Posted in Language, Travel, tagged tourism, Mallorca, Spain on July 2, 2008 | No Comments »
Today, 1:00 p.m., a general store in S´Illot, Mallorca.
I am buying water and ice tea. The lady behind the counter with whom I so far spoke English or German or some minimum Spanish, suddenly says the price in Czech. When she returns the money from a twenty, she counts in Czech.
How did you know I [...]
Posted in Language, Travel on April 29, 2008 | No Comments »
The Denik chain of affiliate newspapers conducted a nationwide test of patrol cops and cops-on-duty on several precincts. The journalists pretended to be foreigners who were robbed or who had a similar problem.
And the result?
In most cases the reaction to Is there anyone who speaks English? or to a more complicated sentences was - big surprise [...]
Posted in Education & Science, Language on April 7, 2008 | No Comments »
I have never translated a thesis.
Which is what I have been doing now. Its topic is related to mortgages.
I often have a big problem with texts that their authors did not write for themselves but for somebody else. A young student who would like to finally get her BA degree often writes sentences that she [...]
Posted in Language on March 18, 2008 | No Comments »
Once upon a time there were two girls. Around seventeen years old, latest fashion killer outfits. They sat on a bench in the park that I like to stroll through with my camera because you can occasionally see squirrels jumping on the sidewalks…
That concert sucked big time, you cunt. I left after one hour… one [...]
Posted in Eh, Czechs, Language, tagged Bratislava, Slovaks on February 6, 2008 | 1 Comment »
When I lived and worked in Bratislava, Slovakia, one of the things I enjoyed as a Czech guy was going to grocery stores, markets and other places like that where I would talk to clerks, cashiers, or waitresses. Simply because the Slovak language is beautiful and when spoken by 20-something girls (if they don’t look [...]
Posted in Language, Life on December 29, 2007 | No Comments »
Apparently, while filming the movie Chasing Liberty in Prague, Mandy Moore learned some Czech pickup lines and put-down lines. Those who know me know that she is so my type. So that’s why I am posting this….plus it is related to the Czech Republic….
Posted in Language on December 20, 2007 | No Comments »
CSI: Las Vegas, episode Unusual Suspect.
There is a trial, the jury is in and the verdict is expected.
And then I hear the judge address the jury [in the Czech dubbing]: Mrs. Foreman, tell us about the verdict…
This is what happens when you think you know…
Posted in Language on October 15, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Czech TV station Nova airs many U.S. sitcoms, among them Married With Children. According to my knowledge it is the third re-run. Which means the Czech dubbing was made in mid 1990’s when the experience with dubbing was not as great and the translators were mostly people who were “book-taught”.
And so, in today’s episode I [...]
Posted in Language, Media, tagged education, foreigners, learning on September 26, 2007 | No Comments »
It is occupational hazard, I guess, when I think that half of foreign TV shows and sitcoms should be kept in their original sound. When you turn your TV on in the Czech Republic, it strikes you: dozens of American sitcoms, comedy series and other programs sound terrible because instead of a normal street sound [...]
Posted in Language, Personal on September 18, 2007 | 1 Comment »
Apologies to readers, in one of previous posts I mentioned HOT WINE (”svarak” 
when I meant HALF-FERMENTED wine (”burcak”). Big thanks to Daniela Kolejkova, an expert from an institution that deals with this kind of products who paid more attention than I did…
