Czech Americans

Mommy diary 5: Red, white and bilingual /Denik maminky v zahranici 5: cerveno bily bilingvist

My daughter Hahna is 3 years now and she is brilliantly bilingual! What is more, she likes to have an active listener next to her at all times, meaning that she kind of requires of you to echo whatever she says. If I don’t respond within 10 seconds then I am in trouble: “Mommy, are you not talking?” (Mami, ty nemluvis?). I just have to say that my throat hurts – the final excuse.
I am not sure if she is doing so well with both languages because she IS such a talker or if she just has the ear for languages but she is doing great! She is starting to get the past and future tenses, pronouns…
She now feels confident enough to teach dad (and grandma!) some Czech and it is truly a bonding experience for them. Hahna feels smart and dad learns more Czech. Sometimes when she is on the phone with me and we speak Czech she starts laughing, thinking that it’s really funny that she speaks this ‘secret’ tongue in front of her American company. She keeps saying to me on the phone: “Mommy is speaking Czech!” (Maminka mluvi cesky!). She loves to interact with her Czech grandma and granpa over Skype but it does get hard at times. First off, there is quite the delay in hearing what the other one says and second, her pronunciation is not yet perfectly clear so most of the time I am the middle man and have to translate things.
When Hahna talks to herself she is using English, which – as expected – is going to be the language she feels most comfortable with. I am totally fine with that, although it is interesting that she does that since most of the time she ends up speaking Czech with me.
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Tagged as: bilingual children, Czech Americans, Czech language

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The current Miss Czech Slovak US speaks fluent Czech! / Nynejsi Miss Czech Slovak US mluvi plynne Cesky!

Sandy Ptak /facebook imageA beautiful Sandy Ptak doesn’t just have a Czech herritage in her (hence her last name ‘Ptak’, meaning ‘bird’ in Czech) but she also won the Miss Czech Slovak US for the year 2008-2009. She has been enjoying her queen days very much but the time is running out for her as the new miss is going to be elected in about a month or so during the famous Wilber Czech Festival in Nebraska (August 1st and 2nd). I did manage to get in touch with her just in time to do a short interview about her experience of being a Czech/Slovak queen in the US (by the way, she speaks fluent Czech!):

CZ: Krasna Sandy Ptakova nema jen ceske prijmeni, ale stala se take Ceskou/Slovenskou Miss US za rok 2008-09. Poslednich 11 mesicu si uzivala ‘kralovskeho’ zivota, ale cas uz se ji krati – 1. srpna se totiz na znamem ceskem festivalu ve Wilber, NE bude volit nova CS kralovna, ktera slavnostne prevezme zezlo na pristi rok. Sandy ale bude nadale sedet na trune neco pres mesic, tak jsem s ni stacila v rychlosti udelat rozhovor, aby jsme se dozvedeli, jaky ten kralovsky zivot vlastne je (jo, a abych nezapomnela, Sandy mluvi plynne cesky!!):

1) Tell us a little bit about yourself. I already know that you are a 1st generation Czech and that you speak fluent Czech – that’s great! How did your parents ended up in the US? Were you born here? How was your upbringing?

- I am a fist generation American, born and raised in Anchorage, AK. My parents escaped Communist Czechoslovakia in 1980 and got to Alaska six months later in 1981. We have lived in Alaska the entire time we have been in the U.S. and I am so happy that we did. We never lost touch of our Czech heritage and we hold traditions by speaking Czech at home, cooking Czech foods, polka dancing and traveling to Europe to visit family among other things. In just a few months, I will be graduating from Portland State University with a double major in International Marketing and Management. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: Czech Americans, festivities, traditions

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Czech-Americans in the 21st century: Questionnaire results – final part /Cecho-americane ve 21. stoleti: vysledky ankety (posledni cast)

Hi you guys, here is the summary essay on a current situation of the Czech-American community in the USA (if you would like to see Ivana’s more detailed report click here.)

CZ: Ahoj! tady je zbytek diplomove prace ceske studentky Ivany Stavarove, ktera popisuje nynejsi situaci Czecho-Americanu zijicich v USA (vice podrobnych udaju muzete najit zde).

The Czech-Americans of the 21st Century

by Ivana Stavarova

The 159 respondents, the Czechs, Czechoslovaks, and Czech-Americans, put together a vivid picture of the lives of Czech descendants across the sea in America. Their viewpoints differ in relation to their age, generation, the environment in which they were bought up and also their own nature as to how they approached the origin side of their identity individually. The Czech settlements in several parts of the United States are over one hundred years old, the evidence of Czech presence on the American land is hundreds of years old, yet the Czech life and Czech ways there are still very much vibrant, as we have learned from the current descendants’ answers. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: culture, Czech Americans, Slovak-Americans, statistics, tradition

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Michael Borek : “Photography is the ability to see things” / Michal Borek: “Fotografovani je umet se koukat”

Michael Borek photography 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. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: art, Czech Americans

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Czech-Americans in the 21st century: Questionnaire results – part 3 /Cecho-americane ve 21. stoleti: vysledky ankety (cast 3.)

istockphoto_2096987-toon-crowd1Hi 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. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: culture, Czech Americans, Slovak-Americans, statistics, traditions

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“Please don’t Stop!” / “Pokracuj v tom, co delas!”

email message flickr imageHi Everyone,

Couple of days ago I have received a very encouraging e-mail from one of you guys. Michelle (Misa) addresses the hot topic of how I teach my daughter Czech and since many of you share a similar story I thought this message would be encouraging to you as well:

CZ: Ahoj, pred nedavnem jsem od jednoho z vas obdrzela velmi povzbuzujici email a to ohledne zhave diskuze uceni me dcery cesky. Michelle (Misa) me nadsene vyzyvala k tomu, abych pokracovala s tim, co delam, a ze me na konci teto dlouhe a nekdy velmi klikate cesty ceka velka odmena:

Subject: regarding your experiment with bilingual upbringing

Please don’t stop! I would like to share my experiences as a child of Czech parents in the US. We emigrated when I was only three years old. At first my father insisted that we all use only English until we were all fluent. This was quite difficult for the adults (mother, father, and grandmother) but they managed it. Once everyone was sufficiently conversant in English however the only language the adults spoke at home was Czech. [click to continue…]

Tagged as: children, Czech Americans, Czech language

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Czech-Americans in the 21st century: Questionnaire results – part 2 /Cecho-americane ve 21. stoleti: vysledky ankety (cast 2.)

istockphotoHi Everyone/Ahoj vsichni,

here is a 2nd part of Ivana Stavarova’s research essay, which describes a current situation of the Czech-American minority in the US. As she said in the first part of this article there is virtually no statistical information on this topic so it is great that she picked something like that for her thesis! Although her sample group is quite small (159 people) you can still get an idea of what we, the Czech-Americans (and partially also Slovak-Americans), are like in these days. Don’t get freaked out by those evil-looking pie charts, they just make it easier for us to see the results. I thought the results to question no. 5 were very surprising and answer no. 7 made me feel a bit like an outsider since I do not belong to any of the official Czech organizations….but wait, I belong to Czechmate diary!!! So I am safe…..

CZ: Nize je uvedena druha cast diplomove prace super ceske studentky Ivany Stavarove. Esej se zabyva soucasnou situaci  Cecho-Americanu (a zcasti take Slovako-Americanu) zijicich z USA. Jak jiz Ivana zduraznila v casti prvni, o tomto tematu neexistuji skoro zadne informace, a proto se na nej take vrhla. I kdyz celkovy pocet vyplnenych dotazniku nebyl az tak obrovsky (159 lidi), stale vam to da dobry obecny prehled, jak to s nami vubec vypada. Odpoved k otazce c. 5 me dosti zaskocila a diky odpovedi na c. 7 jsem se citila chvilku trosku menecenne, protoze k zadne oficialni organizaci nepatrim; ale pak jsem si vzpomela na Czechmate Diary a oddychla jsem si :0)) Jo, a nebojte se tech grafu, ty vam zivot jenom ulehci – uvidite!



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Tagged as: culture, Czech Americans, Slovak-Americans, statistics, tradtions

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Czech-Americans in the 21st century: Questionnaire results – part 1 /Cecho-americane ve 21. stoleti: vysledky ankety (cast 1.)

google imageRemember, 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. [click to continue…]

Tagged as: culture, Czech Americans, Slovak-Americans, statistics, traditions

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Questionnaire for Czechs & Czech-Americans living abroad / Anketa pro Cechy & Cecho-Americnany zijici v zahranici


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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Tagged as: culture, Czech Americans, take action

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A brief glence on the Czech scientists in exhile / Kratky pohled na ceske vedce v exilu

chemistry yahoo image There is a new interesting Czech book out there called “The Czech scientists in exile” and Radio Praha just recently published a shortened version of couple of those people’s biographies. For the sake of space I shortened their already shortened version even more but it is still a VERY interesting reading…

Josef Michl (Boulder, CO)

Why do people call him the “renaissance chemist”? Because Josef excels not only in theory but also in hands-on research work. He is currently also the most cited Czech-born researcher out there, having been cited about 15,000 times in various research articles. Another reason why they call him that nickname is that he teaches in 6 different languages but can get by speaking Japanese as well. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: Canada, celebrities, Czech Americans, Czech Canadians, science

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