec), fire-flies (Broucci), a butterfly (Motyl Emanuel) and a worm (zizala Julie). I am sorry but have you lately look at a photograph of a mole? Don’t get me wrong, I love animals but that thing is far from cute! Couldn’t those cartoon-makers pick at least a hedgehog or something more appealing? (Granted, we also have Fik, the humongous dog or Bob and Bobek, two cute rabbits who live in a deserted magician’s hat. But that still does not explain those other insect-like characters.)
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The Czech school system decided to make a radical change and substitute cursive letters with the so-called Comenia Script. The letters are similar to printing letters and much easier to write. The teachers, however, are divided into two camps of thought: one side says that learning how to write with cursive letters promotes a better brain development; the other side claims that many children have problems learning it, therefore their self-esteem goes out the window. The latter idea is also supported by Petr Poethe, the Czech psychiatrist, who adds: “Some countries like USA or GB have not been using cursive writing for some time now and they are not dumber than us, are they?….It is also a nonsense for an older child to be getting lower grades for an otherwise perfectly written essay because his handwriting wasn’t neat enough”.
Some people also support the idea that even if one has a nice cursive handwriting, foreign countries will not be able to read it since nobody there is used to reading such ‘old-fashioned’ alphabet anymore. [click to continue…]
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Igracek was a communist classic line of plastic toy figurines, which in the past could be found in every Czech/Slovak child’s toy basket. Supposedly a knock-off of the famous German Playmobil brand, Igracek was meant to educate kids about real-life professions, creating plastic figurines of doctors, nurses, mailmen, chimney man (no offense, but how many chimney men are still out there? I think I have seen like one in my whole life…) and so forth.
After the Velvet Revolution the Igracek company (Igra) went bankrupt since the Czech market was flooded with new and enticing foreign-made toys and only until recently Igracek became simply an expensive collectible. The new company Efko bought the rights to the brand, including the actual chemical recipe to make the mold used to make the original figurine.
Today’s updated Igracek is not bigger but it is definitely better: “The main change of the figurine was to give it new arms, with movable wrists. The arms used to be connected to the hands of the figurine, now the hands can be moved. [click to continue…]
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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!
To listen to the recordings click here.
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!
Nahravky ceskych jazykolau jsou k mani na blogu My Czech Republic (kliknete zde).
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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! [click to continue…]
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The American moms affirm the trust relationship with their babies through breastfeeding on demand, while some Czech parents do it by juggling their little ones in the air. What do I mean by that? They take a parent-baby course which is called “Baby flying”. The mother (or the dad) hold on to the baby’s arms/legs and variously twist them in the air, all to the sound of loud, dancing music. The course instructor, Blanka Kolarova-Sudikova, claims that besides affirming trust in between him and the parent, baby-flying helps with other problems such as if the baby is colicky or too hyperactive.
This unusual course has had so far about 1,500 graduates and numbers are growing. Only the doctors don’t like it one bit. They say that it can simulate the so-called “Shaken baby syndrome”, which leaves a serious health defect on a baby. [click to continue…]
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Written by Bozena Nemcova (Brothers Grimm have a similar fairytale by the way. Since Bozena Nemcova was born 35 years later than the Grimm brothers, she may have been ‘influenced’ by their original story a bit ;0)
Once there lived a peasant with his wife in a little cottage. One day his wife said to him, “Life is so empty without children; I wish we had a little boy.” Soon her wish came true and she gave birth to a son. He was healthy and strong, but no bigger than the size of a thumb. Therefore they named him Tom Thumb (Paleček).
One day around lunchtime, said Tom, “Mother, pack some lunch for my father and I will take it to him.” Mother laughed at his idea since he was so little but did as he asked. He set off on a journey to his father’s field, taking a lunch basket with him. Since he was so small, it looked as if the basket was walking on its own. After a while of walking, he reached a stream. But Paleček was smart and knew what to do. He pulled out a wooden spoon out of the basket, put it in the water and sat in it like it was a boat. He pulled the big basket behind him and that is how he got across the stream.
When Tom reached the field he started to shout, “Father, Father, I have lunch for you!” The peasant did not hear him but he saw the moving basket. He lifted it up and to his surprise, he saw his little son. While his father was eating lunch, Tom Thumb climbed into a bull’s ear, yelling commands at the bull and that is how he was plowing his father’s field. He plowed so fast that he did more work than his father. [click to continue…]
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The local hospital in Ceska Lipa is in a big trouble. A father of a newborn child has filed charges against this institution for negligence, since his wife gave birth to their first-born right into a toilet bowl. How could this happen? The 23-year-old expecting mother was admitted with stomach pains. After an agonizing night without any help from the hospital staff, she had decided to relieve herself in the bathroom and..uppsss…out came a baby! The poor kid has now a big bruise on its head.
CZ: Nemocnice v Ceske Lipe to v dnesni dobe nema lehke. Otec jednoho novorozenete totiz podal trestni oznameni proti teto instituci a to proto, ze mistni porodnici pry zanedbali peci. Jeho 9 mesicu tehotna zena prisla do nemocnice s hroznymi bolestmi ‘zaludku’. Nikdo ji v nemocnici nezkontroloval a nastavajici maminka trpela celou noc v krecich. Pote odesla na toaletu, aby si ulevila, a – splouch! – a na svete bylo miminko! Uhodilo se do hlavicky a na pamatku z toho utrpelo velkou bouli.
Source:
http://www.radio.cz/en/article/127490
http://www.lidovky.cz/zena-v-nemocnici-porodila-na-zachode-pribuzni-vini-personal-pq5-/ln_domov.asp?c=A100426_182924_ln_domov_ani
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