Czech language

Why not study Czech in Brno? / Proc nestudovat cestinu v Brne?

http://www.studyin.cz/Many of you, non-Czech speakers, have been asking me if I know of any good way to learn Czech. And I would always tell you that the best way to learn is to go to the Czech Republic and stay there for some time. And of course, the fastest way to learn is to go to a language school there on top of undertaking the long trip.

I was contacted by a lady named Jana who is in charge of a Czech language school in Brno, called  Study Czech and it looks very good to me. They have either 2 month-long courses, or if you cannot hang out there for that long, you can just do the 2-week intensive crash course. All of the teachers have many years of experience up their sleeve so even the least language-gifted person can learn :) . What I liked the most about the program is that they have a personal interview with every student to find out not only what language level he needs to be put in but also what kind of study type he/she is in order to find out what teaching style will fit him the best. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: Czech language, Czech language school

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how does Czech sound to your ears? / Jak vam zni cestina?

If you are not a native Czech speaker, how does this language sound to you? Does it sound beautiful? Ugly? Funny? I researched this topic and found quite the opposite opinions – check it out:

CZ: Jak vam zni cestina, jestli nejste rodily mluvci? Zni vam krasne, silene anebo naopak legracne? Prectete si, co o tomto tematu napsali ostatni:

 

  1. My husband’s interpretation: ‘trishka triska trishka..’ (from the Czech riddle ‘Trista tricet stribrnych strikacek’ which in English is translated as ‘Three hundred and thirty three silver injections”)
  2. A blogger who has been learning Czech: ‘Czech sounded a lot like: Shhhptoschh TAK shshdilssstssh chtshdshchid TAK, TAK dshchidshhhptoschh TAK.’ (honey and peas)
  3. A lady from Yahoo Answers:‘I’m married to a Czech . . . just asked my husband to read something in Czech. It sounds like: rrrrtschchhh pshpsh tsee repeat ad nauseam.’ (yahoo answers) [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: Czech language

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What is your least favorite English word to spell? / Jake anglicke slovo neradi spelujete??

English language is easy to learn as far as speaking goes but, boy oh boy, the written part of it is not so easy anymore. There is the spelling and then the sentence order that is sometimes completely different from the one in the Czech language. If I have to name my least favorite English word to spell it would have to be:

 

NEIGHBORHOOD

Why not just ‘nejbrhud’??? ;) ) (That’s written in a Czech phonetics) [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: Czech language, English language, spelling

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And my Czech sensor goes off again…/ A muj cesky senzor se opet hlasi…

Don’t tell me the pictures I have recently taken  all around me  don’t prove the under-title of this blog: “Small Bohemian Steps to World Domination” :) :) :)

CZ: Nerikejte mi, ze tyto fotky nejsou dukazem podtitulu tohoto blogu: “Small Bohemian Steps to World Domination” :) :) :)

1. The word “VODA” means “WATER” in Czech.

2. The word “Ahoy” is pretty much a misspelled Czech word “Ahoj” which means “HI”. And the same thing goes for the word “Matey”! Substitute ‘y’ for ‘j’ and you will get a Czech name “Matej”. Am I missing some Czech cartoon that’s going around and the main hero Matej is being printed on American t-shirts?!
[click to continue…]

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Tagged as: culture, Czech language, fashion

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New Czech school in Northern California / Nova ceska skola v severni Kalifornii

Hi,

there is a big chance that a similar Czech school will spring up in the San Francisco area, as it is planned for the Southern California region. And once again, those who are interested in such school, please leave your name and what part of Northern California you live at in the comment area. So far the plan is that there might be 2 locations, one in the San Francisco area and the other one int San Jose area.

Also, there is a need for the Czech language teacher, so if you have a degree in teaching and would be able to participate, let me know in the comment area as well.

PS: The newest info about this school can be found here:

http://csbh.cz/novinky/vyzva-ceska-skola-v-san-franciscu-silicon-valley

CZ: Je tu velka pravdepodobnost, ze stejna Skola bez hranic vznikne take v severni Kaliforni (San Jose a/nebo San Francisko area). Tudiz jestli v tomto okoli zijete, zapiste se do komentu jako zajemce, tedy zanechte jmeno a kde presne bydlite.

Hleda se ale take jeste pani ucitelka, tedy jestli mate pedagogickou zkusenost (a titul0) a o neco takoveho zajem, napiste to do komentu.

PS: Nejnovejsi info o vyse uvedene skole muze byt nalezeno zde:

http://csbh.cz/novinky/vyzva-ceska-skola-v-san-franciscu-silicon-valley

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Tagged as: children, Czech language, Czech school

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Review the Czech grammar…..it’s painful! / zopakujte si ceskou gramatiku…nebude se vam to libit!

How much of the Czech grammar can one forget when living abroad? According to my experience, a lot. How do I know that? Because I took this grammar exercise (click here) and I did not do so hot. And then sadistically I took yet another grammar exercise (click here) and I got another painful confirmation.

If you feel like you can conquer the mountains today, try it yourself. Don’t forget to have a handkerchief close by when it’s time for grading ;)

[click to continue…]

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Tagged as: Czech language, grammar

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Monday morning? This one will make you smile!/ Pondeli rano? Tohle vam zlepsi naladu!

Now it’s official – I have been living in this country for way too long. Why? The other day my Czech friend sent me a short e-mail reply which contained the Czech words “my take”. In Czech it means “us too” but my brain read it in English rather than in Czech and it made everything look very confusing: “My take? What does she mean? Like ‘Yeah, that’s my take on the situation too’???”

Fortunately, my brain rebooted and clicked into the right gear…I got scared there for a bit!

CZ: Nedavno mi kamaradka poslala jakousi kratouckou odpoved pres e-mail, ve kterem bylo napsano: “My take”. Muj mozek se ale jaksi zasekl v anglictine a cetl to anglicky…..nejen ze jeji zprava nedavala vubec zadny smysl, ale pozdeji jsem si take uvedomila, ze tu uz ziju asi opravdu moc dlouho….:)

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Tagged as: Czech language

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Sprechen sie Euroenglish?

Post image for Sprechen sie Euroenglish?

My friend send me this email the other day and I thought it was so funny that it earned the right to be on this blog. I cannot help myself but agree with some of the brilliant grammatical corrections….
CZ: Jedna z mych kamaradek mi nedavno poslala hrozne vtipny email; byl tak vtipny, ze jsem se o nej rozhodla s vami vsemi podelit. Nektere navrhnute gramaticke zmeny mi prijdou briliantni napad…

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.

In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”.. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of “k”. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.
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Tagged as: Czech language, EU, grammar, humor

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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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What makes you Czech? The language or the heritage?/ Co vas dela Cechem? Jazyk nebo ceske koreny?

Throughout my Czechmate Diary years I have met some very nice people who were born and raised in former Czechoslovakia but no longer feel comfortable speaking the language. They emigrated in their late teens or early twenties and never came back. The communist regime either destroyed any will to speak the language or they just found no other Czechs to talk to in their new home country. The question is, if someone asks them what nationality they are, what will they answer?
CZ: Behem tech par let co bloguji jsem potkala velmi zajimave lidi, kteri se narodili (a nekdy take vyrostli) v byvalem Ceskoslovensku, ale cesky uz nemluvi. Bud v jejich nove vlasti nenasli nikoho, s kym by se mohli cesky bavit, anebo na to proste nemeli chut. Co si myslite, vy, jsou stale povazovani za Cechy?

If one does not speak the language anymore but was born (and raised?) in the Czech Republic, is he/she considered Czech?

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Tagged as: Czech language

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