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Yesterday, a great Czech singer and actor, Waldemar Matuska passed away at the age of 76. Waldemar Matuska was actually born in Košice, Slovakia, but he spent most of his life in Prague. During his life in the former Czechoslovakia, he was very popular and twice won the Golden Nightingale poll. As an actor, he performed; for example, with Jiri Suchy and Karel Stedry and he played in many movies, such as, All My Good Countrymen (Všichni dobří rodáci), Lemonade Joe (Limonádový Joe), If a Thousand Clarinets (Kdyby tisíc klarinetů), A Night at Karlstein (Noc na Karlštějně), The Hit (Trhák) and more. When he immigrated to the USA in 1986, the communist party published an article in “Rudé právo” magazine entitled “The moral fall of a singer.” His songs were banned and even his opening song for a Czech TV series Cottagers (Chalupáři) was edited and his voice was removed. Luckily, the infamous label he received soon vanished after the fall of communism in 1989 and Matuska was able to frequently visit his home country.

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Easter is far behind us but egg mania in the Czech Republic just started; especially, in the politic arena. The Social Democrats’ (CSSD) rallies ahead of the EP (European Parliament) elections are accompanied with egg attacks. Egg assaults became a heated subject in conversations between CSSD and ODS (Civic Democrats) representatives. Who is behind these “organized” attacks? CSSD blames ODS, even though the party denied such behavior or any other efforts to harm the party. Moreover, they called their supporters to stop such assaults. They, however, still continue and gain more popularity each day.

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Beginning the 1st of July, 2009, the Czech courts will gain more power and control over Czech citizens than ever before. On this day a new amendment of the Judicial Code will become valid. It will prevent avoidance of judicial mail. It will, however, assume that all correspondence sent by courts will be received by their recipients, even though they won’t be required to sign for it. What does this mean for all of you living abroad? Even if you don’t sign for a registered letter directed to you, ten days after the registered envelope delivery you will be assumed to have received it. The change is meant to thwart the typical behavior of people that received such letters in the past. Usually, if they found out the letter was from a court, they would refuse to sign for it and the post office would have to mail it back to the sender 10 days after contacting the sender or his/her family. Now, such correspondence will be deposited in the recipients’ mailboxes without the need for signatures.

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Článek v ČEŠTINĚ dole (Klikněte na “Read the rest …”)

One of our readers sent us some interesting photos. They describe our past from times that may be long forgotten – from the communist era. Some of the photos made us laugh, whereas others reminded us again how oppressed and isolated our lives used to be. If you lived in Czechoslovakia during this unfortunate time in our history, you know what we are talking about. For those fortunate ones, who did not live through these times, we can just explain what the slide show is about. Simply said, they bring back images of times, places and things that do not exist anymore. For example, you should stop to take a look at a roll of toilet paper that was as stiff as writing paper. Truly, it was a famous shocking item for foreigners that visited our country. You may also see a line to a meat market that did not have much to sell. Read the rest of this entry (Čtětě více ZDE) »

Článek v ČEŠTINĚ dole (Klikněte na “Read the rest …”)

A Czech proverb “Kolik reci vis, tolikrat jsi clovekem,” or in Slovak “Kolko reci vies, tolkokrat si clovekom,” can be literally translated as “As many languages as you know makes you that many times more of a person.” Basically it means that the number of languages you know makes you that number of times more of a person. So how many languages do you know? The golden rule is that you should know a little bit about the culture and language of the country you are visiting or moving to. The more you explore and learn about the country, its citizens and their culture, the more they will help you to understand the differences that could surprise you upon your arrival to a foreign country.

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Zdenek Sverak is well known in the Czech entertainment world. This Czech actor, humorist, and writer found his new niche – writing books. Sverak was born on March 28th, 1936 in Prague. He studied pedagogy at Charles University in Prague. Throughout his career he was an author of several musical texts and also plays. He, however, never fulfilled his dream to write books with short stories. It was only recently that he fulfilled his dream when he finally wrote his book called “Povidky” that contains stories from times from 1966 till 2008. The book is full of humor, honesty, and meanings that will keep readers interested and entertained.

If you live abroad and are not familiar with Czech entertainment, you may have still heard of Zdenek Sverak. Among his famous film scripts stands out one written for a movie called “Kolja” (Kolya) – Academy Award winning film in 1996 that he also starred in. This was the second film he worked on with his son and director Jan Sverak after their first film “The Elementary School” that was nominated for an Academy Award. If you are interested in learning more about Czech movies, you can visit our page HERE.

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Today, we have a special Culture Shock story for you. It was written by Katerina Erlebachova that lives in Ireland. After reading her experiences from abroad, you will find out that she is a great writer and possibly a new contributor to our articles. Hopefully, we will read more of her interesting stories soon and maybe on a different subject. Enjoy!

“How Other Places Are Different” 

Whenever I write an article I find it hard to know where to start. Mostly my ideas run into each other in a domino effect, biting each other’s backs like undernourished
crocodiles.
I’ve lived for three years in Ireland, so I wanted initially to write: ‘like undernourished sheep’, to give an Irish flavour. But I’ve never seen sheep bite each other in the back. Also, Irish sheep are well nourished. So I leave the job for crocodiles.
I wondered what I could offer on the subject of ‘Culture shock’.
I am sending a couple of experiences from the small city of Galway, located on a seaside on the west coast of a green and wet island of fairy rings, hugged by the ocean.

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Recently, you had an opportunity to learn about scouting and its history in the Czech Republic. If you think of scouts, you may think of tents, summer activities and games, bonfires, and lots of fun. It is possible that you or your children may experience all that and more in summer camps. How great would it be if you can actually find a camp abroad that is dedicated to Czech or Slovak children and their friends? The one that we will introduce to you today is called Hostýn and it is the last remaining piece of property in the province of Quebec that is owned by the Czech and Slovak community. The camp was established by the Czech Jesuit P. Bohuslav Janíček and on May 9th it celebrated its 55th anniversary. The camp, however, had some dark times when it did not serve its original purpose, but the hard work and strong belief in supporting Czech and Slovak heritage brought the camp back to its former glory as it once was.

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Today is Mother’s Day and many of us visit our mothers, mothers-in-law, grandmothers … to spend more precious time with them and celebrate their motherhood before these moments only become distant memories. Jana Reichova, a well known Czech author of articles in the magazine Pozitivni Noviny that lives in Australia, wrote a touching story about her mother. We believe it still applies to many of us around the world:

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About a month ago we had an opportunity to meet Stefanie Vocasek. She is a young woman of Czech origin, who was born in the United States and knows a lot about her Czech heritage. Stefanie is 22 years old and lives in Lincoln, Nebraska. She is not only a student, but also has two jobs to support her independent and fascinating life. On top of that she just started making appearances at local elementary schools and events speaking about her Czech heritage. She has recently become the Czech-Slovak Queen of Lincoln and we were thrilled to find out more about her and how the Queen selection process works. We also wanted to find out how she was able to learn about Czech heritage so remote from the country her ancestors came from.

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