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Have you ever found yourself translating Czech idioms into the English language? I have; and once you do there is no way out. No matter how serious the topic is, once you throw in the “…you can kill two flies with one swap that way….” (an equivalent of “kill two birds with one stone”) or “...that’s totally a Spanish village for me….” (meaning “I have no clue on this one”) you are bound to get confused looks from your English-speaking listeners and the serious conversation is over because everyone starts to laugh. Anyhow, here is some more of these play-on-words thingies that I found or thought of. Feel free to add some!

CZ: Taky vzdycky udelate tu samou chybu a prelozite jeden z nasich ceskych idiomu do anglictiny? A taky dostanete zmatene pohledy? Ja jsem v tomto ohledu “nevylecitelna”. Jestlize vam repertoar jiz dochazi, tak tady si jich par muzete pripomenout…

• Take your legs on your shoulders = vezmi nohy na ramena (take to your heels)
• Like soaked hen = vypadas jako zmokla slepice (you look glum)
• Throw it behind your head = hod to za hlavu (forget about it)
• To have a milk on your chin = tece mu mliko po brade (to be still very young and naive) (more…)
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I am nearing the end of the semester in my level 2 Czech language course and what have I learned? I’ve learned much about the structure of this language without a whole lot of confidence that I can dare speak it to anyone (unless they don’t know a word of Czech). We, the students, have been told (warned) that third level will be entirely in Czech – no cheating with English. Great worry on our part.

So, having presented my instructor with the traditional American symbol (an apple) of respect and thanks to a teacher for a job well done, where to go from here? Our end-of-semester final is in two weeks then my wife and I take the plunge, despite stiff economic difficulties, and will travel to the Czech Republic, she to visit the small villages of her forebears and me to likely stand mute when I have this wonderful opportunity to speak this language I have chosen to learn. No matter how my language skills work or do not work, this will likely be the most interesting trip I have ever made. (more…)

Czech moms living in London - there is a hope! In about a week a new Czech school called The Kids Art Club is opening up on Lough Road. So if your child is 6 years of age or older and has nothing to do on Saturdays, this should keep him/her busy….For more info click here. (more…)

If you are in a mood of being helpful to our world without being paid, the 42nd International Children’s Games in San Francisco is looking for volunteer Czech translators. The games will be held on July 10-15th and are expecting a Czech team coming from Cesky Krumlov. This year’s SFICG event is hosting children from 90 cities, 50 countries and 6 contintents! So, if you don’t show up our kids will just end up racing in the opposite direction because they didn’t know what the referee was saying….;-)

Hledaji se dobrovolni prekladatele pro Detske olympicke hry v San Francisku!

For more info contact: (more…)

It’s kind of embarrassing but the most common Czech words are :

• voni ( the colloqial “oni” meaning “they”)
• proste (colloquial “right”)
• teda (”well”)
• bejt (the colloquial “byt” meaning “to be”)

Do they not look familiar to you? That is because they are used in spoken Czech. So unless you have the Dictionary of Spoken Czech near by you are pretty much left guessing to what those words might mean. Profesor Cermak, the creator of one of the above mentioned dictionaries, recorded in his research sample speeches by over 500 people and discovered that the spoken Czech uses huge number demonstrative pronouns such as “that”, “there”, “here”, “that” as well as the pronoun “I”. Also particles such as “vzdyt”, “no”, “aby”, “ze jo” (”after all”, “well”, “right”..) are very common through which we express our +/- attitudes, expectations or doubts.

What are one of the most frequent Czech nouns? (more…)