Czech language

My latest run-in with Czech bureaucracy

Our Lady before theTyn Church 2 — Our Lady before the Tyn Church, Prague © Ricky Yates

Today I had yet another Kafkaesque experience.

Ever since coming to live and work in the Czech Republic, I have been driving my car here on the basis of holding a valid UK Driving Licence. I had been told previously that, if I was here for longer than six months, I should really exchange it for a Czech Driving Licence. I have had the completed form & new photograph to do so for some time, but have never got around to doing anything further about it. After all, my UK Driving Licence declares that I live at The Rectory in my former group of parishes in North Oxfordshire, which is the address the Czech Foreign Police firmly believe to be my permanent address because they insist that every foreigner living here, must have a permanent address outside of the Czech Republic. So, for better or worse, that was the one both Sybille and I put down when we registered with them in 2009.

However, whilst my UK Driving Licence is valid until 25th February 2022, the day before my seventieth birthday, the photocard part needs to be renewed every ten years, to include a more up-to-date photograph. My current photocard is due to expire in early March 2013, which has therefore prompted me to act and seek to exchange it for a Czech Driving Licence.

So this morning, I went to the Magistrát hl.m. Praha / the HQ of Prague City Council, together with a fluent Czech-speaking member of the St. Clement’s congregation, to apply for the exchange of my UK Driving Licence for a Czech one. Along with my completed form & photo, & both the photocard and counterpart of my current UK licence, I took my passport. This contains my Povolení k prechodnému pobytu v CR, my certificate of temporary residence in the Czech Republic which is neomezený / unlimited. And I took my Potvrzení o prechodném pobytu na území / Proof of temporary residence, which confirms that my address is Pat’anka 2614/11A, Praha 6-Dejvice

The lady who we saw, kindly informed me that the law changed in March 2012. Despite my passport with my Povolení k prechodnému pobytu v CR, valid ‘neomezený‘, in it, and my Potvrzení o prechodném pobytu na území, being perfectly acceptable documents to enable me to register my car and for Bishop Dušan to get me recorded by the Ministry of Culture as the person who can sign on behalf of Farní obec Starokatolické církve pro verící anglického jazyka v Praze, the legal entity of the Prague Anglican congregation, they are not now sufficient to prove that the Chaplaincy Flat at Pat’anka 2614/11A, is my ‘family home’.

To prove that the Chaplaincy Flat at Pat’anka 2614/11A is my ‘family home’ where I live, I must also produce Sybille’s passport with her Povolení k prechodnému pobytu v CR, valid ‘neomezený‘, in it, and her Potvrzení o prechodném pobytu na území. That is not a problem as I can easily do that. But I also have to produce a document in Czech, by the owners of the flat, that declares Sybille & I live in the flat and have the permission of the owners to do so.

The flat is being purchased in the name of Farní obec Starokatolické církve pro verící anglického jazyka v Praze and the Church are just over seven years through paying off a twenty year mortgage. I am the person who can sign on behalf of Farní obec Starokatolické církve pro verící anglického jazyka v Praze and I have a notarised copy of our registration with the Ministry of Culture which says that I am.

Therefore it appears that if I produce a statement in Czech, on a letterhead with our correct Czech congregational name and registered number and registered address, saying that Sybille and I have permission to live in the flat, and sign the statement myself – and most importantly stamp it – that will be sufficient proof. In other words, beyond the necessity of getting a statement written in grammatically and legally acceptable Czech, I will be writing and signing a statement which gives myself permission to live in the flat that my wife and I have lived in for nearly four and a half years. I wonder if Franz Kafka is listening or reading this?????

The other problem the lady raised was the question of having ‘Rev’ or ‘Rev’d’ as the title in front of my name. This despite my UK Driving Licence declaring me to be ‘Rev Warwick John Yates’, (‘Ricky’ comes from the diminutive of ‘Warwick’ for those who don’t know), and my UK passport stating on the page reserved for official observations, that ‘The holder is the Reverend Warwick John Yates’. She claimed that the only way my title could be included on a Czech Driving Licence is if I had a document, translated into Czech, explaining that the title had been awarded to me!

As I’m sure most of my blog readers are aware, ‘Reverend’, usually abbreviated to ‘Rev’ or ‘Rev’d’, is the normal title given to an ordained priest/minister throughout the English-speaking world. I do have two documents, both signed and sealed by the Rt. Rev’d John Taylor, Bishop of St. Albans, one confirming my admission and ordination to the Holy Order of Deacons on 2nd July 1989, and a second, confirming my admission and ordination to the Holy Order of Priests on 1st July 1990. What I do like about both of these documents is that they say about me ‘of whom sufficient learning and godly conversation We were assured’ 🙂 🙂 🙂 But neither document states that my title now is ‘Reverend’.

I do find it ironic that here in the Czech Republic, where titles are deemed to be so important, a topic that I shall be referring to very shortly in a planned future blog post, Czech bureaucracy is doing its utmost to deprive me of mine. However, rest assured that I will somehow find my way through this latest example of Kafkaesque Czech bureaucracy. But there just might be a few strangled Czech bureaucrats en-route 😉

The Czech Presidential Election

Karel Schwarzenberg election poster on the bar at Restaurace U Topolu © Ricky Yates

On Friday and Saturday of this coming week, the Czech electorate will vote in the second and final round of voting to choose their new President. The first round, in which there were nine candidates, took place on Friday 11th and Saturday 12th January. Because no candidate got over 50% of the vote in that first round, the top two candidates are involved in a run-off in the second round.

The winner will replace the current President Václav Klaus, whose second five-year term of office expires in March. This is the first time that the Czech President has been directly elected by the people. Previously, the appointment was made by a joint vote of the two houses of the Czech parliament – the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

Whilst the President wields very little political power, he is meant to represent the Czech state. President Klaus has become increasingly unpopular in recent times, both for expressing very Euro-sceptic views – this despite the considerable benefits the Czech Republic has received since becoming part of the European Union in 2004. He has also attracted great notoriety ever since the famous pen-stealing event in Chile, went viral across the internet.

The two candidates in the second round of voting are Miloš Zeman, who got 24.21% of the vote in the first round, and Karel Schwarzenberg, who got 23.40%. Whilst Zeman was expected to top the poll in the first round, Schwarzenberg’s performance well exceeded expectations and the predictions of opinion polls.

There is a real contrast between Zeman and Schwarzenberg. At a simplistic level, it is a contrast and contest between the political left and political right. Zeman is a former leader of the Social Democratic party(CSSD) and was Prime Minister from 1998-2002. In 2007, he left the CSSD and has been in the political wilderness for some years. Schwarzenberg is leader of the centrist pro-European TOP 09 party and currently Foreign Minister in the centre-right coalition government.

However, the greater contrast lies in their respective life histories and background. Zeman was born in Kolín, an industrial town east of Prague, in 1944. He has lived the whole of his life in the protectorate of Bohemia & Moravia/Czechoslovakia/Czech Republic. He was briefly a member of the Communist party between 1968-1970, but thrown out for opposing Soviet ‘normalisation’ policies imposed after the crushing of the Prague Spring.

Punk Karel :-) © Ricky Yates — Punk Karel 🙂 Please excuse the timetable for Tram 8 pinned at the bottom! © Ricky Yates

Schwarzenberg was born in Prague in 1937. He and his family left Czechoslovakia in 1948, when the Communists came to power and moved to Austria, only returning to Prague in 1990, following the Velvet Revolution. He is a titled prince, officially Karel, Prince of Schwarzenberg. Or if you really want his full title in German, it is Karl Johannes Nepomuk Joseph Norbert Friedrich Antonius Wratislaw Menas Fürst zu Schwarzenberg 🙂 Like many educated older Czech people, and because of his time living in Austria, he speaks fluent German with his Czech being described as ‘slightly archaic and often earthy’.

Schwarzenberg is particularly popular in Prague, which is why this post only has pictures of his posters. I have seen Zeman posters when driving to and from Brno, but didn’t get the opportunity to photograph them. Schwarzenberg is also very popular amongst young people, helped I’m sure, by some clever graphic design work, portraying him as a punk 🙂 But all Schwarzenberg’s publicity features him wearing his most recognisable trademark – a bow tie!

Schwarzenberg also seems to have the support of most of the Christian community in the Czech Republic, and from right across the spectrum. He is an active and practising Roman Catholic, but without advocating the very conservative views of the current Pope. He has also strongly endorsed the modern Czech translation of the Bible published in 2009 as ‘Bible 21’, and encouraged people to read it, thus making himself equally popular with the Protestant community.

Election board at Fraktal Bar-Restaurace © Ricky Yates

If the election was taking place in ‘Fraktal‘, the bar-restaurant where I took this picture, Karel Schwarzenberg would be the very clear winner! The result this coming weekend, is likely to be far closer.

How to be a successful expat

Enjoying Czech beer in Letna Beer Garden, Prague © Ricky Yates

Just over four years ago, on 19th September 2008, Sybille and I arrived in Prague to begin a new chapter in our life together – a Brit and a German living as an expatriate married couple in the Czech Republic. This blog, which I started writing and publishing just over four months later, is as I state in, About me – including two photos, ‘….my attempt to reflect on ministering to English-speakers from a variety of backgrounds and countries, and living as an expat myself in this fascinating city and country’.

As this fourth anniversary of our expatriate existence recently approached, I started reflecting on what makes for living successfully in another country that is not your own. This post is the result of those reflections, written out of our own personal experience and also out of listening to and observing other English-speaking expats who have crossed my path here in Prague these past four years.

As I’ve been reflecting these recent weeks, the words of the well-known ‘Prayer of Serenity’ have come to mind as being an excellent summation of the correct attitude to adopt when seeking to make a success of expat living.

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

Let me explain in greater detail what I mean.

When Czech people get talking to Sybille and I and discover that we are not tourists but actually live here, their next question is nearly always, “Do you like living in the Czech Republic?” Our reply is always very positive, with two exceptions – how far away we are from the sea and our difficulties with the Czech language. But these are two things that we knew about before we ever moved to Prague and are things that we cannot change – we must and do accept them.

It is no use moving to another country and expecting it to be exactly like your own country that you’ve just left. Whilst there is nothing wrong in being proud of where you originate from, you cannot expect your city or country of adoption to replicate everything that you previously enjoyed in your home city and country. Nor can you expect everything you were able to purchase in the shops back in your home country, to be freely available in the shops and supermarkets of your new country of residence.

Friends and family before coming to visit us in Prague, often ask whether there is anything they can bring from the UK that we cannot get here. The reality is that, having Tesco supermarkets and several branches of Marks & Spencer, means most items any Brit might want, can be obtained here without too much difficulty. And to be a successful expat should and does mean learning to live without certain things that you previously always regarded as essential, or finding and accepting something else as a suitable substitute.

Likewise, for better or worse, McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Burger King and Starbucks, all have numerous outlets here – there is hardly a lack of familiar globalised fast food and drink. Yet I do hear occasional complaints about the absence of a certain chain of ice cream parlours or the inability to buy ‘dunking chocolate donuts’ from a particular store. If life really is impossible without having ready access to such things, don’t even start considering leaving home in the first place. Learn to accept the things you cannot change.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I do write about all the things I enjoy by living in Prague and the wider Czech Republic. But I also do on occasions, complain about certain things that I don’t like. Seeking to be true to the third line of the Prayer of Serenity, ‘courage to change the things I can’, I do so because they are things that I believe can and should be changed.

One of my regular themes is the many impenetrable and absurd aspects of Czech bureaucracy that I often encounter. Most Czech people I talk with agree with me wholeheartedly about this matter! Associated with this issue, is the way Sybille and I are treated sometimes by the various Czech authorities, simply because we are foreigners.

The Czech Republic has benefited enormously, economically and in many other ways, since it became part of the EU in May 2004. But with the benefits come also responsibilities, one of which is to treat nationals of other EU member states in exactly the same way as their own citizens. So I will continue to highlight occasions when that doesn’t happen because it is something that both needs and has to change.

Of course, there are times when it isn’t worth making a fuss or it is easier to find a way of sidestepping the problem. That is when one really needs, ‘wisdom to know the difference’. And I don’t always get that right. But I am grateful for friends who have offered their wisdom in helping me deal with certain issues so that I hopefully have learned when to challenge and when to just accept that it is something I cannot change.

There are two other issues that are important to recognise and consider if you want to make the expat life a success. The first is the frequency with which you pay return visits to your country of origin. The second is what effort you make as an English-speaker, to learn to speak the language of your adopted country.

In the four years we have lived in the Czech Republic, I have been back to the UK just three times. As far as I am concerned, Prague is my home for the immediate future. When we have holidays, we normally take advantage of our location and further explore the Czech Republic or near neighbouring countries.

Whilst visiting ‘home’ once or possibly twice a year, is not unreasonable, going there nearly every other weekend as I’ve known some Brits do from here in Prague, totally defeats any reason for living and working abroad in the first place. It gives very little opportunity to get to know and settle into the culture and way of life of where you are supposedly living and working. Those who do this, usually return to their home countries on a permanent basis, in a relatively short space of time.

Whilst Sybille and I believe we have made a success of our expat life, the one area where we know we have all but failed is with the Czech language. For to really settle in another country, you do need to be able to speak the language of the people. Whilst we can read a Czech menu, place our order in a bar-restaurant, and see simple signs and understand what they mean, there is no way we can yet have a meaningful conversation in Czech.

There are numerous reasons for our failure in this area. My job is to minister to English-speakers living here. Sybille works on the internet either in English or her native German. Between us, we have the two languages that many Czech people can speak. Older educated Czechs often speak German and when visiting parts of the country nearer the German or Austrian border, German is widely spoken. Most younger educated Czechs speak English and welcome the opportunity to improve it with a native speaker. And Czech is horribly difficult – what other language has four genders and seven cases?

As always, I welcome feedback, especially from other expats or former expats. And please also forgive some of my more vague generalisations in this post – as I originally compiled it over a month ago, there were some specific examples. But I took the wise advice of my best critic & edited them out 🙂

Sand sculpture in Brno

Sand Art 4 — A sand sculpture in Námestí Svobody, Brno © Ricky Yates

We spent the last weekend of our recent holiday, staying with our friends Lynsey and Johnny in Brno. It allowed me to get to know the second city of the Czech Republic better, having previously only paid flying visits there to plan, and then more recently to conduct, Church services. For Sybille, it was her first ever visit.

Walking into Námestí Svobody, the main city square in Brno, early on the evening of Friday 27th July, we found that a series of sand sculptures by various artists had been created as part of what is called the ‘Golden Sand Festival’. However, despite its English name, the associated website www.goldensandfestival.cz , is only available in Czech or Slovak! But I still have been able to glean from the website that this is the third year of the festival. The first occasion was in Olomouc in 2010, whilst in 2011, it was held in Nitra, a city in western Slovakia.

On the left is a photograph of one of the sculptures whilst below are photographs of two more examples. One has to admire both the amazing skills of the various artists whilst feeling sad that they can only be temporary structures which will eventually have to be moved and destroyed.

Sand Art 3 — A sand sculpture in Námestí Svobody, Brno © Ricky Yates

Sand Art 1 — A sand sculpture in Námestí Svobody, Brno © Ricky Yates

Along with football, (soccer to my American readers), and tennis, the other major sport in the Czech Republic is ice hockey. Of course, to Czech people it is just hokej, as what I know as ‘hockey’, (field hockey to my American readers), is virtually unknown here. For the first time in many years, the leading ice hockey club in Brno, Kometa, won the Czech championship and the sculpture pictured below celebrates that triumph. Of course, in this day and age, the club’s major sponsor Starobrno, the local brewery, has to feature too!

Sand Art 5 — A sand sculpture celebrating the recent success of Kometa Brno Ice Hockey Club © Ricky Yates

These days, sponsors are almost always needed before any artistic or cultural event can take place. This certainly is true of the ‘Golden Sands Festival’ so another sculpture featured the logos of the various organisations and companies who had contributed towards it being staged. It is a somewhat eclectic mix I think you will agree, ranging from the the city of Brno, via McDonalds, to Johnny Servis, the local supplier of portable toilets 🙂

Sand Art 2 — The sponsors logos carved in sand © Ricky Yates

Much as I love living in the Czech Republic, one drawback is that it is a landlocked country, a very long distance from the sea. Therefore, alongside the display of sand sculptures, the Brno city authorities had created the ‘Brno beach’, with deckchairs and a beach bar. Somewhat illusory but still great fun!

Sand Art 6 — The ‘Brno beach’ © Ricky Yates

St. Cyril & St. Methodius & Jan Hus

SS Cyril & Methodius 1 — Orthodox Cathedral in Prague dedicated to St. Cyril & St. Methodius © Ricky Yates

Three holy men from many centuries past, St. Cyril, St. Methodius and Jan Hus, are responsible for currently giving most Czech people a four-day long weekend. For yesterday, Thursday 5th July, is celebrated as Cyril and Methodius Day whilst today, Friday 6th July, marks the 597th anniversary of the burning at the stake in Konstanz, of the Father of the Czech Reformation, Jan Hus. And both days are kept as public holidays here in the Czech Republic.

I find it quite ironic that in this rather irreligious country, there are these two public holidays that celebrate the lives of three great Christians. However, the vast majority of Czech people just take advantage of having four days off work and head out to the Chata or Chalupa – the little (usually wooden) holiday cottages in the countryside that so many either own or have access to. In fact many people also take an additional three days leave with a number of offices and small shops around where we live being closed for the whole week.

So why does the Czech Republic honour these three great Christian men? Because of their contribution to the development of Czech culture far more than their contribution to the proclamation and later reformation of the Christian faith in this land.

St. Cyril and St. Methodius, who were brothers from Thessaloniki, are celebrated by the Christian Church, as 9th century missionaries to the Slavs. But as part of their missionary endeavour, they created an alphabet which allowed the language of the Slavic people to written down for the first time. This enabled the scriptures to be translated and the creation of a liturgy in the language of the people.

The Glagolitic alphabet that Cyril and Methodius devised, was the precursor to the Cyrillic alphabet in which many Slavic languages are presently written – though fortunately not Czech 🙂 This written form of the language is now known as Old Church Slavonic. Whilst it is a language that is no longer regularly spoken, it is still used in liturgy by some Orthodox Churches.

The Czech National Revival of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which led to the establishment of a newly independent Czechoslovakia in 1918, was very much based around the recovery and use of the Czech language, in opposition to the Germanisation of government, education and culture in Bohemia and Moravia under the auspices of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Therefore St. Cyril and St. Methodius are honoured because they were responsible for the written origins of the Czech language, even though thankfully, it now uses the Latin rather than the Cyrillic alphabet!

SS Cyril & Methodius 2 — It’s down here, as is the Dancing Building! © Ricky Yates

Jan Hus, about whom I wrote a long illustrated post back in April 2011 entitled Jan Hus – Leader of the Bohemian Reformation and Czech Hero, led what is known as the Bohemian Reformation. As I wrote in that earlier post, ‘he was very much influenced by the teaching and writings of the early English Church Reformer John Wycliffe, and in his preaching, called for reform within the Roman Catholic Church. He was particularly outraged by the selling of papal indulgences to collect funds for military purposes’.

However, there are two significant things which Hus did or advocated which are reflected in the way he is now remembered by most Czech people. Firstly, he preached and wrote in Czech rather than Latin as he wanted his hearers and readers to fully understand what he was saying. Secondly, he wanted worshippers to be able to receive communion in both kinds – both bread and wine – and for lay people not to be forbidden to receive the chalice’

It is his insistence on the use of the Czech language that causes Jan Hus to be celebrated today as a cultural hero. He was also responsible for the introduction of diacritics into Czech spelling in order to represent each sound by a single symbol. His opposition to Church control by the Vatican is also seen in terms of defending the Czech people from outside powers.

As I wrote at the outset of this post, today marks the 597th anniversary of Jan Hus being burnt at the stake having been found guilty of heresy by the Council of Konstanz. Nearly 600 years on, this continues to cause problems for the Czech Roman Catholic Church. For nearly all Czech people regard Jan Hus as a national hero yet it was the Roman Catholic Church who most unjustly condemned him and had him put to death.

To his credit, during a visit to Prague in 1999, Pope John Paul II did issue an apology for ‘the cruel death inflicted upon Jan Hus’ and for the ‘consequent wound of conflict and division which was thus imposed on the minds and hearts of the Bohemian people’. But there was still no admission that the Council of Konstanz actually got it wrong. It is going to be very interesting to see how the Roman Catholic Church responds to plans beginning to be made to mark the 600 anniversary of the death of Jan Hus in exactly three years time.

In the meantime, I will be remembering the life, teaching and example of each of these three great men of faith as part of our worship this coming Sunday, in Prague in the morning and in Brno in the evening, including using these two collects.

Lord of all, who gave to your servants Cyril and Methodius the gift of tongues to proclaim the gospel to the Slavs: make your whole Church one as you are one that all Christians may honour one another, and east and west acknowledge one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and you, the God and Father of all; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

Almighty God, who gave to your servant Jan Hus boldness to confess the Name of our Saviour Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for this faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen