Czech Language Inside Out

Provided by Dominik Lukeš;  www.bohemica.com 
for the Czech Republic Business Guide

What is Czech

About 11 million people speak Czech worldwide. It is a Slavic language similar, for example, to Slovak, Polish or Russian. After 40 years in one country Czechs can easily understand Slovak and vice versa but this ability is slowly lost with the new generation unexposed to Slovak in the media.

Why Learn Czech

Americans identify themselves by their citizenship, the Brits by their Queen and Czechs by their language. This should be of interest to any expatriate trying to penetrate into the local culture. Experience has shown that it is possible and indeed very easy to successfully live, run a business or have a marriage in Prague without speaking more than a handful of Czech words. I once even ran into an American who had a severe allergy to garlic but after more than six months in a relationship with a Czech girlfriend in Prague was still oblivious of the Czech word for it (česnek). All this can be done but you will remain a foreigner for ever. If you want to really be accepted make the effort to learn the language. As the Czech saying goes: ”You are as many times a person as many languages you speak.” Apart from all this fluff you have to pass a Czech test if you want to run your own business here.

How to Learn Czech

For some reason, Czech has acquired a reputation of being a hard language. But it’s not Czech that is hard, it’s learning Czech that is hard. It is no harder for expatriates, however, to learn Czech than it is for Czechs to learn English or German. The difference is somewhere else. Many things stand in your way if you set on the path to acquire the language of your new home. First and foremost is the drive of Czechs to learn English. They have much more at stake than you. Good English means a better job, opportunity to travel and generally a broader world outlook. Therefore you will find yourself getting English answers to your Czech questions. The key: be persistent.

Keep speaking in Czech until you break through. The Czechs will rarely take offence. Unlike the French they love it when foreigners try to speak their language.

The next hurdle is grammar. It is scary at first sight. Extremely scary. But it just makes things simple. The word of wisdom is perseverance. If you can get through lesson five of any textbook you are probably at a point where the grammar doesn’t matter.

The last obstacle to overcome is the disbelief of Czechs that anybody not born in the Czech Republic can ever learn the language. Many expats continue to prove them wrong but the message hasn’t yet reached the general populace. It is a widely held belief by the Czechs that their language is the most beautiful and difficult in the world. While the former is really a matter of taste the second is clearly not true. To a common Czech, to speak good Czech means to speak perfect Czech. At the top of the list of things to master is pronunciation. Time and time again foreigners with good pronunciation but awful grammar are more easily accepted as speakers of Czech by the native speakers.

Where to Learn Czech

Many language schools around Prague offer Czech classes for foreigners. Most of the bigger English schools run a few Czech classes, which are often made available to their expatriate teachers. If you don’t happen to work for such a school they will be quite happy to tutor you for a fee. It is difficult to recommend a particular school because the quality is inconsistent. Unlike in the English teaching field, most teachers of Czech have had no training in how to teach it. A degree in Czech language and literature does not guarantee effective teaching skills. Don’t be afraid to shop around until you find one that matches your learning style. You can also ask to observe a class before you sign up. Ultimately, your decision may be based on such factors course availability or time convenience.

Private tuition is provided for the businessperson by most schools. It is much easier to demand quality and change a private teacher to make your learning more effective. Of course, such comfort comes at a price but if you need to learn Czech for business it is worth it.

Many people try to go the way of trading English lessons for Czech. This can only be recommended for the committed. The Czech party will typically get more out of this exchange since they invariably speak better English than you do Czech. Many such relationships turn into English conversation sessions with the odd Czech word thrown in to keep up appearances. Even though this has its own rewards few people meet their Czech learning objective that way.

Which Books to Use

Good Czech textbooks are hard to come by. For those who prefer to learn communicatively, ”Communicative Czech” by Magdalena Pintarová and Ivana Bednářová is probably the best around. If you prefer working with good quality tapes using the audio-lingual method then you will enjoy ”Czech for You” by Milena Kelly. Avoid ”Colloquial Czech” by James Naughton. First, the language in it is anything but colloquial and dialogues are downright silly. For speakers of other languages than English, there is ”Do you want to speak Czech?” which is available in several versions including English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. It can be a little confusing, however, and you will need somebody’s help to get the most out of it. For the independent, there is David Short’s ”Teach Yourself Czech” which is a decent text with a tape.

There is a distinct lack of Czech dictionaries that could be used by learners. You have to make do with one made for Czechs learning other languages which includes little to no vital grammatical information and no usage notes. This gives you about a 60 percent chance of getting your word right but is better than nothing.

Czech Trivia

Czechs are proud of their language. As was said above you can only be Czech if you speak Czech. This is nicely illustrated by the Czech word for Germans (Němci) which is derived from ”mutes” that is those who cannot speak. For old Czechs, obviously, if you couldn’t speak their language you were as good as mute.

If you do not want to be a mute learn another one of Czech’s specifics. It is one of the few languages which retained a case called vocative. It is used whenever you’re addressing someone. For instance, Hi Bill! is Ahoj Bille! It puts an entirely different spin on your relationships with Czechs if you can address them correctly even when your language of communication is English. So get a textbook and learn how to use it correctly. It will pay off many times over.

Czech has also contributed significantly to the international vocabulary. Most notably, the word robot comes from a 1930s book RUR by a Czech writer Karel Čapek. It comes from an old Czech word for forced labor (robota). Another word known in many Western languages is pistol. It has its origin in the Czech word píšťala (flute) which was the name of a kind of weapon (a long flute-like tube used to fire deadly projectiles) successfully pioneered by the Hussites in the 1420s. Interestingly enough the word pistol came back into Czech from French as pistole, meaning simply gun.

Czech is famous for its consonants. You can find as many as 5 in a row in a word. A good example is zmrzlina (ice-cream) which has five of them. Czechs are particularly proud of Strč prst skrz krk (Stick your finger through your throat) a sentence completely devoid of any vowels whatsoever. Luckily it is not one you need daily.

Finally, the apple of the eye of all Czech patriots is the sound Ř which is found only in Czech. It is much feared by students of Czech but is fairly easy to pronounce. Even if you don’t get it quite right it can rarely cause confusion. Incidentally, the current Czech president has slight troubles with his r’s which puts you in good company.