Czech Update

Dušičky - November 2 - Czechs remember their dead

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 23:11:31 +0000

Dušičky (Little souls) known as All Soul's Day in English is the time of the year that Czechs remember their dead relatives. Many families visit their loved one's graves and leave burning candles. Although officially this is part of the Catholic liturgical calendar, most Czechs don't imbue this read more »

Václav day in Czech land

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 15:50:35 +0100

Today, 28. září (Sept) is the 'svátek' (Saint's day) of Václav (the Wenceslas of the Prague square and the Christmas carol). There are a plenty of famous Václav's the Czech lands have produced (including the last two presidents). Check out the Wikipedia entries below for more information. Below that a picture from some Václav celebrations in the CR.
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Czech Studies teaching job at Glasgow University

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:23:47 +0100

An interesting job in teaching Czech!

Glasgow University is looking for a new Lecturer in Czech Studies read more »

Expand your vocabulary with this online gadget!

Dominik Lukeš — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 19:22:56 +0000

I just got an early look at a great new gadget by the good people at Learnit Lists! It helps you practice 10 new words every day by putting it on your iGoogle page or in one of your social networks. read more »

A New Face on Czech Update

Erik Piper — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 17:24:33 +0100

Hello! read more »

Czech Heritage in Texas

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 10:48:16 +0100

Not a lot of money but it would be interesting to read some of the essays when they are submitted. read more »

Welcome to New Bohemica

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:26:58 +0100

Bohemica has moved to a new system. The transition is not quite complete yet but it was time to upgrade. The old website is still available on http://old.bohemica.com.

Czech ministry of education to sponsor students of Czech

Dominik Lukeš — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 10:09:49 +0000

Every year the Czech ministry of education sponsors a certain number of foreigners to study Czech in the Czech Republic for up to a month. See the enclosed document (in Czech) for details on how to apply. Submissions are due by February 18.

Doomsday 2010 Prague Short Story Wins BCSA Prize

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 20:33:35 +0000

Mayor Šulc’s Astounding 2010 Directive is the title of a short story that has just won a prize of £300 in a writing competition run by the British Czech & Slovak Association. The author is Adam Daniel Mezei.

The story set in a Prague in 2010, which secedes from a Czechia which is controlled by a Communist revisionist government, and which in turn is part of an imperial Euro superstate. It explores the extraordinary consequences of political changes in the far from distant future – where Language Police patrol restaurants, and where Prague (Mayor Šulc’s ‘Inner District’) resorts to a helicopter airlift to take passengers to the airport to avoid the random searches and hefty tolls imposed by the Communist authorities. It’s one of several stories Adam submitted to the competition that tackle rather different, often unsettling subjects. (From BCSA Press Release) read more »

PF 2007

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 01 Jan 2007 10:30:35 +0000

Všechno nejlepší do Nového roku. All the best in the New Year from Czech Update.

Here is your Péefko: PF 2007.

Read more about PFs here. Here is an example of the many online PFs published in many places on the Czech Internet.

Veselé Vánoce a šťastný Nový rok

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 13:06:21 +0000

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from CzechUpdate.com. Ať Vám Ježíšek přinese plno dárků. This year brought a bounty of holiday posts that necessitated a new holiday category to make them easier to find. This is the second holiday greeting on this blog which has been in existence a little under 14 months. This is the 324th post on the blog from the very start which means one post almost every day. All in all, not a bad run for a little blog. I have also recently added quite a few new categories that should make it easier to find interesting things about items in the Czech news. read more »

Svátky: The holiday season

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 10:03:13 +0000

MF DNES To, že jsou Vánoce již za dveřmi, lze poznat z nabídky a výzdoby obchodních domů a od čtvrtka je bude připomínat i výzdoba v ulicích Prahy 8.

The holiday season is upon us, around the corner, or behind the door (za dveřmi). More and more Christmas trees are showing up in the streets of Czech cities and soon they will be joined by tubs with carp. But first, we will have to celebrate St Nicholas on Mikuláš day (5. of December). Last year I put together a Christmas vocabulary, and here are the key words for the season again: read more »

Babí léto - Indian Summer

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 23:24:17 +0100

Well, we've said nashledanou to okurková sezóna (the summer slow news season) and are about to welcome another time of year: babí léto (Indian Summer). I don't really know why it's called that but it seems to be reminiscent of bába (hag) but hag's summer sounds a little strange. Unfortunately, I don't have any etymological dictionaries to hand. This is what Czech wikipedia has to say about it:

Babí léto bývá charakterizováno obdobím suchého, málo větrného, slunného a přes den velmi teplého počasí. Noci ale bývají již poměrně read more »

Okurková sezóna? Cucumber season?

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 08:04:59 +0100

I finally have time to update this blog and nothing interesting is happening. Oh, I somehow missed the new Czech government and Czech exit from the world cup, but that's really rather dull. When I say nothing is happening I mean nothing with interesting linguistic or cultural implications. The summer months are notoriously slow newswise - Czech has a term for this: okurková sezóna - ĺiterally 'cucumber season'. Let's hope things pick up soon. In England, this period is often refered to as the Silly Season characterized by stories of the "Dog bites man" variety (for which Czechs have no idiomatic equivalent). read more »

Czech Update updates to slow down

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 10:31:06 +0000

Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for Czech Update, I will be away and busy for the next four and a half months. As a result, my postings to Czech Update will become less frequent but I will try to do at least a weekly update. I also appreciate if anybody sends me interesting stories that should perhaps appear here. Dominik

Sport: New category on Czech Update

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 10:35:58 +0000

Although I'm not a big sports fan myself, it is a big part of any culture, and Czech culture is no exception, particularly with the recent and past successes of Czech 'sportovci'. I've already posted a few items in the culture category, but on reflection, I think a dedicated category might be in order. I've also gone back and reclassified some of the earlier posts that fit in.

Twisted Spoon publish Máj: Seminal work of Czech 'revival' in new English translation

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 11:53:31 +0000

Twisted Spoon Press, the Prague-based publisher of quality Czech and Central European literature in English translation came out with one of the key works of Czech national revival, Karel Hynek Mácha's 1836 Romantic epic poem Máj. Please support Twisted Spoon and CzechUpdate by buying the new translation on Amazon. This is the first published English translation in over 50 years. The Czech original with an older translation by Edith Pargeter is available online on http://www.lupomesky.cz/maj. read more »

New Czech course on CD-ROM

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 11:18:44 +0000

Czech Express: LANGMaster.com
LANGMaster Czech Express is a fast Czech language course aimed at students of all nationalities encountering Czech for the first time. It serves as a practical gateway to the language and forms a solid foundation for further study, while at the same time is also completely appropriate for those whose aspirations stretch to “survival level” Czech.

Finally a Czech on CD course that is worth anything. This description from the Czech company Langmaster is fairly accurate. Of course, CD-ROM language courses are always limited in their use - they're always a complementary material at best (the other two existing course are virtually useless - one because it has no useful information the other because it is aimed at translation only). However, Lída Holá, the author of the interesting Czech Step by Step textbook did a very good job. Now, the CD does not have all the bells and whistles you might see on other Langmaster products for English or even some of the high-value CDs for French or English produced by large companies. There is no video or animation. However, there is plenty of good sound and some nice illustrations. There is also a grammar and the optional dictionary (Czech-English or Czech-German). read more »

Site upgrade notice

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 14:21:25 +0000

The software powering Czechupdate received an updgrade so I updated the layout a little as well with a slightly new theme. You can now choose which colors to display on the front page. Otherwise, all other improvements are under the hood (or as they say 'pod kapotou'.

PF 2006 - Všechno nejlepší do nového roku

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 01 Jan 2006 19:41:48 +0000

Czechs are not nearly as prolific card writers as the English but they certainly send out lots of them on special occasions. The typical New Year card bears the acronym PF (from the French pour féliciter) and is refered to in Czech as 'péefko'. Most people send a postcard (pohled) but many people and companies make their own. Bohemica's PF card is on Bohemica.com/2006. Some more traditional PFs can also be found on pohlednice.centrum.cz or this specialized PF s read more »

Šťastné a Veselé

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 00:53:34 +0000

Šťastné a veselé vánoce a příjemné prožití sváteční doby přeji všem čtenářům CzechUpdate.com. Dominik Lukeš

Czechupdate.com is here

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 21:09:26 +0000

Czech Update has received a present from Santa. Its own domain Czechupdate.com. It is still hosted on Bohemica.com and the old link will be functional.

Welcome to Czech Update

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 14:48:12 +0000

This is Bohemica.com's blog updating all interested on current Czech related events accompanied by thoughts on Czech language and culture. Hopefully, we will have some audio updates as well.

Czech Republic experiencing biggest Baby Boom in 25 years

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:10:10 +0000

More than 10,000 more people were born in the Czech Republic than died which is the most since 1983. The 114 thousand newly borns take the total number of inhabitants to 10 million 381 thouthsand. This upward trend has been going on for the last 5 years. read more »

Czechs under stress

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 15:28:13 +0000

Turns out Czechs are just as susceptible to stress at work as people in other industrialized nations. What a surprise! read more »

New resource for Czech exile literature online

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 23:08:47 +0000

A complete text (all in Czech) of a book survey of Czech exile literature between 1971 and 1989 was made available by the author on the University of Glasgow's Slavonic Studies Department website. read more »

Šťastný Nový rok 2008 na Bohemica.com

admin — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 07:22:34 +0000

Bohemica.com a Dominik Lukeš vám spolu přejí Veselý nový rok 2008. PFko najdete na DominikLukes.net/2008. read more »

Czech inventor of the 'drunk tank' dies aged 91

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:07:26 +0000

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 »

Czech taxes 113th in the world

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 17:15:01 +0000

In a strange imaginary league table of worldwide taxation, Czech Republic came in the 113th place. That is not good! read more »

Velvet Revolution in video (YouTube weekly)

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 20:01:27 +0000

YouTube is a great source of video to illustrate historical events and the Velvet Revolution is no exception. Here are a few clips.

Montage of moments from the days of and after 17 November: read more »

Talking about the Velvet Revolution

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:55:26 +0000

Listen to what it was like to be a Velvet Revolutionary in this discussion between Bohemica's Dominik Lukeš and Eamonn Burgess on Future Radio 96.9FM. This discussion was part of the Community Chest programme guest-hosted by Dominik on 16 November 2007.

Play Czech geography game on Facebook and win PDF of Czech grammar

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 14:43:31 +0000

18 years since Velvet Revolution on 17 November

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:57:39 +0000

For the 18th time since 1989, Czechs are celebrating the end of "communism" and the beginning of "democracy". The country has seen many changes since that time but many feel nostalgia for the 'bad' old times and the communist party still has 15% representation in parliament. But the chances of going back to what it was are very small. read more »

Příkopy - Prague street in Top 20 most expensive in the world

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:20:39 +0000

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 »

Czechs bought 350 000 bicycles in 2006 for Sport not Commute

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 23:43:00 +0000

Lots of cycling stories in the Czech press this last week. Czechs seem to be buying lots of cycles but don't like to think of them as a commuting device but rather one for getting some exercise in. Prague is becoming a bit more cycle-commute friendly but it's still more the exception than the rule. read more »

Czechs succumb to blogging craze (says Jyxo)

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 16:11:39 +0000

According to Czech Google-wannabe's press release blogging has become the next big thing on Czech Internet. One of the indication is that Blog.cz has become one of the top 10 Czech websites with 2 million unique visitors a month. 60% of Czech bloggers are under 30, most are employed and more than half visit their blog more than 20 days a month. read more »

Happy birthday Czechoslovakia

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:24:55 +0000

Yes, it is 89 years today, 28. October 1918 that Czechoslovakia (Československo) was founded lasting with an interruption for WWII until 1992.

1950s prosecutor on trial for judicial murder

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:07:43 +0100

Ludmila Brožová Polednová was among the prosecutors who were involved in sending Milada Horáková and others to the gallows in the 1950s. Now, she is on trial for judicious murder. This Czech interview with a historian explains why the case against her is strong even after all those years. read more »

Sokol in New York still going strong after 140 years

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 17:54:06 +0100

Polish workers back in Czech Republic

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:53:28 +0100

I remember there used to be a lot of Polish workers working on construction and other projects in the 1980s and it seems that they are coming back. And why not? read more »

Bramboráky a houby in Chicago

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 14:28:42 +0100

What could be more fitting to celebrate Czech traditions than Houby Day on Čermák Road. This is the season of mushroom picking in the Czech Republic and many of the mushrooms (houby) will end up in pancakes (bramboráky), even though even more will be made into a meal with scrambled eggs (smaženice). read more »

Czechs second highest earners in new EU countries

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 07:39:39 +0100

The good news is the high salaries and lowish unemployment compared to the new countries. The bad news is a continuing lag behind old EU countries and the 25% pay gap between men and women. read more »

Kafka in Czech complete

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 02:27:05 +0100

Was he or wasn't he? read more »

German fighting losing battle in Czech schools

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 08:43:59 +0100

German is no longer the first or even second foreign language of choice for Czech students. It is surprising that even Spanish and Russian seem to be more popular. In a short hundred years since almost all Czechs spoke German (some better than Czech) to where very few do. It would be interesting to see what consequence it will have for Czech-German relations. Probably, it won't be all that bad. read more »

Czech search engine habits

Dominik Lukeš — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:17:45 +0100

The most common search engine used by Czechs is apparently the homegrown Seznam.cz followed by Google and the other two of the Czech top portals: Centrum.cz and Atlas.cz. read more »

Dictionary of Czech culture

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 21:56:48 +0100

The Amazon reviewer got it right! read more »

How have Czech values changed?

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 21:55:17 +0100

If you're wondering about what Czech views on this or that are, you could do worse than going to the excellent World Values Survey and use their read more »

Czech president at it again

Dominik Lukeš — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:36:03 +0100

It might be a bit unfair to say that Václav Klaus is a complete idiot. He's quite obviously reasonably well educated and pretty intelligent. But even well-educated and intelligent people do moronic things and this is one. Not so much the disagreement with the global warming lobby but the ease with which he lets himself be used by special interests. read more »

Czech news in English from a Czech online paper

Dominik Lukeš — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 08:44:39 +0100

Pavel Vondra » Yes, we speak English here Another milestone in Czech online journalism, or a tragically miscalculated flop? You be the judge. read more »

Burčák came early this year

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:02:13 +0100

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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