D's Czech Lessons - I Love Consonants

In the past two weeks since we went to London, Phil and I have spent a wonderful two weeks here in Prague. We have a few trips planned before the Christmas holidays, so we thought it might be a good idea to stay put in Prague for two weekends in a row;) I wouldn’t want anyone to get the false impression that our life in Prague is all fun and games. (Well, it’s mostly fun and games with a little work thrown in here and there...) Phil has been digging through archives, translating Czech and Latin texts, and getting down to the lengthy process of writing his dissertation. I can testify to the fact that he is working hard, but then again, I can also tell you there isn’t a time when he isn’t working hard! On the other hand, I decided to take the plunge and begin an intensive Czech language class. It meets five days a week for six hours a day. I decided to dive head first into a Slavic language and see if I would sink or swim. I prefer to think of myself as currently treading water while desperately grasping for a life vest...but that’s just on good days;)

As many of you know, Phil spent eight weeks in Bloomington last summer taking an intensive Czech language class. And as even more of you know, that husband of mine has a real aptitude for languages. He is well on his way to being “that American guy who can communicate”. In other words, he speaks solid “Survival Czech”. I, on the other hand, am just beginning to get a feel for the sounds, the accent, the grammar…all of it is completely new. I have only been in class for eight days, but I thought I'd report on my initial thoughts and impressions.

First and foremost, the pronunciation is astounding. I’m not in Virginia anymore. Even the deepest Southern drawl or the harshest New York accent cannot compare to the new sounds I hear everyday. As I listen and read Czech words, I've learned that there are specific rules for the pronunciation. As long as you follow them, things should theoretically be ok. But, yikes! Learning the rules with a few totally new sounds that don’t exist in English (or French, my only other foreign language) is proving to be, shall we say... challenging. The sounds I am attempting to make are very foreign to my mouth and ears. For instance, the letter ř is pronounced “ruh-jzuh”... sort of. (Forgive me, I am learning!) On the other hand, "c" sounds like “ts” in the word cats. So the world “co” (‘what’ in Czech) is pronounced “t-so”, a bit like the English word ‘so’ with a ‘t’ sound at the beginning. An ě when paired with the letter m becomes “mě” pronounced like “mn-ye”. Whew! My brain hurts just thinking about it.

My pronunciation issues started to kick into high gear when I realized that Czech has a serious dearth of vowels. I am overwhelmed by the number of consonants I am supposed to be able to pronounce in a row. Seriously. A few of my new favorite words are: zmrzlina = ice cream; samozřjmě = of course; čtvrtek = Thursday; trh = market. And just in case you didn’t believe me, this is a sentence that has no vowels: Strč prst skrz krk. I’m not kidding, I learned this on day two in class .

So after eight days of Czech classes, what have I learned? Well, you’d be surprised. I can say things like

Excuse me, I would like to buy a loaf of bread and an apple. = Promiňte, chtela bych cléb a jablko.

I can carry on the following conversation:

Would you like something to drink? Yes, I’ll have a large beer, please. = Co si daté k pití? Ano, dám si vélké pivo, prosím.

In addition to my useful knowledge, I’ve also learned some ridiculous phrases that I will never use:

I have a blue notebook= Mám modrý sešit.

And my personal favorite:

I’m hungry like a wolf! = Mám hlad jako vlk!

Yes, the title of lesson eight in my textbook translated to hungry like a wolf. Wasn’t that a Duran Duran song? Better question: why was this the title of my lesson today? I'm not making this up.

Even with the extraordinary newness of Czech, I am really enjoying my class. There are eight of us in the class from all over: Paraguay, Spain, France, Sweden, Switzerland, and Israel. Each person has a fascinating story about why he or she is living in Prague, and everyone has been extremely friendly. We are all beginners trying to figure out what is going on everyday in class. I have found the experience of starting from ground zero quite liberating. While daunting, it is concurrently freeing to learn Czech from the very beginning with “dobry den” (hello) and good bye (na shledanou).

I guess one of the most important reasons I wanted to take Czech was the fact that a small amount of Czech goes a LONG way to making life easier. We live in Praha 1, the center of things, and there are tons of tourists as well as locals in the area. From our interactions at the local potraviny (convenience store), to the ticket counter in the metro, to the local grocery store, everything is made easier and more pleasant with a few small Czech phrases/niceties. Many people here speak great English, though they will almost undoubtedly tell you they do not. It seems to me that many Czechs I have encountered really appreciate any attempt by foreigners to speak Czech. Phil has had more than one older Czech lady at the potraviny give him an extra smile just because he can tell her “You are very kind to help us” in Czech. I have no illusions that I’m going to master the Czech language in one short year. Regardless, I know I made the right decision to take some Czech lessons while here Prague.

I can’t wait to use my new Czech skills this weekend. Along with a few other friends, Phil and I are going to a small town on the Czech-German border called Novy Bor. One of the other Fulbrights is a glass artist and is studying at an art school. His school is having an open house and invited us all to visit. It will be my first experience in small town Czech Republic. I’m guessing English won’t be useful, so I’ll just have to try out some of my new Czech phrases. I’m hoping to find a way to work into my conversations, “I’m hungry like a wolf”. If that happens, I think the weekend will be a success! We will be sure to report back when we return…