"Starého psa novým kouskům nenaučíš" goes the saying. But the freshly re-elected right-wing nationalistic populist Václav Klaus isn't particularly interested in anything new: “I will fight to retain the Czech koruna for as long as it is advantageous for Czechs,” he boasted. read more »
Czech Update
The latest updates from news and events for all interested in Czech language and culture.
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Fables and Understories: Čapek on the Web
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: January 28th, 2008
Andrew Malcovsky, the self-described 'Slavicist on spec' (I wonder if this is a conscious bilingual pun for špek) found a great new way to exploit the medium of the blog. For translating Karel Čapek's famous whimsical short pieces Bajky a podpovídky (as Fables and understories). It's certainly a great services to the student of Czech culture. read more »
Czech inventor of the 'drunk tank' dies aged 91
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: November 26th, 2007
Categories: About Czechs and Czech Republic
• History
• International perspectives: Czechs and the world
• Language
• Numbers, statistics, surveys and polls
• Vocabulary
• Curiosities
Záchytka is a wonderful Czech word that stands for the institution for the collection of drunken (and possibly disorderly) individual wondering city streets occasionally referred to in English as 'drunk tank' or ' read more »
Příkopy - Prague street in Top 20 most expensive in the world
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: November 15th, 2007
Categories: About Czechs and Czech Republic
• Economy
• International perspectives: Czechs and the world
• Numbers, statistics, surveys and polls
• Vocabulary
The Prague street that joins into the bottom of Wenceslas square came 20th in the world ranking of the most expensive streets in the world (down from 18th a year ago). Rents there reach 2000 EUR per square meter a year. Paradoxically, the Czech name translates literally as "on the ditches". read more »
Free pocket guide to Czech language
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: September 30th, 2007
Single-serving.com has come up with an easy to print and fold PDF brochure covering most of the basic phrases a tourist coming to the Czech Republic may want. The format makes it easy to carry in your pocket.
Burčák came early this year
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: September 6th, 2007
Categories: About Czechs and Czech Republic
• Culture
• Food and drink
• Language
• Prague
• Regional Differences
• Vocabulary
• Curiosities
• Eating Habits
• Nouns
Burčák the young wine (stum) popular in the Czech lands in the early autumn came earlier this year appearing in early August. Burčák sales in Prague kiosks around September and October is one of the joys of the Czech 'babí léto' and reminds Bohemians to remember how good it is to have Moravians part of the nation.
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The simple pleasures of non-Prague
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: August 24th, 2007
Categories: About Czechs and Czech Republic
• History
• International perspectives: Czechs and the world
• Regional Differences
• Tourism
• Vocabulary
• Curiosities
A visit to Třeboň, a small picturesque town (malebné městečko) in Southern Bohemia elicited justified outbursts of lyricism from a Seattle columnists. And he's right. The individual personality of small Czech towns is something to be experienced through a leisurely journey rather than a hectic 'been there, done that' trip. read more »
The gender expectation and death
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: August 13th, 2007
An interesting headline appeared in today's Mladá Fronta. Zemřel nejstarší člověk světa, 114letá Japonka - iDNES.cz (lit. The world's oldest person [man] died: 114-year old Japanese woman). This is an interesting example of how the strict gender assignment of all nouns can cause problems. read more »
The explicative genitive
Author: Melvyn Clarke Posted: July 31st, 2007
Sometimes you get the feeling that a subject is being explained to death, with a dozen words being used where none would do. In his The Noun in Translation, Aleš Klégr gives one reason as: "an interesting difference between Czech and English: the much-favoured construction in Czech, termed the expicative genitive, read more »
Post-position adjectives
Author: Melvyn Clarke Posted: July 31st, 2007
The position of an adjective before or after a noun can
occasionally change its entire meaning in English. As you drive into
Prague, why do the numerous roadside hoardings offering "free rooms"
strike you as not quite right? Because an adjective before a noun can
denote a permanent state and after a noun a temporary state. In this
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Possessive Pronouns
Author: Melvyn Clarke Posted: July 31st, 2007
There are many cases where a possessive pronoun needs to be recast
in some other form, particularly where it acts as direct object of a
verb:
Tento výčet deseti doporučení není jistě vyčerpávající, ale jejich důsledné uplatnění vždy výrazně změnilo průběh a především výsledky pravidelných porad sledovaných manažerských týmů. read more »
Prague ham to return to Prague
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: February 17th, 2007
Categories: Food and drink
• International perspectives: Czechs and the world
• Language
• Prague
• Curiosities
Pražská šunka se vrací - iDNES.cz Kdo neví, jak chutná tradiční Pražská šunka od kosti, ať si koupí letenku. Ochutnat ji může v italském Terstu, v Berlíně, ve Spojených státech nebo i v Austrálii. V Česku zatím ne.read more »
The Masopust season: Pork killing and eating time
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: February 5th, 2007
MF DNES Praha - Pravé zabijačkové hody, ale hlavně karnevalové masky a spousta zábavy. Tak vypadal čtvrtý ročník Karlínského masopustu, který odstartoval v sobotu v jednu hodinu po poledni.
The time of Masopust, or the pre-lent carnival, (literally, the meat fast, a translation of the carni-val) has come upon us which means a lot of pig slaughtering festivities (zabijačky [lit. killing times]). Of course, the atheist Czechs will go on eating meat all the way through Lent. The Czech Wikipedia lists some of the foods you might take away (výslužka) from a killing time: read more »
Translating Prime Minister's profanity
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: January 13th, 2008
Now, the prime minister Topolánek is getting sued for saying this: "Češi obvykle ale vidí všechno negativně a když k něčemu dojde, podělají se". read more »
Play Czech geography game on Facebook and win PDF of Czech grammar
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: November 17th, 2007
Czech 'uzeniny' in branding battles
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: October 10th, 2007
Uzeniny is a great Czech word covering all kinds of saussage-like products and uzenář is the purveyor or producer of such meat products (you will often see 'maso a uzeniny' on Czech butchers' store fronts or supermarket sections). read more »
Learn Czech web navigation with Aktuálně
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: September 18th, 2007
This nascent Czech news service has finally introduced an RSS feed but even more importantly it provides its non-Czech speaking users with a handy little glossary for understanding the Czech navigation on their site. Perhaps the most important: read more »
Czech is ...
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: September 1st, 2007
If you want to know what Czech and other languages are like, read some of the humorous entries on the Essentialist Explanations page. They may not all be accurate but they are mostly funny. read more »
100 Years of Czech Teaching in Nebraska
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: August 21st, 2007
Here's a nice bit of news. Apparently people were learning Czech as long ago as 1907.
U.S. University of Nebraska celebrates 100 years of Czech lessons - Czech republic read more »
More Czechs happy with public services
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: August 11th, 2007
Categories: Language
• Vocabulary
A new survey suggests that more (if still not most) Czechs find improvements in government-provided services. They are more responsive to people's needs but still frequently slow. This is a frequent topic of conversation and the word "úředník" means so much more than "public servant".
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Hyponyms and hyperonyms
Author: Melvyn Clarke Posted: July 31st, 2007
One of the differences I find between Czech and English in the lexical sphere is that of the greater or lesser degree of specificity used in referring to certain objects, i.e. the use of hyponyms and hyperonyms. read more »
Overuse of Participle Forms
Author: Melvyn Clarke Posted: July 31st, 2007
English often prefers prepositional phrases to straight participles.
It is being reconstructed - it is under reconstruction
The observed team - the team under observation
The considered design - the design in question
The disputed matter - the matter in dispute read more »
Hollywood Rains Puns on Czech
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: July 13th, 2007
Jossip Brad And Angie Take A Rain Czech Ditch Boring Senators In Favor Of Glam Hollywood Film July 12th, 2007 » 2 Comments angelina-jolie-pensivemic.JPG According to Us Weekly, Angelina Jolie hasn’t exactly been living up to her (honorary) title as U.N. Ambassador. Reportedly, the pro-adoption humanitarian recently left the Czech senate hanging, canceling a planned get-together in Prague in order to wrap up shooting her latest film, Wanted.read more »
Is vepřoknedlozélo in danger?
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: February 8th, 2007
Categories: Culture
• Economy
• Food and drink
• Habits and customs
• Language
• National identity
• Numbers, statistics, surveys and polls
Pig Progress | News | Page content | Pig breeding down in Czech Republic
Pig breeders are annually winding down activities in the Czech Republic. In the last five years, pig stocks have decreased by 600,000 to 2,840,000, says the Czech Statistical Office (CSU). read more »
Improve your Czech with Windows Vista Ultimate
Author: Dominik Lukeš Posted: February 4th, 2007
Windows Vista a lokalizační balíčky | Windows Vista Blog
Pokud si uživatel koupí anglickou kopii Windows Vista Ultimate, může do ní nainstalovat libovolné množství jazykových balíčků - mezi nimi i češtinu, která bude k dispozici pravděpodobně 1. března.
One of the best ways to learn a language is to practice it in an environment where you need it to do something specific. Such as, navigate a piece of software. Well, it appears that you can do that if you get the Ultimate edition of Windows Vista. read more »
