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SoundCzechThe world inside-out
Welcome to SoundCzech. Do you ever get the feeling that the world has gone
mad, that everything is upside-down? The songwriters Voskovec and Werich
had the same feeling when they wrote the following ditty more than 70 years
ago, but in Czech they called it “Svět naruby”, or “the world
inside-out”.
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SoundCzechOn fools (or blockheads)
Hello and welcome to another edition of SoundCzech, our long-running
language series in which you can learn Czech words or sayings through song
lyrics. In today’s edition we’ll hear part of a song by the great
Czech
folksinger Jaromír Nohavica: the word to look out for is also the name of
the song, Hlupáci, the plural of hlupák, the Czech equivalent of fool or
dummy. If you say somebody is hloupý, you’re basically saying they’re
not too bright - the light’s on but nobody’s home. More
Current AffairsCourt sets important precedent: asylum seekers may choose their defense attorney
The Supreme Administrative Court has set an important precedent. Reviewing
an appeal case in late December, it ruled that in future foreign nationals
seeking asylum in the Czech Republic should be allowed to pick their
defense attorney rather than have one appointed for them.
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Current AffairsMinistry issues guidelines on avoiding sexist language
As of this year, Czech teachers and ministry officials should only use
politically correct language. The Ministry of Education has sent out a
language guide to all of the Czech Republic’s schools and ministries,
giving advice on how to avoid sexist language and how to speak correctly in
terms of gender. I spoke to Pavla Paclíková, one of the authors of the
guide, who says Czech is still full of politically incorrect language.
More
SoundCzechI’m scared!
Welcome to SoundCzech – our Czech language series in which you can learn
Czech phrases and idioms through song lyrics. In today’s edition, we
will
be listening to a song by the famous Czech singer-songwriter Karel Kryl, a
famous dissident who some dubbed “the poet with a guitar” because of
his well-written lyrics. The word to listen out for is tréma. More
Current AffairsFewer residency applicants as foreigners fear language exams
The number of foreigners moving to the Czech Republic has been steadily on
the rise for years. The number of people applying for permanent residence
here has declined over the last year however, and one of the main reasons
for that decline it seems are the Czech language exams imposed at the end
of 2008 for residence applicants from non-EU countries.
More
Letter from PragueThe hills are alive with the sound of… Ř!
I have the feeling that your hearing is more acute when the temperature is
-10 Celsius. Certainly Prague smells better, but it seems to sound better
too. But then I always enjoyed the sounds of just about anything Czech at
all, from the sound of Dvořák to the sound of ř.
More
SoundCzechGo to the devil!
Welcome to another edition of SoundCzech – Radio Prague’s Czech
language course in which you can learn new expressions with the help of
song lyrics. Today’s song is by a group called 100 Zvířat – 100
Animals, it’s called Fairytale and the phrase to listen out for is “a
potom čert ho vzal” – “and then the devil took him”.
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