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Archive for the 'Language' Category

Apr 08 2009

Signs of Spring

Signs of Spring

Spring buds

Joy

Happy

Fresh air

Blue sky

Enthusiasm

Longer days

Getting tanned

Windows open

Ice cream cones

Mood improving

Beer gardens open

People laughing

Winter Blues disappears

Orchards blossom

Shorter nights

Sun warming

Topless cars

Sitting outside

Skirts getting shorter

Smiling sun

Temperatures raising

Children playing

Snowdrops withered, tulips flowering

Birds singing

Daisy meadows

Chilled wine

Greeting strangers

Park benches inviting

Leaning back into the sun

Emerging

Reviving

Life

Good News

Easter

Resurrection

Joy of Life

What are your signs of Spring? Share the joy of it! Is it yet Spring where you live? What does Spring mean to you? How do you feel it is Spring? Please add your comments and thoughts.

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3 responses so far

Mar 03 2009

Learning Czech with Harry Potter

Published by Golden Prague under Language Edit This

 

Learning Czech with Harry Potter 

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Image copyright and displayed with permission from Warner Bros.

I am always at the lookout for new, creative ways to either learn or teach languages. One way I recently tried out is with the help of sorcery. No, I haven’t lost my marbles, I am speaking of one of my favourite fantasy series, “Harry Potter”. It is a bit early in my Czech language adventure to start to read books but I always can watch films. Dubbed and subtitled films to be precise. So yesterday I bought my first Czech/ English Harry Potter DVD, “The Prisoner from Azkaban” and I must say it works a treat! I can choose to watch in Czech with English subtitles or in English with Czech subtitles and get a feel for how the language is spoken and written. I only wonder if I should widen my purchases beyond Harry Potter, or do you think words like “wand”, “wizard” or “broomstick” will be useful in my daily life in Prague?

8 responses so far

Feb 26 2009

Czech by full immersion

Czech by full immersion

Hubby and I have finally started Czech language classes, 90min 2x/week, that is what they call „Czech Express“, lol.

image (c) by me ;-)
water-ripples-bubbles.jpgThe teaching method is more or less full immersion, without much time to catch your breath back. Do you see the little bubbles on the left? They are hubby and I, drowning!

Actually it is not too bad and surely the best method to get us going, but hubby is a bit annoyed when he can’t understand the teachers’ instructions. Having given language classes myself I am less bothered. I just try what I think could be right. If there are lines/ spaces in the text something has to be filled in. If there are two columns, there must be a relationship between the words –somewhere.

If only my memory would be better, I am not twenty, thirty, forty anymore. So resolutions for next class: Don’t do the homework in the last moment, just before leaving for school and dedicate each day some time to repeat the lessons. Sounds like I am back in school again, right? So, please excuse me, I have to go to my books now, see you tomorrow!

6 responses so far

Nov 20 2008

Very basic Czech 1

Published by Golden Prague under Language Edit This

Czech is said to be one of the most difficult European languages to learn, only Finnish and Hungarian are deemed to be more difficult.

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Nevertheless, knowing a few words in Czech will convert you from a tourist into a guest in the eyes of the people here. I have put together a little list to help you, pronunciation in brackets, so lets learn Czech!

Three things before we start, in Czech the stress is always on the first syllable, accents simply “prolong” the sound and things are always spoken as they are read, at least no exemptions there! (simplified advice ;-) but it will get you there)

Saying “hello” to people:

Doesn’t matter if you enter a shop, restaurant or if you simply meet somebody in the street, make eye contact and say:

Dobrý den (Dobree den) literally “Good Day” but also the more formal version of “hello”.

If you want to be a bit more sophisticated you can also adapt your greeting for the time of the day:

Dobre rano (Dobreh rahno) “Good Morning”

Dobrý večer (Dobree vetcher) “Good Evening”

Dobrou noc (Dobroh nots) “Good Night”, often used before retiring to bed, in the sense of “Sleep well”

Two words that you will hear all the time:

Prosím (proseem) “Please” It doesn’t matter if you order a beer or ask for the way, or simply sign in a shop what item you like to buy, adding Prosím (proseem) “Please” to the end of your sentence will make people much friendlier towards you. Czech people are very polite and appreciate when others are the same.

Promiňte (prominyehteh) “Sorry” In the sense of excuse me/ pardon me

You can use it if you want to pass somewhere, like in a full tram, when you want to reach the exit or on other occasions when somebody blocks your way.

To round it up a bit, here some words to say Good-bye and Thank you in Czech:

Na shledanou (Na shlaydanoh) means “Good-bye” and is said also when you leave a shop or restaurant, just look at the people around you and throw a “Na shledanou” into the air and everybody will think: Wow! What a polite foreigner;-)

Děkuji (Dyekuyi) stands for “Thank you”. Whenever you receive something, like your food in the restaurant or the change on the supermarket till it is common to say “Děkuji”

More to come, stay tuned and subscribe to my blog ;-)

Edit: Ivanhoe From Ohio with Love made the following comment/ correction:

” Good Morning should be Dobre rano and Good Night should be Dobrou noc.” For the moment I will leave both versions in the post until further research, but I guess he is right! ;-)

Thank You! SY

2.Edit: As suspected, Ivanhoe  From Ohio with Love was right and the original post has been corrected. My apologies to everybody for the confusion! SY

10 responses so far

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