http://www.radio.cz/en Latest articles on 'Czech language' - Interesting facts about the Czech language, available Czech language courses and Radio Prague’s entertaining Czech language crash course en Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:04:42 +0100 Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:04:42 +0100 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Radio Prague CMS 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Radio Broadcasting cr@radio.cz (Cesky Rozhlas) webmaster@radio.cz (CRo Webmaster) http://www.radio.cz/en/article/144404 ‘English is attacking Czech from all sides’ one newspaper columnist recently despaired, while others talk of Czech’s ‘battle for survival’ in a world in which ever more English is spoken. From terms like ‘setobox’, ‘vygooglovat’ and ‘mobil’ on the one hand to words like ‘sorry’, ‘byzy’ and ‘lůzr’ on the other, English does seem to be making an impact on today’s Czech. But are these English borrowings really a threat to the Czech language, or do they enrich it instead? I asked some Czechs for their opinion: Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:04:42 +0100 urn:uuid:ee456af1-4b1b-5515-a469-f2cc3fa4015d http://www.radio.cz/en/article/141175 Every summer the north-east Bohemian town of Dobruška turns truly cosmopolitan, opening its doors to Czech language students from around the world. The Czech language summer school organized by Charles University lasts for a month and is specially tailored for Czech expats and people who have developed an interest in the Czech language and culture. Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:49:30 +0200 urn:uuid:f2c7541b-cae4-5b59-993d-9c34beeb88e9 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/136932 How did communist propaganda brainwash people? What were the most frequent words used in the communist press? And was it at all possible to learn any real news from the censored newspapers? These are some of the questions a team of Czech linguists is trying to answer in their Dictionary of Communist Totalitarianism. Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100 urn:uuid:0a219ee6-e23d-5031-ae04-ae6ca0efd068 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/135608 Welcome to SoundCzech our long-running language series in which you can learn Czech idioms through song lyrics. Today’s final edition looks at the expression vypdanout z týhle díry – to get out of this hole. The expression features in a song by Mňága a Žďorp a very popular alternative rock band from Valašské Meziříčí, called Ve 4 rano – At four in the morning. The setting is a bar or club just before closing: the music has come to an end, no one has anything left to smoke and the tables are dirty from spilled drinks. Sat, 29 Jan 2011 02:01:00 +0100 urn:uuid:24a45391-e51b-50b5-baab-25b4c204c14a http://www.radio.cz/en/article/135474 English speaking foreigners to the Czech Republic who are interested in the language are often befuddled or even annoyed by the feature of formal and informal speech in Czech grammar, called vykání and tykání - that is, the formal, plural “you” and the informal, singular “you”. Nowhere is that characteristic more frowned upon than in multinational companies, where new employees, called “formal you” at the job interview, are renamed “demotic you” on their first day of work, and told to address everyone else accordingly. Sun, 23 Jan 2011 02:01:00 +0100 urn:uuid:f3d7ea3a-8af6-5314-9d02-843df53a0f29 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/135432 Hello and welcome to another edition of SoundCzech, Radio Prague’s Czech language course in which you can learn new phrases with the help of song lyrics. Today’s song is by the group Alkehol and is called Nesmíš se vzdát – you mustn’t give up. The phrase to look out for is in the refrain – život ti hubu kolikrát nabije. Sat, 22 Jan 2011 02:01:00 +0100 urn:uuid:a01e0b37-69b6-50e8-a5bb-fc7440f7e5da http://www.radio.cz/en/article/134530 Welcome to a new edition of SoundCzech, our long-running series looking at sayings and expressions through song lyrics. Today’s expressions all have to do with the Czech word for work – práce – at a time when people either don’t have enough or have too much, trying to clear their desk ahead of the holidays. Featured is a song by 1990s punk band E!E called Práce. In the tune, the group sings “práce, jé práce, práce, je práce”, which translates as work, yay work, work there’s work. The accent on the “e” in the first jé makes all the difference. Sat, 18 Dec 2010 02:01:00 +0100 urn:uuid:41657795-6bef-55d3-bbff-10a798868e3a http://www.radio.cz/en/article/134130 Hello and welcome to SoundCzech, our popular miniseries in which you can learn some interesting Czech phrases while listening to music. Today’s song is by Vladimír Mišík and it’s called “Co ti dám”. The phrase to listen out for is “na hromádce”. Sat, 04 Dec 2010 02:01:00 +0100 urn:uuid:5c6873d6-28df-5933-8c83-177e8dcda7f6 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/133956 Hello and welcome to another edition of SoundCzech, Radio Prague’s Czech language course in which you can learn new phrases with the help of song lyrics. Today’s song is a traditional Czech folk song sung by Standa Hložek – and it’s called “When I used to come to your house.” The phrase to listen out for is “krev a mlíko”. Sat, 27 Nov 2010 02:01:00 +0100 urn:uuid:4f7b7ac1-442e-5772-a41f-5b1da6cd6aac http://www.radio.cz/en/article/133731 Welcome to another edition of SoundCzech, our long-running language series which looks at popular Czech sayings through song lyrics. The expression in today’s episode is Hele, nemachruj (Hey, don’t brag) featured in a song of the same name by 1980s Czech pop icon Michal David. Sat, 20 Nov 2010 02:01:00 +0100 urn:uuid:37cf463b-5ea2-56e1-aef1-1661c01d0f9f http://www.radio.cz/en/article/133532 Hello and welcome to another edition of SoundCzech, Radio Prague’s Czech language course in which you can learn new phrases with the help of song lyrics. Today’s song is by a singer going by the name of Xindl X and it’s called Poslední večeře - The Last Supper. Sat, 13 Nov 2010 02:01:00 +0100 urn:uuid:23eb9553-e44d-5930-a1b7-a9c302b57b7f http://www.radio.cz/en/article/133278 Hello and welcome to SoundCzech, the only programme on global airwaves in which you can learn something interesting about the Czech language while listening to song lyrics. In this edition, we’ll hear the track “Ani k stáru”, part of the music score for the popular Czech film, “Vratné lahve”, or Empties. The phrase to listen out for is “nemám páru”. Sat, 06 Nov 2010 02:01:00 +0100 urn:uuid:cc7f554a-df2c-5629-8cb9-cd48f3c37778 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/133098 Welcome to another edition of SoundCzech, Radio Prague’s Czech language course in which you can learn new phrases with the help of song lyrics. Today’s song is by Ivan Hlas and is called Na kolena. Sat, 30 Oct 2010 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:e7f1ff8d-e07a-5f6d-ab3b-7ad45b63b050 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132863 Hello and welcome to SoundCzech, our weekly programme to help you learn Czech through song lyrics, and in this case place names as well. The Czech Republic is packed with towns and villages with bizarre names, from Aš to Žabeň (the name of the latter having something to do with frogs). But just looking at some parts of Prague is enough to give you an idea. Here’s the folk singer Pepa Nos (which incidentally translates as Joe the Nose in case you’re wondering) thinking about what people from different, strangely named parts of Prague might be doing at the moment in his song “Copak asi dělá”: Sat, 23 Oct 2010 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:901969bf-bc3f-5c34-a20d-292af32ee7c2 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132641 Welcome to this edition of SoundCzech looking at expressions in the Czech language through song lyrics. In today’s episode we look at sayings associated with the word battle or fight which is boj in Czech. The featured song is sung by Daniel Landa, related to the Hussite wars. Bojovníci means warriors. We’ll be looking at fighting not in an historic context, though, but on a more comic book level. Sat, 16 Oct 2010 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:67826476-66b3-5f98-8493-eee4a86963ed http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132431 Welcome to SoundCzech, Radio Prague’s popular series in which you can learn things about the Czech language you will not learn elsewhere, and enjoy music while doing it. In today’s edition, we’ll hear the song “Sprostý chlap”, or Vulgar Guy, by the popular Eben brothers. The phrase to listen out for is “sláma mně čouhá z bot” or straw sticking out of my boots. Sat, 09 Oct 2010 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:481ba882-6d92-5751-a6c3-ba2c700cd08f http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132209 Welcome to a fresh edition of Soundczech in which you can learn new phrases with the help of song lyrics. Today’s song is by the group Vypsaná fixa and the phrase to listen out for is “je mi to jedno”. Sat, 02 Oct 2010 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:01c102fd-c7c6-54f3-a7e0-6da89802140f http://www.radio.cz/en/article/132020 Hi, and welcome to Sound Czech - which is going to sound Czecher than ever today because we’re going to talk about the Czechification of foreign place names, i.e. exonyms. We’ll start with Austria, because after hundreds of years of cohabitation Czechs have renamed just about everything in the country, beginning with the word Austria itself, Rakousko in Czech, as you can hear in this song by Šlapeto, “Kampak na nás bolševici”, where they sing about the “rakouský stát”, meaning the Austrian Empire. Sat, 25 Sep 2010 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:b5795d80-551f-52f3-9cd1-788c8ac13721 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/131816 Hello and welcome to Radio Prague’s Czech language series in which you can learn new phrases with the help of song lyrics. Today’s rap song is by Bow Wave and the phrase to listen out for is “umí vařit z vody”. Sat, 18 Sep 2010 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:d443db67-ca8a-5b31-aaf8-d3bbeef96d5b http://www.radio.cz/en/article/131590 Hello and welcome to Sound Czech, Radio Prague’s language series in which you can learn some interesting phrases while listening to music. Today, we’ll hear the 1994 song Ne, teď ne (No, not now) by the Moravian band Mňága a Žďorp, whose name would deserve a special edition of SoundCzech in its own right. In this edition, however, the phrase to listen out for is ‘na svatýho Dyndy’. Sat, 11 Sep 2010 02:01:00 +0200 urn:uuid:92a39062-d2d8-57cd-8ca1-af3a6ddea584