English language

Language and visitors

Stará Oleška from the hills above Huntírov © Ricky Yates

There are two questions I am regularly asked in comments on this blog, by email, or on Facebook. One is, ‘Are there many English-speakers where you’re now living?’ The other is, ‘Does the area get many visitors?’ This post is my attempt to answer both these questions.

Stará Oleška has had many visitors over the five months I’ve now lived here. This is because the village is home to three camping & caravan sites – Autokempink Ceská Brána, Autokemp Aljaška and Camp Pod lesem; and two pensions – Pension Vyhlídka and Penzion Rosalka. Many of those who come are Czech, from right across the country. But there are also many foreign visitors, most notably Germans, together with Dutch, Flemish-speaking Belgians and Danes.

Why do Germans visit? There are numerous reasons.

Proximity – In a straight line, Stará Oleška is little more than ten kilometres from the Czech-German border. However, you cannot drive or walk there in a straight line because of the hills and mountains in-between. Instead, it takes about half-an-hour to drive from the Schmilka-Hrensko border crossing that lies alongside the point where the Elbe becomes the Labe. And plenty of Germans from nearby Pirna, Dresden and Meissen do come, judging by the registration plates of vehicles passing through the village, along with those from major centres slightly further afield such as Leipzig and Chemnitz.

Price – Petrol, cigarettes, beer and eating out are all cheaper than in Germany. Some Germans cross the border just to fill up and buy supplies. But it does mean that a weekend, long weekend or week’s visit can be had at a considerable lower cost than if spent in Germany.

Heimat – A word that is almost impossible to fully translate into English! The usual translation is ‘homeland’, but it has a far deeper meaning. For many Germans, travelling to the Böhmische Schweiz/Bohemian Switzerland is revisiting the Heimat.

Therefore if local Czech people have a second language it is almost always German. Menus in Bar-Restaurants are in Czech and German. Staff working in these establishments have to have at least basic German as visiting Germans usually don’t speak a word of Czech, beyond knowing that ‘beer’, (or Bier 🙂 ), is ‘pivo‘.

With regard to language, most visiting Germans also have the annoying habit of greeting people on entering a restaurant, or meeting fellow walkers on waymarked footpaths, with either ‘Guten Tag‘ or ‘Hallo‘, with absolutely no recognition that they are no longer in Germany. I always reply very firmly with ‘Dobrý den‘, sometimes following it up with, ‘Wir sind in der Tschechischen Republik, nicht in Deutschland‘. The reactions are interesting 🙂

The other typical German assumption is not to bother to exchange currency, believing that they can always pay in Euro, rather than in Czech crowns. Most hotels, restaurants and many shops are happy for them to do so. But sometimes German laziness can be costly.

Bar-Restaurace U Soni was using an exchange rate of CZK 24.00 to EUR 1.00 over the summer. The current official exchange rate is around CZK 25.50 to EUR 1.00 so I think they were being perfectly fair as they will be charged by their Czech bankers, for banking foreign currency. I know, as each time the Frauenkirche in Dresden reimburse me for my travel expenses, I lose CZK 100 for the privilege of having Euro paid into my Czech bank account 🙁

But when exploring this area a year ago, I had lunch in a bar-restaurant in nearby Ceská Kamenice. This is the scan of my bill. The Euro price at the bottom has been calculated at an exchange rate of CZK 20.00 to EUR 1.00. At that time, the correct exchange rate was nearly CZK 27.00 to EUR 1.00!

One final story about visiting Germans and currency. On Saturday 23^rd September, I attended a most enjoyable classical concert in Kostel sv Václava, Srbská Kamenice. The entrance fee was a very modest CZK 100. The male half of an older German couple immediately in front of me at the Church door, produced a fifty Euro note from his wallet & expected change!!!!!!

What about visiting Dutch, Flemish-speaking Belgians and Danes? Why do they come?

My usual answer to this question is because they have no hills or mountains in their own countries 🙂 Actually, the Flemish-speaking Belgians do; but they would have to travel to Wallonia and speak French 🙁

All three nationalities love caravanning and camping and so the facilities here are perfect for their needs. And for all of them, it only takes one long day’s drive to get here.

As with the Germans, the other important factor is price. Nearly everything is cheaper here than in their home countries. For a Dane, used to paying around DKK 45.00, (over CZK 150.00), for 0.5l of beer, being charged CZK 22.00 in Bar-Restaurace U Soni for the same quantity of liquid refreshment, is like being in heaven 😀

But then comes the question of language. Because very few people, other than their fellow citizens, speak their native tongue, Dutch, Flemish-speaking Belgians and Danes recognise that to communicate when outside of their home countries, they need to speak another language. And for nearly all of them, it is second language English. But that is where they sometimes come unstuck as very few people here speak English!

Several times this past summer, when sitting on the terrace at Bar-Restaurace U Soni, I have heard Dutch/Flemish/Danish people say in English, what they want to drink. In Prague, that would be fine, but not in the Böhmische Schweiz/Bohemian Switzerland. Other than ‘beer’, because it sounds the same as ‘Bier‘ in German, they are not understood. Instead, they have to resort to third, or even fourth language German, bearing in mind that Flemish Belgians and many Dutch people, are often also fluent in French.

Several times this past summer, I have been quite proud of myself by helping convert second language English, into my best bar-restaurant Czech, in order to help Dutch/Flemish/Danish visitors to obtain what they want.

So to further answer the first question at the beginning of this post, there are very few English speakers living in this part of the Czech Republic. I have now met a small number when doing business in Decín, usually people who have spent time working or studying in the UK or the USA. But because very few native English-speakers visit this area, people who speak fluent English are very few and far between.

Why adding the letter ‘y’ is so funny

Right from the beginning of my time spent living and working in the Czech Republic, one of the things that has constantly amused me, is seeing an English word on a shop, an advertising hoarding, or in a menu, with the letter ‘y’ added to the end of the word. For example – a sports shop advertising that it sells ‘Snowboardy’ and ‘Skateboardy’.

There is a simple explanation as to why this occurs – adding the letter ‘y’ to the end of a noun, is the most common way in Czech, to make a word plural. It is the virtual equivalent of adding the letter ‘s’ in English, so that ‘snowboard’, becomes ‘snowboards’.

However, very few of even the most fluent English-speaking Czechs, understand why ‘snowboardy’ and ‘skateboardy’ seem so funny to a native English-speaker. But the reason is because, adding the letter ‘y’, is the way the diminutive is made in colloquial English. For example, ‘John’ becomes ‘little Johnny’. In fact it is more common, for the diminutive to be made by adding ‘ie’, with ‘James’ becoming ‘little Jamie’ But the way both ‘y’ and ‘ie’ are pronounced, when added to a noun, is exactly the same.

Some of the earliest examples I observed are above supermarket shelves which offer ‘Snacky’ and ‘Chipsy’. This second example I find particularly amusing. Czechs have adopted the American English ‘chips’, for what in British English, would be called ‘crisps’. Yet despite already being plural, because of the letter ‘s’, they still go ahead and add the letter ‘y’ 🙂

Similar examples can be found in bookshops. There will be section headed ‘Thrillery’ and nearby, another section headed ‘Detektivky’. This second example does include a slight change from the English spelling, but the origin of the word is still obvious.

Other examples I’ve come across include, for feminine hygiene purposes, you require ‘tampóny’. And in the male toilets of some bars, you will find a machine from which you can purchase ‘kondomy’ 🙂

Until recently, my favourite example has been the one featured in the photograph at the beginning of this post – ‘hot dogy’. I saw it first, over four years ago, when stopping at a service area on the Prague-Dresden motorway. Sadly, when I last called in there, some months ago, the sign had gone, during the redevelopment of the venue. But in similar fashion, I have also seen signs for ‘fast foody’, but not yet captured them on camera.

The example in this photograph is the hot drinks menu in one of our local bar restaurants. It is amusing because of featuring ‘drinky’ 🙂 But as any Czech language purist would tell you, there is actually no need for it. There is a perfectly good existing Czech word for ‘drinks’ – ‘nápoje’. But in this venue, popular with students from the nearby Technical University, the English word is preferred – but made plural the Czech way!

I am always on the lookout for fresh examples to bring a smile to my face. In recent months, I’ve seen more than one conference offering, as part of their programme – ‘workshopy’. And I gather it it possible to go shopping in a number of edge of town ‘hypermarkety’.

However, my current favourite, I spotted (appropriate description 🙂 ), in an advert on a tram, a few weeks ago. Last Sunday morning, it was the tram on which I travelled from the Chaplaincy Flat to Church, and so I got a photo. A wi-fi provider is offering the possibility of several ‘hotspoty’ 😀

Last Sunday evening in Dresden

The River Elbe with the Frauenkirche beyond © Ricky Yates — The River Elbe in Dresden with the Frauenkirche beyond © Ricky Yates

Last Sunday evening, one week later than usual, I officiated at the English-language Anglican Service of Evening Prayer, hosted by the Frauenkirche in Dresden. At the beginning of the service, I welcomed all those attending, explained who I am, and then made three announcements.

The first was to apologise that, once more, my troublesome front crown, having managed to stay in place for the three previous months, had again become loose and then fallen out on Sunday morning. Besides making me look goofy, this also meant that speaking publicly was difficult as numerous speech sounds are made by putting your tongue to your front teeth and it is therefore somewhat difficult to be articulate, if there is a big gap 🙁

Secondly, I thanked everyone for attending, being very aware that the service had coincided with a rather important football match 🙂 Germany were playing Slovakia in the last sixteen of the Euro 2016 football competition, the match kicking off at exactly the same time as our service began.

But thirdly I said, I just wanted to clearly declare that, ‘Last Thursday, I voted to remain!’ The congregation of native English-speakers from around the world, together with English-speaking Germans, erupted in sympathetic laughter the like of which I’ve never experienced previously when officiating at the Frauenkirche.

I was originally going to write about the theme of the service and how I tackled it in my sermon, which had very clear resonances with the referendum result. But instead, in order to get this post published tonight and to keep it reasonably short in length, I just want to tell you of a conversation I had following the service, which encapsulates one very unpleasant aspect of the recent referendum campaign.

As I explained in a previous post, following worship, a small number of the regular Dresden congregation, gather for a drink in a nearby Bierstube, the Augustiner an der Frauenkirche. It being warm and dry, we were able to sit outside, enjoying the evening air and hearing a loud cheer from a nearby establishment, when Germany scored a third goal part-way through the second half of their match.

We were joined for the first time by an Anglophile German couple – Stephan and Kornelia. Stephan explained to me that he was a GP and had undertaken some of his medical studies in the UK, including his GP training, and had then worked as a GP for a few years in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, before returning to Germany. He added that one of the reasons they had started attending the monthly English-language service was to ensure they didn’t lose their English!

But they then told me how their daughter had just finished her studies at Gymnasium, and had arranged to have gap year, before going to university. She had been accepted to work for a UK charity based in London, starting in July, providing respite care for the parents of handicapped children.

Hearing the outcome of the referendum on Friday morning, she had expressed to them her fear, that she might not now be able to do this. And even if she did, she was concerned as to how she would be perceived and received in current British society.

The ‘Leave campaign’ has released a very unpleasant current of xenophobia and racism meaning that a German young lady who wants to give something very positive to British society, is now left feeing very uncomfortable and wondering whether her chosen path was wise. Messrs Johnson, Gove and Farage – you have an awful lot to answer for!

Getting over the ‘ová’

Advert for the new book by that drunk British author called J. K. Rowlingová – 'J. K. Rolling over' :-) © Ricky Yates — Advert for the new book by that drunk British author called J. K. Rowlingová – ‘J. K. Rolling over’ 🙂 © Ricky Yates

One of the complications of the Czech language, is that nouns have different endings according to their gender and the case being used. As consequence, nearly all Czech females, have a surname that is slightly different from, and longer than, the surname of their father or husband, from which it is derived. In most cases, this occurs by the addition of ‘ová’ onto the end of the male surname.

The obvious example to illustrate this point, is the now-retired, famous Czech tennis player Martina Navrátilová. Martina’s step-father, who married her mother when she was six, is Miroslav Navrátil. She took his name and thus is Martina Navrátilová. There are some exceptions to this rule, which arise when the male surname ends in a vowel. Sticking with Czech tennis players, the country’s current best female player is Petra Kvitová. Her father is Jirí Kvita. The ‘a’ on the end of his surname is dropped and the ‘ová’ is added.

The grammatical reason for this change is it being in the genitive case. And what does the genitive case indicate? Possession! Effectively it is saying that the Czech woman is the possession of the man, either her father or husband. It is an interesting concept for any Czech woman who thinks of herself as being a feminist 🙂

Whilst it is not my place to question the grammatical rules of the Czech language, what I do find absurd and inappropriate, is applying these same rules to the surnames of women who are not Czech. What really brought this to my attention was in November 2010, when the engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton was announced. As far as the Czech media were concerned, both television and newspapers, Prince William was now engaged to a lady called Kate Middletonová. I am sorry folks, but a lady with the name Kate Middletonová, does not exist.

A more recent example I came across, was when watching a live broadcast of the London Olympics on my computer last summer. CT4, Czech TV’s sports channel, was broadcasting the games, using the coverage provided by the BBC. It was the final of a sprint race for women. Almost exclusively, the competitors were black Africans or ladies from the Caribbean. As these competitors got down on their blocks, the BBC pictures showed captions with their wonderfully different names and the countries they were representing. But the Czech commentator still told his audience what the name was of each competitor, adding ‘ová’ to each and every one of them. It was utterly absurd.

My photograph illustrates very clearly, the point I am making. It shows an advertising poster for the Czech translation of the recently published adult novel, entitled in English as, ‘The Casual Vacancy’, by the author of the Harry Potter stories, J. K. Rowling. But as you can see, the Czech publisher feels obliged to tell you that it is actually written by a British author who appears to be drunk as she is J. K. Rowlingová – ‘J. K. Rolling over’ 🙂 .

But change is slowly coming – both at an official and unofficial level. A change in the law some years ago, does now mean that a non-Czech woman, who marries a Czech man, is no longer required to put ‘ová’ onto the end of her new surname. Thus there are two American ladies in the St. Clement’s congregation who are married to Czech men, who have the surnames, ‘Novak’ and ‘Vacik’, rather than ‘Novaková’ and ‘Vaciková’. Unlike in the UK or the USA, as part of the legal preliminaries to a Czech wedding, the couple have to declare what surnames they will use following their marriage, and must sign their Marriage Protokol during the marriage ceremony, using those agreed names.

Also unofficially, a number of Czech publishers are now publishing books by non-Czech female authors, translated from English and other non-Slavic languages, into Czech, without altering the author’s surname. Likewise, posters for Hollywood films being shown here, either with subtitles, or more commonly dubbed, are increasingly not featuring those unknown actresses, Jennifer Anistonová and Cameron Diazová, but featuring Jennifer Aniston and Cameron Diaz.

I am sure this change will not please some Czech language purists but in my opinion, it makes perfect sense. After all, when writing in English about the latest tennis match played by Petra Kvitová, no one would dream of calling her Petra Kvita.

Liberec

The city of Liberec is situated 110 km north-east of Prague, quite close to the border of the Czech Republic with both Germany and Poland. Known in German as Reichenberg, it lies within the former Sudetenland and had a majority German-speaking population until the vast majority were expelled in 1945-6, at the end of the Second World War.

We paid our first visit to Liberec on my day-off four weeks ago, Monday 8th October. The chief reason for our trip was to visit Liberec Zoo, which is home to a pair of rare White Bengal Tigers, who earlier this year, successfully produced three tiger cubs.

Liberec Zoo is located in a leafy suburb east of the city centre. It has the distinction of being the oldest zoo in the Czech Republic, having been founded in 1919, well before Prague Zoo which was founded in 1931. On the day we visited, there were remarkably few other visitors, and nearly all of them seemed to be German 🙂 It was also noticeable that once any member of the local population realised we were not Czech, we got spoken back to in German!

Whilst we did get to see the white tiger cubs, it was near impossible to get a decent photograph of them. But Sybille did get this photograph below of their mother.

Liberec 2 — White Bengal Tiger © Sybille Yates

Liberec 3 — Sign in four languages © Ricky Yates

Just outside the building housing the White Tigers and their cubs was this sign. Friends on Facebook will have seen my photograph already as I posted it there the same day as I took it. As I entitled it then;

“In Deutschland wird englisch gesprochen, aber in Großbritannien sprechen wir deutsch – In Germany we speak English, but in Great Britain we speak German.”

And yes – both the English and German texts are in need of considerable improvement. The English text seems to imply that the White Tigers are being bred in the collection box 🙂 It reminds me of a line from a letter written by a lady to her employer explaining her absence from work – “This is to advise you that I have given birth to twins in the enclosed envelope” 😉

Liberec 1 — Meerkats in Liberec Zoo © Ricky Yates

There were many other interesting animals and birds to see elsewhere in the zoo including these delightful meerkats.

Later in the afternoon, we drove from the zoo to the centre of the city, parked the car, and set out to explore on foot. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Liberec was a very prosperous city, home to a thriving textile industry resulting in it being known as the ‘Manchester of Bohemia’. Some of the city’s most significant buildings date from that time including the Town Hall featured in the photograph at the beginning of this post and the F.X. Šalda Theatre pictured below.

Liberec 9 — F.X. Šalda Theatre, Liberec © Ricky Yates

Both the Town Hall and the Theatre are situated on the main city square, Námestí Dr. E. Beneše. Here are some more attractive buildings on another side of the same square.

Liberec 6 — Attractive buildings on one side of Námestí Dr. E. Beneše, Liberec © Ricky Yates

Liberec 7 — *Valdštýnské domky* (Czech) or *Waldsteinhäuser* (German) dating from 1678-81 © Ricky Yates

However, the origins of Liberec can be traced back to at least the fourteenth century. These half-timbered houses are some of the earliest remaining buildings still standing within the city and date from 1678-81. They are known as Valdštýnské domky (Czech) or Waldsteinhäuser (German).

Liberec 4 — Memorial to the victims of the Soviet invasion of August 1968 © Ricky Yates

Adjacent to the Town Hall is this reminder of more recent history. It is a memorial to those Liberec citizens who died trying to resist the Soviet invasion of August 1968. Most were killed being run over by tanks, hence this memorial, presumably erected since the Velvet Revolution of December 1989, is in the form of caterpillar tracks that are found on tanks. The reversed imprint of the victims names on the lower half of the memorial, bears an uncanny resemblance to writing using the Cyrillic alphabet, the alphabet with which Russian is written.

An even more recent edition to the landscape of Námestí Dr. E. Beneše are these three cats. I had to wait sometime to get this photograph because so many children were busy either jumping on or sitting on them!