Category: Czech (čeština)

Back to Brighton

By Simon

I arrived back in Brighton yesterday afternoon after a week in the Czech Republic and Germany, which was great fun.

Prague was stunning and well worth another visit – the day and a bit I had there wasn’t really enough to take it all in. August is apparently a better time to visit, as it tends to get really busy in September and October.

During the first few days of cycling it rained quite a bit and was also quite windy. We also went along some busy roads through areas with a fair amount of heavy industry. Fortunately the weather and scenery improved later on during the week and we had a very enjoyable ride along the Elbe, mainly on well-maintained cycle paths. The towns we passed through or stayed in were attractive and picturesque; the food was plentiful, quite tasty and reasonably priced; and the people we met were generally friendly and welcoming.

Explore cycling group at the Zwinger Palace in Dresden, Germany, September 2007

There were 12 others in the group I travelled with, most from the UK, but also a couple of Canadians and an Australian. We ranged in age from 30something to 60something and got on well together. We also had a Polish tour leader, who rode with us, and a Polish driver, who took our luggage from hotel to hotel. Our tour leader spoke good English and a bit of German. He managed to communicate with people in the Czech Republic mainly in Polish with bits of Czech mixed in. The driver spoke Polish and some English, and while he couldn’t understand much Czech, he could understand Slovak quite well.

I used my Czech at every opportunity. Only one Czech person commented on this, asking if I was Czech. Everybody else just talked Czech to me and I did my best to understand them. I also tried out the few Polish phrases I know on our tour leader, and learned a bit more from him. In Germany I tried to speak German to people and found that those who could speak English often did so with me, even if I continued speaking German to them.

I picked up quite a few new Czech words from signs and menus – when you come across them in context every day, they soon sink in. The sight, feel, smell and taste of the food also helps me remember the menu words.

There were two native Welsh speakers in the group and I talked to them a bit in Welsh. They told me that I speak Welsh well with a good accent, and were impressed that my Welsh is self-taught. In 2003 while I was on holiday in northern Portugal, I met some Welsh speakers, but at that time I couldn’t have more than a very limited conversation. Since then I’ve been determined to become fluent in Welsh, and seem to be making good progress.

Bohemia and Saxony by bike

By Simon

Map of the route of my cycling trip from Prague to Meissen

Tomorrow I’m off for week’s holiday in the Czech Republic and Germany with Explore Worldwide. I’ll be flying to Prague early tomorrow morning, then cycling north along the Vltava and Elbe rivers to Meissen in Germany, via Mělník, Litoměřice, Děčín, Pirna, Dresden, and quite a few castles, churches, cathedrals and palaces. After that I’ll go back to Prague by coach, spend a day there, and then return home.

The tour involves five days of actual cycling covering about 30 miles / 45 km a day. Most of the route is along rivers and is apparently flat or downhill, with only occasional uphill sections. So though I haven’t been doing much cycling since I moved to Brighton, apart from some semi-regular unicycling, I’m sure I’ll be able to cope.

I’m also looking forward to having a chance to try out my Czech, and to speaking some German as well.

Počasí (Weather)

By Simon

Dnes bylo hezky, teplo a slunečno. Šla Šel jsem do na nábřeží. Věřím, že zítra bude taky pĕknĕ.

It’s been a bright, warm sunny day in Brighton today. I spent the afternoon down on the seafront practising my unicycling, juggling and other circus skills. I hope it will be nice again tomorrow.

The chapter of my Czech course that I’m currently working on covers transport, travel and weather. It also introduces the past and future tenses. The topics mentioned in each chapter seem to be fairly random.

Here are a few more weather-related expressions in Czech, with some lovely consonant clusters:

Je mlha – there’s a mist
Je větrno – it’s windy
Prší – it’s raining
Snĕží – it’s snowing
Mrzne – It’s freezing
Slunce svítí – the sun is shining

Tuning into Czech

By Simon

Last Saturday I went out with some Czech and Slovak friends, and was pleased to discover that I could get the gist of what they were talking about in Czech and Slovak. Although I could only catch the odd word and phrase, this was enough to get a basic idea of the subjects under discussion.

Before I started studying Czech, it just sounded like a continuous stream of meaningless sound. Now I can distinguish individual words in that stream and even know what some of them mean. My brain is gradually tuning into the language, a process that will take quite a while. I’m in no hurry though.

My language studies

By Simon

I’ve decided to try a slightly different approach to my language studies. Up till now I’ve been listening to Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh language radio for several hours each almost every day. In the evenings I read novels in either Welsh or Irish, and also learn a bit more Czech. I’ve also been learning songs in the Celtic languages, particularly Irish.

This week I’ll be concentrating on one language for two days at a time. So today and tomorrow I’m focusing on Welsh – listening to Radio Cymru during the day and going through a lesson in Cadw Sŵn in the evening. On Wednesday and Thursday I’ll be listening to Radió na Gaeltachta during the day and studying from Turas Teanga or another of my Irish courses in the evening. Then on Friday and Saturday I’ll listen to Radio nan Gaidhael and study from one of my Scottish Gaelic courses in the evening.

I’ll continue to study some Czech every day, to read Irish, Welsh and maybe even Scottish Gaelic novels, and to learn songs. By the way, can any of you recommend any good novels in Celtic languages, or in French, German, Spanish or Chinese?

Welsh, Irish and Scottish Gaelic are the languages I most want to become fluent in at the moment. My other languages are less of a prioity, though I do get to practise Mandarin, Japanese and Spanish quite often on Skype and MSN.

Slavic similiarities

By Simon

While talking with a Bulgarian contact today, we were discussing the conjugation of the verb ‘to juggle’ in Bulgarian, as you do, and I was struck by how similar Bulgarian verb endings are to Czech ones. Below is the present tense of this verb with the Bulgarian on the left and the Czech on the right.

  • жонглирам (žongliram) / žonglovam – I juggle
  • жонглираш (žongliraš) / žonglovaš – you juggle
  • жонглира (žonglira) / žonglova – he/she/it juggles
  • жонглираmе (žonglirame) / žonglovame – we juggle
  • жонглирате (žonglirate) / žonglovate – you (pl) juggle
  • жонглират (žonglirat) / žonglovají – they juggle

The more I learn about the Slavic languages, the more similarities I see between them. So far my knowledge is limited to a smattering of Russian, a little Czech, and a few Bulgarian words, so my impressions and thoughts may change as I learn more. One encouraging factoid I’ve discovered is that Czech only has about seven irregular verbs.

I also came across an interesting site today which contains useful words and phrases in a number of Slavic languages, with translations in English and Japanese.

Correction: the Czech conjugation of the verb ‘to juggle’ is actually:

  • žongluji – I juggle
  • žongluješ – you juggle
  • žongluje – he/she/it juggles
  • žonglujeme – we juggle
  • žonglujete – you (pl) juggle
  • žonglují – they juggle

There are Czech verbs with endings similar to the Bulgarian ones above, but not ‘to juggle’, unfortunately.

Word of the day – výslovnost

By Simon

Výslovnost is the Czech word for pronunciation, and appears in this week’s Czech lesson. I’m currently working my way quite slowly and thoroughly through Colloquial Czech and am spending a week or two on each lesson. I don’t move on to the next lesson until I’m familiar with all the slovníček (vocabulary), mluvnice / gramatika (grammar) and výslovnost.

Some people advise you to listen to a language a lot before you try to speak it. Listening to the languages you’re learning as much as possible is very useful and beneficial, but I don’t know if you should put off trying to speak the language until you’ve listening to it for several weeks or months.

What are your thoughts on this?

Climbing mountains

By Simon

My studies of Czech are progressing slowly. So far I’ve only really got to grips with the first lesson of Colloquial Czech, and am working on lesson 2. Yesterday I had a quick look at the later lessons and wondered whether I’ll ever get that far. I know I shouldn’t let this put me off, but it a bit disheartening to see how far I have to go.

I’m sure I’m not the first person to make this comparison, but learning languages has quite a lot in common with climbing mountains. You start off in the foothills where the going is relatively easy, as long as you are physically fit / your language learning skills are up to scratch, otherwise you might find even this stage a struggle. Past the foothills there will be some difficult climbs and some long, hard slogs up slopes of varying steepness.

You might come up against some seemingly unscaleable obstacles, though with time and effort you probably find a way over or round them, perhaps with the assistance of a guide/teacher. When you think you’re not making much upward progress, or are even going downhill, it might help to turn round to admire the view and to see how far you’ve come.

Even when you reach the summit, you’ll probably see further summits to scale. You might also look over at neighbouring moutains (related languages) or distant ones (unrelated languages) and think that it would be interesting to climb/learn them.

As you’re climbing, you might look up at the mountain every now and then and think it looks steep and difficult to climb. This might inspire you to try harder, or to stop and enjoy the view / put what you’ve learnt to good use. If you decide to give up and do something else, then come back to your climbing/learning, you’ll probably find the going easier the second time, as you’ve already been that way before.

With Czech I’m pootling around in the foothills at the moment. When I look up towards the summit, I wonder whether this is a mountain I really want to climb, or whether I should stick to more familiar mountains.

Pimsleur – a review

By Simon

I have now listened to all 10 lessons of my Pimsleur Czech course, most of them several times. I’ve a long way to go before I can speak Czech, but I do know quite a few useful words and phrases now, and I am beginning to acquire a feeling for the structure of the language. I also know how to pronounce words, though some of the consonant clusters are tricky. When I listen to Radio Prague or my Czech friends talking, I can get a basic idea of what they’re on about.

Before I started the course, I’d read many reviews of Pimsleur courses, many positive, some negative, so I had an idea of what I was letting myself in for. I now think that Pimsleur courses can give you a good foundation in a language, which you can build on with other courses. They are particularly good for languages unlike any of the ones you already know.

Next week I’m going to start on Colloquial Czech – I had a quick look at it yesterday and found that I could understand quite a lot of the stuff in the first lesson, which is encouraging.

Word of the day – zmrzlina

By Simon

zmrzlina [zmrzlɪna] = ice, ice cream, sherbet, sorbet

This tongue twister of word came up in today’s Czech lesson. I had to listen to it many times before attempting to pronounce it. This is quite an extreme example of the tricky consonant clusters common in Czech. I also find the ř [rʒ] sound particularly difficult, especially at the beginnings of words, such as in řízek [rʒi:zɛk] (schnitzel), and řekne [rʒɛknɛ], as in Jak se řekne česky …? (How do you say … in Czech?). According to this site, even some Czechs have difficultly with this sound!