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 »

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 »

Český „YouTube“ nabízí seriál od Čtvrtníčka - iDNES.cz
Na začátku příštího roku se má oficiálně rozjet český server, který nabídne podobné služby jako populární YouTube. Vedle možnosti zveřejnit zde svá videa se případní uživatelé mohou těšit i na původní tvorbu. Svá videa zde mají podle plánu vydávat studenti filmových škol, místo bude i na zprávy či reportáže.

New Year will bring a new online service to the Czech internet to challenge YouTube called Stream.cz. And to draw new audiences it starts with an original show called Gynekologie 2 (Ob-gyn 2) which is a very funny parody of medical dramas with only slightly lascivious content. Stream.cz differs from YouTube in several important respects: it features (at least for now) very professional-looking content created for the site by film students, the quality of transmission is high, live content is planned (mostly transmissions from night clubs), concert footage, news, etc. Not all the videos require Czech, such as this short film on Brutal Ping Pong or this animated gruesome take on What was left out of fairytales.  read more »

Tradice koled pochází ze středověku - www.lidovky.cz
V dnešní době jsou koledy synonymem pro vánoční písně. Ve středověku tomu tak nebylo.

Koledy (Carols) are as indispensable for a Czech Christmas as carp and Christmas trees. In fact, they have a long history, going all the way to +šth century. Originally, they were associated with small gifts from householders to roving singers (trick-or-treat - Czech verb: koledovat) and were not limited just to Christmas. Now, they can be heard in homes around the country, they come on radio and appear in shopping malls and elevators.  read more »

Internet newsletter offers Czech-American news, hard-to-find products - 12-12-2006 - Radio Prague
Numerous newspapers and magazines serve the Czech community in the United States, from "nationwide" publications such as Americke listy to regional titles like Czech Nebraska. There are also several internet websites and email newsletters, such as the weekly Dumpling News; it is produced by Zora Pergl, a woman of Czech descent based in Florida. I asked her how Dumpling News has been received since its launch in April last year.  read more »

List of faux pas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Czech Republic and Slovakia

* It is considered mildly impolite to wear baseball caps inside. [citation needed]
* Women's last name tend to carry the appendix "-ova". For example Mr. Johnson's wife's last name would be Mrs. Johnsonova. Addressing a man with a female form of his last name (e.g., Mr. Johnsonova) is a serious faux pas. [citation needed]

Useful tidbits from Wikipedia. Bohemica has  read more »

28. říjen - Wikipedie, otevřená encyklopedie
# Státní svátek: Den vzniku samostatného československého státu
# Socialistický kalendář:

* Vyhlášení samostatnosti Čechů a Slováků (1918)
* Den znárodnění (1945) – významný den Československé socialistické republiky
* Schválení zákona o československé federaci (1968)

As this short extract from Czech Wikipedia shows, the 28th of October has played a significant role in recent Czech history. These days it is a státní svátek - meaning a day off work (unless it falls on a weekend) - in memory of the 1918 founding of Czechoslovakia (dissolved in 1939 and then again in 1993) and gaining independence of the crumbling Austrian Hungarian Empire (perceived partly as German).  read more »

Spory na Wikipedii aneb válka o "h" - LUPA
Ačkoliv se řada polemik týkala i obsahu jednotlivých hesel, hlavním tématem byl stále pravopis. Debata vedla k předložení několika návrhů závazných pravopisných pravidel.

An interesting article (in Czech) about debates (sometimes more fiery than necessary) on Czech Wikipedia. What is interesting from the perspective of this blog is that the most serious debates that actually resulted in people leaving the fold or being banned were focused on spelling. The Czech word for speling is pravopis actually parses as correct writing and is a very contentious issue in Czech language politics. The debates were between traditionalists and progressivists in one area and liberals and regulationists in another.  read more »

Jaromír Nohavica - Koncerty Praha 2006 -CD Pražská pálená

The folk singer and poet, Jaromír Nohavica is one of the foremost celebrities (in the truest sense of the word) in the Czech Republic. He routinely sells out large concert halls and has sold hundreds of thousands of records. Now he has decided to reward his Czech fans by recording a concert album and making it available online for free. And the main method of download is BitTorrent (although direct downloads are also possible). That's a pretty groundbreaking thing to do.  read more »

Komisař Špidla bloguje a má vlastní deníček - iDNES.cz
"Technika budiž pochválena. A internet zvlášť...," píše český eurokomisař Vladimír Špidla. A nepíše to jen tak někde, ale na svém blogu. Tedy česky řečeno v internetovém deníku.

iDnes.cz and other Czech media reports that Vladimír Špidla, the former social democratic Prime Minister, now EU commissioner, joined the ranks of bloggers citing freedom of expression as main motivation. He comments on EU matters as well as football. So far, he's posted four lengthy entries since last November and is not accepting comments - obviously not quite got the hang of the blog concept. But the thoughts of a man who was always considered too contemplative for a Prime Minister are certainly worth a look. The Czech original of the blog can be found on this utterly immemorable URL: http://europe.eu.int/comm/employment_social/emplweb/spidla/blog_cs.cfm  read more »

Here are some Czech-centric English language blogs I came across:
My Czech Republic Blog
A Year in the Czech Republic

I wonder if there are more.

Czech blogosphere is pretty active (although not nearly as prominent as in the US). Neviditelný pes, one of the first Czech blogs ever (from before the word was even known) run by the writer Ondřej Neff has just been incorporated into a major news site run by the top daily Lidové Noviny.

One way to experience the Czech Republic for an English speaker is to teach English there. Jobs are plentiful if not extravagantly remunerated. But for a long time it has not just been enough to turn up with a smile and native language ability. You also need some qualifications, usually a so called TEFL certificate. This usually means a month-long course which includes some theory and a lot of practice. You can take it in a variety of places (see ESL Cafe for more info) all around the world but there are several schools directly in Prague that offer the same and you get a chance to explore the city with some of your peers and establish useful contacts. I used to work for one of these schools and have seen this first hand. The school I worked for is called ITC (International TEFL Certificate) Training so I thought I'd give them a free plug here. I had a hand in designing their curriculum and training materials which are very good and I imagine have improved over time. Another advantage of going through one of the local schools is that they pretty much guarantee you a job in the city where you train (and facilitate jobs throughout the world).  read more »

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 »

The Czech news server iDnes.cz put together two very exciting presentations from the days of 'communism' or in Czech "za komunistů" (under the communists - colloquialized as "za komančů") or "za totality" (during the times of the totalitarian regime" or even "za totáče" (the same as previous, only colloquial). You can see what the pre-Christmas shopping experience was like and what the goods were available and what they looked like. There are pictures of hundreds of products from different eras (unfortunately unsorted).  read more »

• Czech department store from the 1970s