It's been a while between blog posts, but as this is supposed to be a travel blog and I've remained largely stationary I really don't mind.
I've been spending a lot of my time trying to learn Czech. It hasn't been too successful. It is a difficult language. I probably know between 50 and 100 words, but the nature of the language is that I can't just use those words to get a simple message across. Each word has a number of different forms that need to be used correctly to state meaning.
I'm starting to get the hang of the verbs. As an example, the verb for speak is mluvit. It changes depending on who is speaking, so if I'm speaking, you're speaking, he, she or it is speaking, we're speaking, you and a group are speaking, or they're speaking the word is different. One word expresses a good proportion of a sentence, but it is a little more complicated then saying "you are", "I am" etc before the word. For that reason, the words for you, I, them etc are largely optional.
The nouns are, as far as I can tell, even more complicated. There are seven versions. I've encountered 3 so far in my studies and I don't really understand. The base noun has its ending changed depending on how the noun is being used, but if it is being used the third way I've come across it gets changed again, but according to the way it was changed the first time. There are also versions for past and present tense, so the nouns potentially have 14 versions. And of course, each word is either masculine, feminine or neutral, which also affects how it changes, and some words have masculine or feminine versions.
I'm on lesson 10 of 34, so I have a ways to go and I'm sure my explanation is incorrect, but it does serve to demonstrate how confusing it all is. It almost annoys me when Czech people speak English to me because I wonder what the point of me learning Czech is. Almost annoys me, but not quite.
A month ago I went to Prague with Romana. We stayed with her friend Barbara. Not pronounced (and probably not spelled) that way except by me. She showed us around. It was much different to last time I was there. We didn't even go into the tourist infested old town. We visited the national monument up on a hill and the technical museum. Both were very interesting.
The technical museum had a massive amount of old cars and motorbikes tracing the evolution of the technology. There were hundreds. There were also a handful of planes, a few old steam trains and some old firefighting wagons. It was really interesting. Not as interesting were some of the other exhibits. There was one about domestic appliances which was basically a collection of old blenders, stoves, toasters etc. For me that was really very dull, but I think the nostalgia value was high for Romana and Barbara. I think the mock ups of the kitchens are probably really familiar to a lot of Czech people as under communism everyone had the same.
The national monument was more about the founding of Czechoslovakia - a country that was dreaded in spelling tests around the world in the 80s; my autocorrect didn't even help me just now - and eventually the Czech Republic. For a culture so old and steeped in tradition the country is quite young. There was also a but about the hussite wars. I didn't know anything about them except for the name. I still don't know much, except that they were crusades against Bohemia (the part of Czech where Prague is) in the 15th century. It kicked off when the church got cross at the hussites for calling bullshit on their corruption and then told them they're religion wasn't even that good and they had a better, marginally different version they liked. The pope ordered a series of 5 crusades and the hussites won the lot. Afterwards they listened to Bohemian Rhapsody in celebration, but that wasn't until much much later.
The following weekend I went to Budapest to meet up with Matt and go to the formula 1. Which is what we did. The main race was rather boring. Vettel won easily and I don't think I saw anyone overtake. Apparently there was a lot of drama with Vettel's car but we couldn't get the commentary so to me it looked like he started out winning and continued to do so for 70 laps. It was still a good day out though. The speed of the cars is incredible. Matt and I went to play in a virtual reality arcade the night before. That was great! VR is fantastic.
After I got back from Budapest I enjoyed the Uherske Hradiste film festival, even though we only saw one film. It was quite good. We also started watching a horror film (only a handful of films had subtitles so choice for me was limited) but it was a little too disturbing/weird/comical. Romana didn't like the disturbing nature of it and I didn't like that we're supposed to believe this sadistic monster choked to death because he was doing a really full on evil laugh while eating a banana. Ridiculous. So we left.
The following weekend Matt came to visit Uherske Hradiste. We showed him the sites and then had a weekend of activities. We tried out the disc golf course and went to the pool. Started watching another film in the square but it was slow and a bit boring. I think it was about the UK and France abandoning Czech in WW2 so it might have been interesting.
The following day we went to the motogp in Brno. It was a rainy day and I think that made the races more interesting. We had grandstand seats and saw quite a bit of action, especially in the wetter early races. The main race was won easily by Marquez, who pitted after the first lap to change bikes for the drying track. It was a good move because he won by 18 seconds. Rossi pitted later and climbed up to 4th, so watching him was probably the highlight.
Last weekend Romana and I went to watch the local football club, Slovacko, play. They play in the national league. The match was against Ostrava, whose fans are known for being the most aggressive. I didn't see any violence and the chanting from the away end put the locals to shame. Apparently 12 away fans were arrested though. The match was he great. Slovacko won 5-2 and it was a really exciting match. I'll definitely be back to watch another game.
Finally, the only other news is that I had my interview for residency here. It was to see if Romana and I are really in a serious relationship. They interview us separately and ask a bunch of really dumb questions like "What did you have for dinner last night?", "How often do you go shopping together?, "What did you do last weekend?" and got us to draw our apartment. We answered quite a number of the questions differently, which isn't good. My interview went for 2 hours and I'm worried the translator didn't translate accurately. I argued with him a couple of times because he was of the opinion that his translation was good enough when actually he'd described events differently. We also answered a lot of questions the same but I'm worried we didn't prove we're in a serious relationship. This residency is usually for people who are married or intend to get married, something we both said we hadn't discussed.
I've been spending a lot of my time trying to learn Czech. It hasn't been too successful. It is a difficult language. I probably know between 50 and 100 words, but the nature of the language is that I can't just use those words to get a simple message across. Each word has a number of different forms that need to be used correctly to state meaning.
I'm starting to get the hang of the verbs. As an example, the verb for speak is mluvit. It changes depending on who is speaking, so if I'm speaking, you're speaking, he, she or it is speaking, we're speaking, you and a group are speaking, or they're speaking the word is different. One word expresses a good proportion of a sentence, but it is a little more complicated then saying "you are", "I am" etc before the word. For that reason, the words for you, I, them etc are largely optional.
The nouns are, as far as I can tell, even more complicated. There are seven versions. I've encountered 3 so far in my studies and I don't really understand. The base noun has its ending changed depending on how the noun is being used, but if it is being used the third way I've come across it gets changed again, but according to the way it was changed the first time. There are also versions for past and present tense, so the nouns potentially have 14 versions. And of course, each word is either masculine, feminine or neutral, which also affects how it changes, and some words have masculine or feminine versions.
I'm on lesson 10 of 34, so I have a ways to go and I'm sure my explanation is incorrect, but it does serve to demonstrate how confusing it all is. It almost annoys me when Czech people speak English to me because I wonder what the point of me learning Czech is. Almost annoys me, but not quite.
A month ago I went to Prague with Romana. We stayed with her friend Barbara. Not pronounced (and probably not spelled) that way except by me. She showed us around. It was much different to last time I was there. We didn't even go into the tourist infested old town. We visited the national monument up on a hill and the technical museum. Both were very interesting.
The technical museum had a massive amount of old cars and motorbikes tracing the evolution of the technology. There were hundreds. There were also a handful of planes, a few old steam trains and some old firefighting wagons. It was really interesting. Not as interesting were some of the other exhibits. There was one about domestic appliances which was basically a collection of old blenders, stoves, toasters etc. For me that was really very dull, but I think the nostalgia value was high for Romana and Barbara. I think the mock ups of the kitchens are probably really familiar to a lot of Czech people as under communism everyone had the same.
The national monument was more about the founding of Czechoslovakia - a country that was dreaded in spelling tests around the world in the 80s; my autocorrect didn't even help me just now - and eventually the Czech Republic. For a culture so old and steeped in tradition the country is quite young. There was also a but about the hussite wars. I didn't know anything about them except for the name. I still don't know much, except that they were crusades against Bohemia (the part of Czech where Prague is) in the 15th century. It kicked off when the church got cross at the hussites for calling bullshit on their corruption and then told them they're religion wasn't even that good and they had a better, marginally different version they liked. The pope ordered a series of 5 crusades and the hussites won the lot. Afterwards they listened to Bohemian Rhapsody in celebration, but that wasn't until much much later.
The following weekend I went to Budapest to meet up with Matt and go to the formula 1. Which is what we did. The main race was rather boring. Vettel won easily and I don't think I saw anyone overtake. Apparently there was a lot of drama with Vettel's car but we couldn't get the commentary so to me it looked like he started out winning and continued to do so for 70 laps. It was still a good day out though. The speed of the cars is incredible. Matt and I went to play in a virtual reality arcade the night before. That was great! VR is fantastic.
After I got back from Budapest I enjoyed the Uherske Hradiste film festival, even though we only saw one film. It was quite good. We also started watching a horror film (only a handful of films had subtitles so choice for me was limited) but it was a little too disturbing/weird/comical. Romana didn't like the disturbing nature of it and I didn't like that we're supposed to believe this sadistic monster choked to death because he was doing a really full on evil laugh while eating a banana. Ridiculous. So we left.
The following weekend Matt came to visit Uherske Hradiste. We showed him the sites and then had a weekend of activities. We tried out the disc golf course and went to the pool. Started watching another film in the square but it was slow and a bit boring. I think it was about the UK and France abandoning Czech in WW2 so it might have been interesting.
The following day we went to the motogp in Brno. It was a rainy day and I think that made the races more interesting. We had grandstand seats and saw quite a bit of action, especially in the wetter early races. The main race was won easily by Marquez, who pitted after the first lap to change bikes for the drying track. It was a good move because he won by 18 seconds. Rossi pitted later and climbed up to 4th, so watching him was probably the highlight.
Last weekend Romana and I went to watch the local football club, Slovacko, play. They play in the national league. The match was against Ostrava, whose fans are known for being the most aggressive. I didn't see any violence and the chanting from the away end put the locals to shame. Apparently 12 away fans were arrested though. The match was he great. Slovacko won 5-2 and it was a really exciting match. I'll definitely be back to watch another game.
Finally, the only other news is that I had my interview for residency here. It was to see if Romana and I are really in a serious relationship. They interview us separately and ask a bunch of really dumb questions like "What did you have for dinner last night?", "How often do you go shopping together?, "What did you do last weekend?" and got us to draw our apartment. We answered quite a number of the questions differently, which isn't good. My interview went for 2 hours and I'm worried the translator didn't translate accurately. I argued with him a couple of times because he was of the opinion that his translation was good enough when actually he'd described events differently. We also answered a lot of questions the same but I'm worried we didn't prove we're in a serious relationship. This residency is usually for people who are married or intend to get married, something we both said we hadn't discussed.
