Ths hdln s prctc fr lrnng mny Czch wrds

I didn't learn Korean while I taught there for 2 1/2 years. I knew the alphabet, which was crucial when the sports channels listed which soccer matches they'd show that weekend. I was aware of the rules, such as the verb ending the sentence and the subject of the sentence often being understood and therefore left out. So I knew enough about the language to understand the students' most common mistakes. But when it came formal lessons, I opted to absorb the key words and phrases as passed down from people who (a) had been there longer than me or (b) were not nearly as lazy than me. I was able to communicate most of what I wanted, but was unable to carry on the simplest of small talk.

I will not make the same mistake when I begin working in Prague (which, paperwork pending, will likely be late September). For one thing, outside the tourist areas, English is not prevalent. For another, I don't think I'll get the positive reinforcement I got in Daegu, when middle school girls reacted to a simple Annyeong haseyo as if I was just named the latest member to join Super Junior.

If this violates any copyright laws, I am sorry sorry sorry sorry.

But most of all, learning Czech while living in the Czech Republic is the right thing to do -- and I have no excuses. My school offers free weekly classes. I also have had plenty of time to get started here in the States.

Memorizing the word for "embassy" has been a true joy.

From what I've read and heard, learning Czech, while seemingly intimidating, is not as hard as it looks. It helps that what you see is what you get -- in other words, "-ough" doesn't have 37 different pronunciations. A c sounds like "ts," a č sounds like "ch" (as in "chew"), and the ch combination is a "k" sound. Once one gets past learning that rule, life becomes easier.

For now, I'm just building up my vocabulary bank. I can count from one to 100. I've learned days of the week. I've learned some directional words, and it helps that the Czech words for "left" and "right" both begin with v, the word for "left" has an l and the word for right has an r (vlevo, vpravo). I haven't memorized food, but I have written the words in my notebook for easy reference while I'm shopping or at a restaurant (not every place has an English menu). It does help that some of the words can be deciphered without too much help, such as ...

• banka
• pošta
• banán
• jogurt
• brokolice

The hardest thing to get used to, at least visually, is the sometimes intimidating scenario of having up to five consonants in a row -- and when you factor in that some letters have an "h" sound built in (including the ř, whose sound is a nonexistent-in-English rolled "rzh") -- the run of consonant sounds, when laid side-by-side, can stretch to Ljubljana and back:

• čtyři (see this post)
• čtvrtek (Thursday)
• zmrzkina (ice cream)
• pstruh (trout)

I'll worry about the grammar when I arrive. Just to give you an idea of how much fun it'll be at the beginning, the same noun can be spelled seven different ways, depending on how its used. As an example, here's an excerpt from an article I found online:

The book is blue
I learned it from a book
I attached it to the book
I have a book
O wonderful book!
It is in the book
It came with the book


The word “book” remains unchanged, as do all English nouns – the only modification ever made to nouns in our language is to indicate the plural. In Czech, however, the ending of nouns changes according to case – hence in the various contexts above the Czech word kniha (book) appears as kniha, knihy, knize, knihu, kniho, knize and knihou. There are different case endings for nouns in the plural too.

If all of this isn't enough, here is a language-related site with trivia that may or may not make you the life of the next party, depending on how many people are interested in guessing the only English word to begin and end with "und."

Poll update: With 10 hours left to vote, my readers have decided the most important phrase to learn in Czech before I head over there is, "Do you have the Red Sox score?"