Now, the prime minister Topolánek is getting sued for saying this: "Češi obvykle ale vidí všechno negativně a když k něčemu dojde, podělají se". And the English translation that made it into the English edition of Aktuálně.cz was "the Czechs usually see everything in negative light and when something happens, they get shit scared". Well, they got it wrong. "podělat se" is better translated as "to mess one's pants". The Czech news wire service ČTK got closer: "Czechs usually see everything negative and when it comes to the crunch, they fill their pants."
Of course, the proper translation for 'shit scared' is 'posraný strachy'. But the more important lesson to be learned is that Czech profanity related to the scatological and sexual is generally much stronger than the equivalent profanity in English. So one needs to be careful when reading into it.
And, of course, the prime minister's remarks were simplistic and silly but hardly criminal. So, who cares. The linguistics is where all the fun's at.
Ahoj,
O! Other day my Czech friend told me about Topolánek rude language. This kind of statement is really mmm uncessary.
Now I am wondering if "podělat se" is the same of "cagar-se" in Portuguese. "Cagar-se" is very vulgar, it literaly means "to make shit in oneself". Yes, our "se" has a similar reflexive function, but it changes from person to person ... and probably has other differences from Czech too, but I cannot comment more on it, I am just a first-step Czech learner.
Na shledanou.: