Czech language

Since I have been living abroad people have been asking about my mother tongue: "Is Czech difficult to learn?", "How does it sound?" etc.
At first it was hard for me to judge, I am Czech, it is easy for me but after learning other languages, I was getting the idea, it is probably pretty difficult for some people. If you are an English speaking person, I am guessing it will be a nightmare for you. To demonstrate, I am going to borrow a paragraph from the book "Me, Myself & Prague" written by Rachael Weiss, an Australian woman who was once living in Prague in search of her Bohemian roots.

This is her experience with the Czech language:-)

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" I'd tried valiantly to teach myself Czech with my guidebooks but I was struggling. The language seemed to be nothing but difficult consonants -ž's, j's and rolled r's -strung together. Ordinary everyday words were incredibly long and complex. The word for 'of course' is samozřejmě. It's pronounced samozrrrrrzzhayemnye - a truckload of consonants and tongue rolling for a word that in essence means 'yes'. It took me three weeks of practice to get that one word right. Knowing the words, though, wasn't enough. The words change completely depending on where they are placed in a sentence, which is why I hadn't been able to find anything in the dictionary when I was shopping or trying to make conversation. Every noun is either feminine, masculine inanimate, masculine animate or neuter. There are four different forms of feminine, four of neuter and two each of masculine animate and inanimate, and each form has a different ending, depending on its declension: twelve different noun types, each declined seven different ways. That's eighty-four altogether, and double that number because that's only singular and every noun is either singular or plural. So there are one hundred and sixty-eight forms a noun can take. All the adjectives have to have different endings too, because they have to agree with the nouns. Verbs take different endings depending on who you're speaking about or to, and how you're speaking to them. There are twelve different endings for verbs just for speaking in the ordinary way, and then another set of endings if you're ordering someone about. In short, the whole business is a nightmare.
Teaching myself Czech had got me as far as, ' His bicycle is clean but her car is dirty'; as useful as that might be in certain circumstances, it hadn't featured heavily in any of my conversations with the locals...."
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Czech Alphabet

And there is more.
There are many words that do not have vowels: zmrzl (frozen solid), ztvrdl (hardened), scvrkl (shrunk), čtvrthrst (quarter-handful), blb (dimwit), vlk (wolf), or smrt (death).
My husband shakes his head when he hears these words.

The consonants l and r can be the nucleus (nucleus is usually the vowel in the middle of a syllable) of a syllable in Czech. For examples we use these tongue-twisters to practice: strč prst skrz krk  (stick a finger down your throat) and smrž pln skvrn zvlhl z mlh (morel full of spots was dampened by fogs).

And then there is the consonant ř. It is unique to the Czech language, and I have no idea how to describe it. One thing is for sure, it is very difficult to pronounce.

I will stop here, yes there is much more! For now, have fun watching this video. ALEX is perfect with his -ř- . Well done!

Czech Tongue Twisters By American Diplomats in Prague

Candy

Candy is North American expression for what is in the UK, Ireland, South Africa and other commonwealth countries called confectionery...or sweets in UK and Ireland, and lollies in Australia and New Zealand.

*Also refer to Sugar Love post

Jewellery vs Jewelry

The different spellings of jewellery in British and American English can cause confusion.

The British spelling jewellery adds -lery to jewel.
The American spellinɡ jewelry adds -ry.

...of Czech origin

There are many foreign words that we use in the Czech language...from English, French etc., but did you know that there are some words you use that actually come from the Czech language?
Here are two examples:

1. ROBOT

This word comes from the Czech word robota which means labour/drudgery/work and was first used by Karel Čapek in his science fiction play R.U.R - Rossumovi univerzální roboti (Rossum's Universal Robots) in 1920.
The play became famous (by 1923 had been translated into thirty languages), and the word 'robot' was introduced to the English language.





2. DOLLAR

Dollar comes from the Czech word Tolar, the Czech name for the silver coin mined in today's Bohemia * - silver mine in Jáchymov first minted coins in 1519.

* Until 1918, the town (named JOACHIMSTHAL before 1898) was part of the Austrian monarchy (Austria side after the compromise of 1867), head of the district with the same name, one of the 94 Bezirkshauptmannschaften in Bohemia - Wikipedia

 

 



Jáchymov thaler -souvenir

Later the name was used for similar coins minted in central Europe, Spanish peso and the Portuguese eight-real piece. An old slang term for the 25-cent coin is a piece of eight. The coin is still almost always called a quarter in everyday speech. The first US dollar was minted in 1794/75 and is known as flowing hair dollar from the image of a man with long flowing hair featured on the coin.

Flowing Hair Dollar

Stove or Range

Many people use these words interchangeably, here in the US they use range.

According to the Word Parts Dictionary:

Stove came from an Old English word that meant a hot air bath, a type of sauna. Originally, to stove was to sweat. Early on, it referred to a closed basket for sweating a gamecock or a hothouse for plants. By the 16^th century, it had come to mean a closed box in which heat is produced in order to cook.

Range comes from an Anglo-Norman word that meant a row or a file. It is connected to the word rank, which meant a row, line, or series of things. More properly, range refers to the array or configuration of burners on top of an oven.  The first instance quoted in the Oxford English Dictionary goes back to 1423.

Oven came from an Old Frisian word that meant an earthenware cooking pot. Soon after, the Old English form came to mean a stand-alone compartment which is heated to cook or warm food.

 

US DOLLARS vs EURO

When I was selling the old appliances that were in the house we have just purchased, I was paid cash  and received 100 dollar notes. I don't really see them often, also most of the time I use a credit card, I guess I am becoming an American :-) 

The fact is, based on my observation, it is very unusual to use the real money here in the US. In fact, whenever I used cash in the past I saw panic in a cashier's eyes. They are not used to it and I think  it reflects in people's sense for values. It is completely a consumerist mentality here in the US that I can't really relate to. The son of my husband’s colleague got his first credit card when he was 16 years old! Unfortunately, they use a credit score system here and without a credit history you basically don’t exist, but it is another story.

When talking about money, I don't really like US dollars. Everything looks the same - just green. It is difficult to find a note you want in your purse* , the 5 cent coin is bigger than the 10 cent coin, it is all just confusing.

I like EURO currency better, US dollar has a really boring design in comparison with other currencies.

 (*WOW label - 'purse' also means 'woman's handbag' in US and Canadian English)

EURO

US Dollars

Finally gardening

As a child I was completely fascinated by a rock garden of my neighbor. I remember I just loved the alpine plans organized between rocks and the whole look of the garden. We had mainly carrots, tomatoes and potatoes in ours which I like to eat, but not so much to plant and care for, so I started to create my own tiny rock garden in a corner of the garden surrounded by vegetables.

If I think about it now that was exactly the moment when my passion for a landscape design started. My mother used to say that I have green fingers after my grandmother. Unfortunately with all the relocating and living mainly in apartments, I didn't have much opportunity to create many garden designs. Instead I turned to indoor plants ( WOW label - "house plants" in American English ) which I love as well.
Many years ago I also got my first Bonsai and I was hooked. I can't help myself, I love these mini plants and from there comes my interest in Japanese/Zen gardens. I find these arrangements so calming, peaceful and a feast for your eyes. At least for me it is, so it is no surprise that I would love to bring a bit of Japan in my own garden :-)

To be honest a tropical garden would be also on my list, I was in heaven when visiting my husband's family in South Africa and couldn't take my eyes off all the flora there, but I could hardly recreate any type of tropics here in Chicago. Well, at least not in winter. It is July now and the last week's temperatures were hovering near 35 C with the humidity around 70%. Definitely not for me, so I will stay with my Japanese ideas for now.

Last year I visited Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, Illinois which is about 1 hour and a half from my place. The 14 acre gardens were established in 1978 by John Anderson and landscape architect Hoichi Kurisu.

 

 

 

I took many pictures there and have been researching more about the design and plants I can use.

My first load of plants arrived last week and I can't wait to enjoy them in my garden. I just have to wait for all the utilities to be marked on the property.

 

 

 

"Slam Dunk"

I am trying to learn all the American expressions and vocabulary and this is one that I have heard on the TV news recently a lot.

SLAM DUNK = sure thing

"The phrase "slam dunk" has entered popular usage in American English, meaning a "sure thing" – an action with a guaranteed outcome, or otherwise an impressive achievement, in the same way that the baseball-inspired phrases "it was a grand slam" or "he hit it out of the park" was more commonly used in previous years."



"A slam dunk is a type of basketball shot that is performed when a player jumps in the air and manually powers the ball downward through the basket with one or both hands over the rim. This is considered a normal field goal  attempt; if successful it is worth two points. The term "slam dunk" was coined by Los Angeles Lakers announcer Chick Hearn. Prior to that, it was known as a dunk shot.
The slam dunk is one of the highest percentage shots one can attempt in basketball as well as one of the most crowd-pleasing plays. Slam dunks are also performed as entertainment outside of the game, especially during slam dunk contests. Perhaps the most popular such contest is the NBA Slam Dunk Contest held during the annual NBA All-Star Weekend The first incarnation of the NBA slam dunk contest was held during the festivities accompanying an American Basketball Association All Star Game.
Dunking was banned in the NCAA from 1967 to 1976. Many people have attributed this to the dominance of the then-college phenomenon Lew Alcindor (now known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) upon his entry into the NCAA. Subsequently, the no-dunking rule is sometimes referred to as the "Lew Alcindor rule."