CZECH LANGUAGE

Ahoj!!! 

In this entry I would like to tell you something about Czech language and my experience about it. 

Firstly czech is a slavonic language. So not a latin language, which means that is totally different of Spanish and related languages as Portuguese, French, Italian or even English. 

Czech is similar to Polish, Russian or Ukrainian. The grammar construction has something in common with German language, because of the large number of declinations. 

Lot of people can speak English in Czech Republic, but also there are people who can not, so if you are going to live in a small city or town like Prostejov for a long time, is important that you learn at least the basic. 

I had to use basic czech words for things such as travelling, going to restaurants, shopping and for some workshops or activities in the organization. I felt a bit dissapointed of myself of not having learnt as much as I wanted, but it was because I always had around me people who speaks English...
In my opinion, czech is a beautiful language, and, although it is quite difficult, is possible to learn it, but all depends of your motivation and needs.
Here I write some examples of some useful words and sentences that I learnt and some tips to learn this language:

* Ahoj, jak se máš? / Hello, how are you? 
* Kolik stojí? / How much cost?
* To je to? / What is it?
* Nerozumím / I do not understand
* Rozumím / I understand (the negative form is "ne" before)
* Zpáteční lístek / Return ticket
* Díky / Thank you
* Pardon / Sorry
* Pomoc / Help
* Dobrý / Good* Pardon/ sorry
* špatný / Bad

NUMBERS 1-10
Jedna (1),dvě (2), tři (3), čtyři (4), pět (5), šest (6), sedm (7), osm (8), devět (9), deset (10).

COLOURS
Žlutá (yellow), modrá (blue), zelená (green), červená (red), bílá (white),černá (black).

DAYS OF THE WEEK
Pondělí(monday),úterý(tuesday),středa(wednesday),čtvrtek(thrusday),pátek(friday), sobota(saturday), neděle(sunday).

SOME FOOD AND DRINKS

Pivo (beer), voda (water), víno (wine), dzus (juice), káva (coffe).

Maso (meat), kuře (chicken), syr (cheese), mléko (milk), ovoce(fruit), zelenina (vegetables), sůl (salt), cukr (sugar).

SOME PREPOSITIONS
Ale (but). protože(because), kdo(who), co(what), kde(where).

SOME WEBSITES TO LEARN CZECH
Fun Easy Learn 
Langevo
Videos of Youtube from others volunters in Czech Republic
Loecsen

By Elena from Spain

HOW TO SEND A LETTER FROM CZECH REPUBLIC

Hello!!!

After a few months living in Czech Republic, I was thinking that sending a letter to my family and friends it would be nice, even if I keep in touch with the current technologyes. However, I  have not sent letters since when I was a child, so I completely forgot where to write the address, where to put the stamp...But I learnt again and finally the letters arrived well :). Here I explain how to send letters from Czech Republic:

1) First thing you need to do is to is to go to the post office and buy the stamps and envelopes. Most of people that work there do not speak english so it would be better if you ask in czech:

 -Stamps: známky. Important detail: do not forget to say známky do zahraničí if you want a stamp to send the letter abroad. If you buy the normal stamp (známky A), it will be useful only inside of Czech Republic. Each stamp for abroad costs 25 CZK.

-Envelopes: obálky. Each envelope costs around 7 CZK.

2) After writting your letter, you will need to put the address where you will want that your letter arrive, and your adress of here. So, step by step: in the front part of the envelope, or in the back on the left, you have to put your address of here, and in the back on the right, the stamp and the address where you will send the letter. The stamp must be situated up and on the right side, and the addrees , down and right side. Usually it is better if you follow the order:

- Name and surname

- Name of the street and number

-Code and town (if you live in a town)

-City

-Country

Because you will send it from Czech Republic, it is better and more understandable for the people that work here in the post office to put the country destination in czech language. For example: Spain in czech it would be Španělsko, France is Francie, or Ireland Irsko.

3) Here the letter boxes are a bit strange. They have two holes and you can be confused. But do not worry, the two of them have the same objective, So never mind if you put the letter in the right or in the left hole. And that is it, once you send the letter, you just need to wait that it is arrive. Always it depends, but usually it takes two weeks more or less ;)

By Elena from Spain

ADVENTURE IN BUDAPEST

The weekend of Easter I went with Marion and other volunteers of Czech Republic to Budapest, Hungary. I was very excited because I was going to see a new country of Central Europe. The trip from Prostějov was around 6 hours in total by train.

We arrived on Friday afternoon and we went for a walk in the evening. We tried the typical sweet that also it is found in Czech Republic, Trdelník, with chocolate, and it was sooo good.

We also saw one of the main square in the center and in the night we went to Simpla, a famous bar for its original old decoration and friendly environment.

The next day we did a tour and we saw Andrássy Avenue and the river Danube, we crossed the Chain bridge (the one which connect Buda and Pest) and in Pest we saw the views of the Basilica, the Parliament and others monuments.

In the evening we saw the Gresham Palace and we went to the famous terms Széchenyi, pools outside with hot water, and I enjoyed a lot because I was fed up with the bad weather and the cold of the winter (we Spanish people really enjoy to be warm, the water and swimming pools). We were lucky that weekend because the weather in Budapest was no so bad.

It was a full day and we finished very tired.

Next day we saw the Synagogue and we came back to Prostějov. I loved Budapest and I enjoyed a lot this trip. It was the kind of places where I would like to return in the future.

*Useful tips if you visit Budapest:

• If you want a cheap accommodation, I recommend you Frankys Hostel. This is the hostel we stayed and it was quite good and near the center. 
• The money there is Hungarian forint and everything is really cheap. One euro is 100 forints. With Poland, it is the cheapest place I have seen if I compare with the rest of the countries of Central Europe. But bit careful, the money is a bit strange because the amounts are huge (there are banknotes of 500, 1.000, 2.000, 5.000, 10.000 and 20.000 forint). So do not think you are rich when you have that money ;)
• Try the Hungarian Guláš. It is different from the goulash of Czech Republic and also quite good. The difference is that in Hungary is more a kind of soup with beef stew, paprika and other ingredients.

By Elena from Spain

NIGHT WITH ANDERSEM

This month we prepared a special night for children called Noc Andersen (Night with Andersen). It is a night in which the children sleep in some schools or libraries and there are activities related to some fairytales or books such as games or workshops. This event was created in honor to Andersen, a famous writer from Denmark who wrote stories like the little Mermaid, the Ugly Duckling or The Little Match Girl, and some of them were brought to the screen for Disney.

We were very motivated with this activity and we tried our best to organize a good night of Andersen. After plenty of time preparing the program, the day came.

Honestly I was a bit nervous because of two things: Czech language and activities, as I did not know how were going to be the children and if they would like the activities we prepared.

Before the children arrived, we prepared the rooms we were going to use for activities and sleeping, the decoration, the gymkhana, the materials for workshops...

Also we put our costumes, of course! As the topic was Little Mermaid or stories related to water, Marion and I were Mermaids, Katka a shark, Stanka an octopus and Aniska the sea.

Nineteen children applied for the activity. They arrived around 17:00-18:00 and we helped them to leave their bags in the sleeping rooms. The children who were ready came to Oaza to do card names. When everybody was ready, when played some games together to learn the names and speak about our favorite books.

Later we had dinner, and Marion and I did a small theatre to introduce the next activity. The story was about a girl, Marion, who lost her fish. I was the Mermaid who was going to help her to become Mermaid to find her fish in the ocean, but I only had one tablet to become Marion mermaid, so if the children wanted to come with us to the adventure, they would need to create a diving glasses and go to the sea with a submarine.

We learn the dialog in Czech to do this theatre and for me it was very funny.

So we started the glasses workshop and the children created and painted them in the most creative ways. When everybody had his glasses we took pictures with the decorated background.

Later, we continued the adventure and we started the gymkhana. The objective of this activity were to get 5 keys to find the lost fish of Marion. How? The children needed to divided in groups and every group needed to get a key by entering in some rooms of school and perform different tasks there.

We prepared activities in every floor of school like to find 7 differences, draw a picture they could see in a screen, find the lost word of some famous songs, etc.

After this activity, me, the little Mermaid, went with the keys to rescue the lost fish, which was hidden in Stodovna with other rewards and sweets for the children.

We finished late this activity, around 10:30. After we did some workshops: origami, wool dolls and bookmarker. 

Before going to sleep, Katka and Stanka read a book to the children in the sleeping rooms and they quickly fall slept.

To sum up, I enjoyed a lot this day. We were very lucky with the children because they were very good, they did not complain, they liked all activities and they payed attention everything we said to them. It was great fun for everybody and one of my best memories of my EVS :) 

By Elena from Spain

CZECH FOOD AND DRINKS

Today I am going to tell you something about Czech food and drinks. In my opinion is quite good, but it always depends on your preferences. Many dishes are not only typical in Czech Republic, but also typical in the countries around like Austria, Hungary or Germany. This diet is varied and is based on fruits, vegetables, meat, potatoes and pasta.
Let start and try not to be hungry!

Polévka

Soups: There are many kind op soups in Czech Republic. These can be with vegetables, some meat or/and nuddles. Garlic soups, bread soups or lentils soups are also common. It is the perfect way to start the main meal of the day.

Knedlíky

Dumplimps: These are the Czech traditional side dish made from wheat or potato flour, boiled in water as a roll and then sliced and served hot. It looks like bread but it is not.

Guláš

Gulash: I would say it is the best known dish of Czech Republic, although the origin is hungarian. It consists of meat, usually beef or pork, with kind of sweet sauce and it is served with dumplings.

Smažený Sýr

Fried cheese: I was very surprised the first time I saw this. When I tried it was delicious. If you like cheese, you will love it. It is that, fried cheese, and usually it is served with vegetables or potatoes. 

Palačinky

Pancackes : It is a delicious dessert. It is a pancacke filled with ice-cream, chocolat, jam or fruits and coated in whipped-cream, almons or sugar. If you eat it with a hot chocolat it would be the perfect mix. 

Jablečný závin

Apple strudel: this is a traditional pastry and the most popular dessert in Czech Republic. 

It is filled with layers of apples and it can be served cold or warm. Usually it is sprinkled with powdered sugar or with vanilla custard. 

Becherovka

Becherovka: Only 3 people in the world know the receipt and they are not allow to travel together in case of accident. It is a kind of alcohol that you drink as a shot, and it is sooo strong. Do not try to mix with anything because for czech people is irrespecful! 

Pivo

Beer: the famous Czech beer. You will understand why when you try it. It is even cheaper than the water and sooo good. Czech people are the winner wordlwide in drinking beer; they can drink 160 litres per year. The best know czech beer is Plsen, but I would say the best are Cozel, Budweisser or Gambrinus.

Punch 

Hot wine: it is very typical drink during Christmas time and it is sold in Christmas Market or restaurants. It is very sweet and usually it has pieces of the fruit that you choose (strawerryes, apriot, grapes...) There is nothing better than this warm drink in the street during the cold days of Christmas! 

By Elena from Spain

OUR ACTIVITIES HERE

In this entry I would like to tell you about my work here. Every volunteer is different, and it is up to them which activities they prefer to do. In my case, I do different things and I am very satisfied and happy about that. Here I explain you more details :)  

• English and spanish conversations/lessons, with people of different ages interested in practising or learning these languages. In my case I have three groups (two of spanish and one of english) per week, one hour each. The groups are divided depending on the level and availabilily. It is up to you how you organize this activity; personally I like to use games, questions about different topics or videos.

• Creative workshops once per month (more or less). This is my favourite task. I´ve always interested in these kind of things and I feel very lucky here to have the chance of doing it. I find it very funny and I think everybody interested can spend a good time. You don´t need to be a professional, just learn how to create something easy and after show to people how you did it. We did lot of workshop depending on the situation: for example, in Christmas we created small Christmas trees and decorations, and for the Ball Representations of students we made earrings.

• Presentations of Spain in some seminars and schools. For me it is very interesting to do this, as I am showing my country and my culture to czech people. Also we do some presentations about our experience in EVS. At the beginning I was very nervous to speak in public and in english, but after a few times I started to be more relaxed and everything was fine.

• Ball games in the gym with children interested in playing basketball, voleyball or other games. We have this activity one hour an a half every week. 

• Participate and help in some events that the organization prepare for the public. This includes different tasks depending on the activity, for example, one day we helped the people to create a small craft for books, other days we took pictures, etc.

• *Spanish evening: This was one of the days I enjoyed the most here. I prepared a presentation of Spain, I cooked spanish food for the people, I put flamenco music and I organised a flower workshop in honour to the ''Feria''. Lot of people came and the environment was great. I had a great time explaining my culture and speaking spanish for as while, as in Prostejov it is not easy at all to hear spanish!

• E-voices. The other volunteer and I write every month an article telling how is going our experience here. These information is sent to other centres and schools to promote the organization and its activities.

By Elena from Spain

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES SPANISH-CZECH

After almost five months here, I think I am starting to know more and more about Czech culture.

I am Spanish and I would like to tell you, from my own experience, what are the most relevant differences I found since I am here, between my culture and Czech culture. 

However, I am aware that always it is depends on people, of course! ;) 

Punctuality
Czech people, as Germans, are always on time, unlike the famous lateness of the spanish people. They respect the times of dates, meetings, lessons, parties, everything. For spanish people , usually, to arrive on time means 5, 10 or even 15 minutes later of the arranged date.

Schedules

Czech people use to start the day very early, around 7:00 more or less. They have big lunch around 12:00 and dinner at 18:00 more or less. They don´t go to bed very late because in the morning they wake up early. In weekends, people go to pubs from 18:00 and they usually close around 4:00 or 5:00.

Spanish people have very different timetables. The big lunch of the day is around 14:00-15:00, and the dinner at 20:00 or 21:00. The reason is because in many jobs there is a break for more hours, so as a consequence, they have time for a relaxing lunch and siesta, but there is not free evening because they finish work around 21:00.

We start parties in Spain very late: we go to pubs and start drinking around 11:00, and a big party can late until 8:00 in the morning, when the discos close.

People and personality

By my experience, czech people are usually very nice. One important characteristic I would say about them is the humility. For example, lot of people know english, but if you ask them if they know english, they would say: "just a little", even if you are hearing that their pronunciation is perfect. And they are very kind so they will help you if you are lost or you have any problem.

They are very reserved and don´t express their feelings to everybody. The first time they met you, they are not going to speak a lot about their lives. But once you really know them, they can be your friends forever, they will tell you jokes every time and they will be warm.
They usually are relaxed and don´t scream or mess up in the street.  

A spanish people is almost the opposite of what I explained about czech. They consider they know english even when they never tried to speak with a foreigner, and the CVs are full of lies related to languages. However, now the situation is better and currently Spain is improving the education of languages because we all know that it is basic. 

About how spanish people are, I can say they are really funny, nice, warm, familiar and sociable.

They always express their feelings even they don´t know you. They can speak with everybody, tell their lifes without problem and hug you easily. Personally, I consider the good weather has something to do with this kind of personality. When you are always in the street you learn to socialize and you develop a need to be always with people around you.
We spanish people spend long hours in terraces having coffee, drinking beers or eating with family and friends. We speak without stopping, we make jokes and laugh a lot.
I consider that, indeed, czech and spanish people are very similar, the only difference it that czechs need more time than spanish people to trust you and express their feelings.

Greetings 
To greet somebody or introduce yourself, Czech people give the hand.  Spanish people give two kisses in the cheek. Only when it is man and man, they give the hand.
For me it was a bit strange to give the hand when I came here, but after a while, I got used to it. As a result, when I went to Spain for Christmas, it was very strange for me to give two kisses to people! 

Typical traditions in Christmas

It was very funny when I heard that, for 24 December, people buy a carp a few days before, they put them in the bath and in the Christmas day they kill them and eat them.
Sometimes the children are so sad that the family end up throwing the carp to the river, but anyway it will die because of the shock of temperature. I was also told about the little boat made by shell of nuts and candles, and I saw st Nicolas giving sweets to the children. I consider the environment is very familiar in Czech Republic. That is something in common with Spain.
A very crazy tradition we have in Spain is to eat 12 grapes (1 per second) the 31 of December at 11:58:48 at night. Yes, just before starting the New Year. It is a symbol of good luck.
Czech people were shocked when I told them. Other tradition is the nighy of 5 of January, when the Three Kings go out to the street in big coachs, throw sweet to the children and the next day in the morning children find the presents at home.

Working with public
I don´t really know the reason, but Czech pople don´t usually smile when they work as a wraiter, supermarket cahier or shop assistant. I read that maybe they don´t have any problems, is just that they look serious. If you work with people in Spain face to face, first feature your boss will ask you is to smile everytime and be always nice.

Weather 
I really admire czechs in this. They are so strong from my point of view. Czech Republic is a country where in winter the temperatures can low until -20 degrees or more, and in summer can be as high as 30. They are used to changes and they go out without minding the weather. Spanish people are not used to this. We totally hate the cold, and until we don´t see 20 degrees we don´t take our coats off. When it is rainy or so cold, plans can be cancelled easily. For us it is cold 8 degrees and our personality change during winter. We need the sun and we really love summer.

Food and drinks
I consider Czechs eat healthy. Some typical food is goulash, knedlíky, or fried cheese (which is very good). Czechs are winners in drinking beers from when they are really young. You need to be really ill if you don´t drink beers when you go out. Other typical drink here is the Bechrovka. Only 3 people in the word know the recipe and they are not allowed to travel together in case of accident.
Spanish people also drink a lot, but not as much as Czech, problably because our beer it is not so good. About food, I am really proud of spanish food. Mediterranean diet is considered to be one of the healhiest in the world. Moreover, it is delicious. Paella, Tortilla de patatas or torrijas are one of the typical meals. Something  I miss here, it is good fish and spanish ham.

So this is what I can tell you until now. I am very happy to discover a new culture and also learning about mine, because I realised here that they were lot of things I did not know or valued about my culture until I arrived here. Every culture has something special to offer, something new, and I think we all should learn from every people of the world :)  

By Elena from Spain