Báječná Léta Pod Psa- Film Review

So I've done book reviews before but this is my first film review. I have to say that Czech films are one of my favourite ways of learning a bit of the language and a great introduction to the Czech mindset and culture.

Czech films are nothing like British or American films, and that's what makes them refreshing to watch. With a Czech film you're never guaranteed a good ending, you're almost certainly guaranteed an comedic suicide attempt and you're extremely likely to see an actor you've seen before in something else (pretty sure there's about 10 Czech actors in total and they just rotate round).

Days of the Week in Czech

It's time for my first blog concerning the Czech language and in this post I'm going cover the days of the week and their origins. The days of the week and, more noticeably, the months of the year, are very different in Czech. When I was learning them I found them quite tricky to memorise and produce instantly in everyday conversation.

40 Years of Czech at the University of Sheffield

On the 10th and 11th October 2014 The University of Sheffield celebrated its 40th anniversary of teaching Czech as a foreign language. The department marked the occasion by inviting current students and alumni to come and share their experiences of studying Czech, as well as a talk given by distinguished guest HE Michael Žantovský, the current Czech ambassador to the UK.

It’s pretty obvious but if Sheffield hadn’t offered Czech, and if I hadn’t been persuaded with Becherovka to study it by one of the department’s inspiring teachers, there’s no way I would have ended up learning to speak the language and developed an interest in the country’s culture. So like so many others, I owe a lot to the Czech department at Sheffield and was delighted to be invited to celebrate their 40th birthday.

The celebrations were essentially split into two parts. On the Friday afternoon, the Czech ambassador gave a talk to those who had already made the journey up to Sheffield, as well as to current students and member of the thriving Czech and Slovak Society of Sheffield.

I was unfortunately unable to attend the talk as I was at work, however I am reliably informed that the ambassador shared his thoughts on the last 30 years of Czech history, with particular focus on the separation of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic’s place as an independent nation in a modern Europe.

The second day was dedicated to the anecdotes and memories of former and currents staff and students of Czech at Sheffield. Professor Neil Bermel gave an interesting overview of how the teaching of Czech had evolved over the 40 years.

I had no idea that for much of this time, Czech was taught by Slovaks sent from the Comenius Institute in Bratislava. How strange it must have been for those young Slovak teachers to be sent abroad to teach a language that wasn’t even their own!

One of my favourite speakers was Dr Rajendra Chitnis from Bristol University. He assured a long standing inkling of mine that nobody, it seems, sets out with the intention of studying Czech, but rather winds up studying due a to strange twist of fate, leaving them incapable of answering the most commonest of questions: Why did you study Czech?!

Personally it was great to catch with a few friends whom I’d not seen for a while and after the anecdotes we headed to the Old Queen’s Head, a pub in Sheffield which has started serving Czech cuisine. The food that was put on was delicious and we had a great time chatting about our time studying at Sheffield.

Sheffield is one of only a handful of universities in the country which offer Czech as part of an undergraduate degree. It is testament to the hard work and enthusiasm of the staff there that the department has lasted for such a long time.

I am very grateful for the trips, projects, film nights and many other things organised by the department, often in conjunction with the Czech and Slovak Society of Sheffield. I hope that the department goes from strength to strength, and when they start a Czech Masters program, I’ll be first to apply!

For the official account of Sheffield’s 40 years of Czech celebration, see the article on the university website.

Utz- Bruce Chadwin

Time for my second book review and I can honestly say Utz by Sheffield born author Bruce Chatwin is like no other book I have ever read.

On the surface this novella seems like the perfect match for me, combing my two favourite cities: Sheffield and Prague. In that respect it didn't disappoint. After an unsure start I was soon taken in by Chatwin's unusual prose, ultra short chapters and larger than life characters. In only 127 pages Chatwin manages to tell the intriguing and captivating story of a porcelain dealer desperately trying to hold on to his wondrous collection despite the perils of Soviet Czechoslovakia.

The story is told through a first person narrative, who recounts episodes of Utz's life and how he came about possessing such a valuable and impressive porcelain collection. However, in keeping with the novella's unusual tone, our narrator seems to become somewhat hazy of the details of the story and begins to fill in bits with guesses, for example,

"Did he have a moustache? I forget. Add a moustache, subtract a moustache: Nothing would alter his utterly nondescript appearance"

The novella not only tells of Utz and his obsession with porcelain, but also of his slightly reluctant, semi-romantic relationship with his maid Marta, the only person who seems to truly to love him. Marta is a typically bizarre character, who, according to the book, once fell in love with a goose.

"[Marta] was thought to be simple: especially when she fell in love with a gander...Some morning, at first light when no one was about, she would swim with her lover in the lake, and allow him to nibble her long fair hair."

In the end it turns out that there is a bit more to both and Marta and Utz than meets or the eye (or indeed, the narrator can remember) and the ending is bittersweet and somewhat lacking in resolution. For me the joy in this short book is the vivid picture painted of Prague during Soviet time, eccentricities, troubles and all. Chatwin's characters are bright, real and, at times, Dickensian in their quirkiness, making Utz a delightful short read.

Wwoofing on a Czech farm

The view wasn't bad! (the dog was useless)

Back in the summer of 2012 I had my first true taste of Czech life, when I spent 2 weeks staying with a family on a small farm in the north of Moravia, in a small town named Hanušovice. It was a memorable couple of weeks, during which I learnt a great deal about Czech life and even more about the Czech language.

What is Wwoofing?

For those who haven't heard of it before, Wwoofing is an organisation which places people on organic farms around Europe, with the farmers providing accommodation, food and the chance to explore another country, in return for some help on their farm. For me it was a great way to improve my spoken Czech after a year in France and Spain, as well as an opportunity to experience Czech life on a more intimate level.

It's fair to say that I approached the stay with a fair amount of trepidation, it is rather out of character for me to randomly set off for a farm in the middle of nowhere to stay with people I'd never met before, but with hindsight, I couldn't have been more pleased with the way it turned out, and that is mainly down to the family I stayed with. What's more,  I was luckily not facing this by myself as I was accompanied on the farm with my friend and fellow Czech enthusiast, Lorna.

The Family

The family minus Dad who was taking the photo

Four children, a pipe smoking father and a mother who once worked for US president Gerald Ford were to be our family for the two weeks, and what a brilliant family they were. At times I felt like I was living with the Waltons, as the house and their way of life was very rustic and back-to-the-earth, but it was frankly refreshing to be away from the technology obsessed, merry round go round that is normal life in the UK. Even if if I was missing the Olympics...

What really made an impression on me was the maturity of the children and their incredible knowledge of the land. The eldest, Honzík (Jan), could herd cattle and tell poisonous mushrooms from non-poisonous mushrooms. Ten years his senior, I felt completely ill equipped for life in the real countryside (I no longer consider my childhood in Lincolnshire to be a real country upbringing) and honestly slightly guilty at my lack of knowledge of even basic things, such the names of flowers or which berries you can eat.

Looking for mushrooms!

Lack of berry knowledge aside, the family were extremely warm and welcoming making our stay very enjoyable. Marketa, the mother of the family, could speak English to us due to her time spent in the States, but as she was unfortunately taken ill the day we arrived, we spent the initial few days having to use our classroom Czech pretty much all the time. This turned out to the be the best thing that ever happened to my spoken ability, as the necessity to speak it just in order to communicate meant that I improved much more than I ever imagined.

What we did

Day to day I was generally asked to help cut the grass, as they had a fair amount of land which needed looking after. It wasn't the most exciting of jobs, and I'm not exactly a man of the land, but it was hardly a strenuous task and we had lots of free time to explore our surroundings. Sometimes for lunch we would go u babičky and sample the always copious amounts of food grandma kindly offered us.

Dinner

The grandparents usually employed the British tactic of shouting loudly at the foreigners in the hope that we'd understand, and generally we got by okay. During one visit, my friend Lorna was horrified to discover that the hutches of rabbits weren't just kept there to look cute, but could well have just featured in our lunch. I obviously laughed and played the 'you're in the countryside now, love' card, but I was as surprised as she was in truth.

When we weren't helping out on the farm, the family were kind enough to take us on many outings, during which we saw much of the beauty present in the Moravian region of the Czech Republic.

Jan insisted we went to to see a deserted bunker (there were collective sighs from the rest of the family, this was clearly a regular trip), and we spent a lot of time in the surrounding towns including Šumperk which was the nearest we got to civilisation. On these trips we were considered part of the family and felt integrated within the community even though we were there for such a short time. 

Jan and Marion on a day out

What I learnt

The goal of spending time on a farm in the Czech Republic was to improve my spoken language in preparation for my final year of university, and in that respect, it was a success. But what I took from my time in Hanušovice was so much more than that.

I learnt that if you take a chance, and push yourself out of your comfort zone, really good experiences can be had. I also gained an insight into a different way of life, and whilst I would not choose to give up my wifi and 3G, I realised that we have perhaps become complacent when it comes to our natural surroundings and we could all take time to appreciate it's importance and beauty.

I would thoroughly recommend wwoofing to anybody who is thinking about giving it a shot, be it during a university summer or as a career break or holiday. It is a really interesting and different experience and what's more it's free! Visit www.wwoof.org.uk/ for more information. 

Prague: A Traveler's Literary Companion- A collection of short stories

In the beginning, the city was a word- Praha. Somewhat later, lying in my crib I watched the bands of light that flickered above the ceiling whenever a streetcar went by. I imagined the city as a predatory beast, asleep somewhere far away.

                                                        

                                                            "I see a Great City"- Daniela Hodrová

It was last October (2013) when the itch to return to Prague hit me. 

I had been working in my new, post university job for a few months and I was starting to crave dumplings, Becherovka and the sight of the Charles Bridge. Given that my girlfriend was travelling herself, I decided to book a few days in Prague over Easter, accompanied by a friend who had never been to the Czech Republic before.

With this in mind, my girlfriend got me this book for Christmas- Prague: A Traveler's Literary Companion, edited by Paul Wilson. I was delighted with the gift (she knows me well) and avidly worked my way through the short stories in the weeks preceding my mini break to the Czech capital.

The book is a collection of short stories which all centre on the city of Prague, paying homage to its beautiful buildings, eclectic residents and turbulent history. Whilst the collection contains works by well known Czech writers, such as Kafka, Čapek, Hrabal etc., it also contains works by lesser known authors, giving the reader a real variety of voices and reflections of the city. 

The stories are roughly divided up into the different parts of the city, including the Old Town, Malá Strana, Charles Bridge and so on and touch on some of the most pertinent passages of Czech history. I have picked out two stories which particularly captured my imagination. 

The first story I'd like to mention is called The Sword of St. Wenceslas by František Langer which tells an adapted version of the famous legend.

In Langer's tale, the sword of St. Wenceslas is discovered by the children of Prague on Christmas Eve and rather than remaining in the bowels of the Charles Bridge where the sword traditionally is said to be, the children decide to keep the sword hidden amongst themselves, to protect it from the German occupiers, ready for when St. Wenceslas rises again to liberate the Czech people. 

The Sword of St. Wenceslas is a beautifully written story, evoking the spirit of Prague at Christmas time and touching upon the hardships the city has experienced in its eventful past. I found it to be extremely moving, especially when I considered the continual bouts of upheaval the city has seen over the centuries.

The second story I wish to pick out is The Receipt by Karel Čapek. This story is revolves around the importance of keeping hold of those tiny, seemingly inconsequential scraps of paper as Police Officer Soudek recounts the story of a young girl who was murdered but unable to be identified. 

The receipt found in her coat pocket was used to discover the murdered girl's identity through Soudek's intuitive yet somewhat improbable trail of investigation. The whole affair is told to the slightly taken aback Minka and her father Pepa, who were simply sat having an evening drink.

The Receipt is wonderfully woven story which illuminates the importance that even the most minute of details can carry in an investigation, but also how Officer Soudek's knowledge of the people of Prague and their habits helped him to solve the mystery of the unidentified victim. 

Paul Wilson's book is full of charming tales, serving as a great read for those who are already fond of Prague and equally for those who are about to discover it for the first time. If I had more time during my last visit I would have loved to walk round the streets with the book in my hand, retracing the steps of some of the characters, but that particular venture will have to wait for another time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of stories about Prague and would recommend it to anyone with of a love of that great city.

Where to begin...

Where to begin indeed.

Many people have asked me over the past few years (in many different languages), "Why Czech?"

It's a very good question.

I always give the same answer. I wanted to try something different, that my friends were doing it, that I wanted a third language, that Portuguese was probably easy and like Spanish, but essentially my answer comes down to this: 

Why not?

Since that fateful day when I shotted my first shot of Becherovka and said, "why not,"  I have well and truly fallen in love with the Czech language and people and am keen to share my love with those who maybe aren't familiar with all things Czech, as well as connecting with those who are already deep in láska with this incredible country.

In this blog I explore the many fascinating facets of Czech life, from Krtek to Knedlíky (with some occasional linguistic offerings too I should think).

I am not a Czechspert, merely a Czechophile. I hope you enjoy my blog, your feedback and comments are always welcome.

Aaron