Typing in Czech

The Czech alphabet is easy to learn, what’s harder is getting all the weird little characters to appear on a computer screen. You’ve probably tried Insert>symbol on MS Word, but this is slow and can be a long process, scrolling down to the write character. Fortunately, if you’re using Windows, there’s a good solution. It takes a few minutes to set up, but once you have it’s quick and easy. Here’s how to set up your keyboard to type in Czech. Don’t worry, it’ll still let you use your normal English keyboard, this will just add an option to switch to Czech whenever you need, whether typing a letter in Word or writing an e-mail in Safari or Mozilla Firefox- it works everywhere!

Got to ‘Control Panel’ and find ‘Change keyboards or other input methods’.

Click on ‘Change keyboards’ on the little pop up that appears

Another box will appear with a list of keyboards already installed. Click on 'add'.

Another box will appear. Choose the language, Czech.

Don't forget to hit 'apply'.

You're done! Now, to use the new keyboard, go to the toolbar and click on "EN", then change that to "CS".

The keyboard takes a while to get used to. Basically the keys letters are the same, but the numbers now correspond to the extra letters. To add the accents, press '+' for the caron and '=' for the acute accent. Here's a map to help you:

Vocabulary 101

This post isn’t going to teach you any actual Czech, but it will set you up to hopefully be able to go out and learn some basic words. I’m going to focus on some resources that I have come across that I have personally found useful, there are a few out there!

One of the downsides of choosing to learn Czech is that unlike French or German, it doesn’t have a major selection of resources, at least not free ones on the internet. However, because it is such a niche, what is there is created due to a real passion for the language. Nowhere on the net is this more apparent than in the Little Czech Primer. As a starting place for the language, you can do little better. Obviously, this is too basic to teach you more than the basics in the language and you won’t be able to construct sentences that go beyond “the mouse eats” (you won’t be able to say what it eats as it doesn’t cover cases), but that’s not the point. It’s a nice way to learn the basic vocabulary in the language through pictures, and what’s good is that it just displays a picture and not the translation in English.

 This may sound like a setback, but really, it’s not. It encourages you to look at the word and link it to the picture. If you have to work out the picture, or what exactly the connection is, it will stay as you haven’t just skim-read the words. Also, the Czech word is linked to a picture and not an English word, so when you see a picture of a dog, for example, you won’t have to go via English first, which is important when trying to become fluent later on. Another good feature is that it includes sound, which you should definitely take the time to listen to as it creates a link between the written and spoken language. One bit of grammar this does cover is conjugating verbs. Just click on the "conjugate" label and it comes up with all the present tense forms of the verb.

For some basic phrases, czech out (the first and last time I’ll do that, promise) the single-serving.com phrasebook. Print it out, fold it, and keep it in your pocket. Of course, this works better if you take it out occasionally and read it. It’s a good little resource to have on you as when standing in queues, sitting on the bus or whatever other wasted time you have in your day, take it out and try and learn one of the phrases in it. This is important, don’t just take it out and skim read it all, but spend time looking at each phrase, look at the words and memorise it. These are what you’ll need to be able to start speaking in the language when you’re actually there, and the quicker you learn them the sooner you can think about grammar, reading and writing in the language. When learning these, try using them whenever you can. This is obviously easier when in the Czech Republic, but still, keep them in mind. If you’ve told your friends you’re learning Czech, greet them in Czech. When counting, use the Czech numbers. Write a shopping list in Czech. When you’re more advanced you’ll be surprised how you can almost immerse yourself in the language whilst sitting comfortably at home, but for now, do what you can, it’ll make it easier to remember the words and phrases you’ll need later. And it beats learning from lists.

If you need help pronouncing the words, try locallingo.com which is a complete resource and includes vocabulary lessons with audio. Spend a bit of time trying to mimic the sound of the speaker.
James Naughton is a name you’ll come across often when learning Czech. He’s written two of the best books for the language, which I’ll review at a later date. For now, try exploring the oxford university website for resources, which is where he lectures. One is this little page for learning months and days. Unlike most other European languages, Czech months have absolutely no relation to their English counterparts, being Slavic rather than Roman in origin. This means you’ll have to make an effort to learn them, so keep coming back to this page and test yourself.

I hope these links help you and give you something to build on. Remember, you’re vocabulary is only as big as you make it, so learn those basics!

The strange case of cases.

Aaaarrrrrrgggghhhhhh! Cases! The bane of anyone trying to learn Czech, or indeed any Slavic language. If you don’t know what a cases is, it’s basically when a language sticks an ending onto a noun to tell you what it’s doing in the sentence. Compare:

Restaurace je krasná
BUT
Muž je v restauraci

Notice how the ‘e’ has changed to an ‘i’ in restaurace? That’s because it’s changed from the ‘nominative’, which shows the subject, to the ‘locative’, which, unsurprisingly, shows location. In Czech there are 7 cases, which change for plural. There are numerous ways to ‘decline’ or form these cases. Seems like a lot to remember. However, it can be easier than it looks:

1. The ‘Vocative’ is only used to call someone, as in “Hey! Mark!” In Czech this would be “Marko!” So clearly we only use it with proper names. So really, you can almost forget about it, you’ll pick it up soon enough when talking to people and it really isn’t a disaster if you don’t use it. This brings us down to six cases.
2. The nominative is the form you’ll learn, and so you don’t have to learn how to form it, it’s there for you. Though you will still need to learn the plural. So that gets rid of half a case. Yay!
3. Many of the cases use the same endings. This is more apparent if you learn them in the right order. So really, you don’t have to learn that many forms.

Now, in the Czech Republic itself, the order the cases are taught in school is: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Vocative, Locative and Instrumental. This is not the order you should use. You are not a Czech child or grammarian. You are a foreigner with different needs. This obscures how the cases work and how they are formed. I would say: Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Locative, Instrumental, Vocative. Why? Because:

1. You’ll need to use the accusative before the genitive or dative. There’s no point learning how to say you’re giving to someone, when you can’t explain what it is you’re giving.
2. If you’ve learnt Latin or German, this order is similar to the one you will have used.
3. This order shows the similarities between the cases more clearly. For example, the accusative is the same as the nominative in certain words, and the genitive in others, so it makes sense to learn it in between those two. The locative is formed by altering the dative, or is the same. Again, it’s easier to learn them together.

My final tip is: Don’t try and learn them all in one go! This is not fun and very difficult, plus useless. You’ll need vocabulary and phrases before you can learn the case to use with them. Space it out. We learnt all the cases in the first year at university, but we spaced it out, one case a month. Concentrate on the case for that time, learn what verbs it goes with, what prepositions it should be used after and if it occurs in any special phrases. This takes time and cannot be learnt in one go!

A useful web page. What the cases do, when you use them.

The wiki article. Shows the patterns. Useful for reference when you have a bit of a foundation.

So, why Czech?

nionSo, for my first proper post, I thought the obvious topic would be, why Czech? Well, my reason was pretty straightforward, I study at Bristol University and they offer modern language courses in several languages. But, why not Italian or Spanish? Because I already do French and figured there's no point in paying one and a half grand a year to learn a language I could easily do on my own. German, you generally need the corresponding A-level to do. As for Russian, that was just me being pragmatic, it's more expensive and inconvenient to spend the year abroad there.
However, beyond university course options, there are many reasons I have come across that make Czech a great language to learn. First and foremost: PRAGUE! That mysterious European destination that enchants millions a year. I haven’t been yet But I’m definitely planning on going soon, and the fact I’m studying Czech is really going to add to what I take from the experience. Being able to speak the language of a foreign country really does add to the thrill of being there.

Throughout my studies of Czech at university my tutor has recommended a ton of modern Czech films to watch, and they’re a highlight of the language, no other country of only 10 million people has such a rich and varied cinema history, winning 3 Oscars for the Best Foreign Language Film category including those from the former Czechoslovakia, and it shows in the massive variety of styles, stories and budgets. I’ll post more about some of these films later, but for those who are curious, the film Kolya is the latest to win the Oscar and is definitely one of the most accessible Czech films and also introduces a period of massive change in Czech history.
Czech is also a difficult language and so knowing even enough to hold a simple conversation in it is a definite way to impress people. It is a HARD language and achieving even an intermediate level of skill in it will be difficult, but the culture and the language itself is enchanting enough to inspire you to success!

I'm currently studying this crazy language at university in England and when I started I was instantly shocked by the incredibly small amount of resources available on the Internet. This blog isn't a course in the language- I've onlydonee a year of it myself, but I'm hoping that eventually it will become a site to learn a bit more about the language, find out exactly what is on offer and read about my own experiences with the language.

Na shledanou!