CzechFolks.com

Like every July, even this year the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (IFF) introduces more than 200 new and popular films from many countries around the world. The 44th year of this festival opens with the red carpet and the arrival of the guests as you see in the American Academy Awards Show. The location of this festival is, however, much different since it takes place in Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad), a historic town known for its healing mineral spring water that in the 14th century helped Charles IV to heal his body and mind. During this time of the year, the town is filled with tourists, visitors and locals eager to see the beauty of the city and creations of many talented filmmakers. Read the rest of this entry (Čtětě více ZDE) »

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Author: Josef Čermák (CzechFolks.com PLUS)

According to an announcement made by his family on June 30, 2009, Jan Rubeš, one of the most impressive, most important and best loved Czechoslovak artists in the world, died at the age of 89. No cause of death was given.

Rubeš was born in Volyně, Czechoslovakia, on June 6. 1920, attended Real-Gymnasium (a Czech term for a high school) in Strakonice (graduating in the year of the Munich surrender), and matriculated at both the Faculty of Medicine. Read the rest of this entry (Čtětě více ZDE) »

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Author: Josef Čermák (CzechFolks.com PLUS)

Last April, the Czech writer, Blanka Kubesova, paid in Pozitivni noviny a tribute to Mirko Janecek and his newspaper, Kanadské Listy. In her story, which also displayed several interesting photographs from her archives, Blanka Kubesova mentions that last year - after 42 years - Mirko Janecek ceased publication of Kanadske Listy, a newspaper he took over from I. J. Sharoun and first published in mimiographed form and later, as a printed monthly. Read the rest of this entry (Čtětě více ZDE) »

Barbara Semenov, a journalist, reporter, producer, publisher of CechoAustralan magazine and an author of articles in our “Czech Only” version of CzechFolks.com named CzechFolks.com PLUS,was a guest at Helena Vondrackova‘s birthday celebration and was kind enough to report back to us with her experiences and memories of the singer. She wrote:

Today I would like to share with readers of CzechFolks.com PLUS a wonderful experience from Monday evening in the Prague Theater “Kalich,” where Helena Vondrackova celebrated her sixty-second! birthday. Read the rest of this entry (Čtětě více ZDE) »

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This year we had the great honor of hosting the Slovak singer Peter Nagy. The word “we” here actually means all of us living in North America. This May, Peter Nagy visited Canada and the USA and performed at four concerts: Toronto, New York, Boston, and Los Angeles. From what we have heard from him and organizers, we can tell you that he felt like at home here. He had a very good time while meeting new people, sightseeing, and of course at his concerts; thanks to the audience and everybody who was involved in organizing the concerts. Moreover, he was even able to make a new video clip for his song named “Rozhladna 25.” Read the rest of this entry (Čtětě více ZDE) »

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The controversial artwork Entropa created by Czech artist David Cerny will be on display in Holesovice Center for Contemporary Arts DOX from the 12th of June until the 4th of January 2010. This art project was created on the occasion of the Czech Presidency over the European Union and was placed at the European Commission building in Brussels. Entropa received enormous publicity around the world, but was not actually displayed in Cerny’s home country. That is why he decided to display it in DOX center to give Czech citizens and others an opportunity to make their own opinions about his creation. Read the rest of this entry (Čtětě více ZDE) »

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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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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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Exactly 20 years ago, Eva Střížovská came up with a great idea that led her to the foundation of a magazine called Český dialog (Czech Dialogue). During that time Czechoslovakia became free of communism right after the Velvet Revolution. The country was going through major changes and its citizens were finally free to travel to almost any country in the world. As Czechs were able to travel abroad, the Czech emigrants had a chance to travel back to their home country. Here the magazine served its great purpose to help people to overcome barriers and differences between the Czechs at home and their countrymen that were artificially created by the Communists. Over the years, the magazine became very popular and it not only helped to overcome these differences, but it also led to foundation of the International Czech Club connecting Czechs around the world through cultural events, discussions, meetings and much more.

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Today, we have a story that is somehow relevant to our Culture Shocks series. The article reminds us that you should not forget to distinguish things you learn in a foreign country. Just a simple date format that you re-learn abroad can cause a huge mistake that can even be very costly:

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We are starting a new series of articles to describe culture shock that we, Czechs and Slovaks, experience abroad. It is not easy to learn to understand different cultures and accepting them can seem impossible. Hopefully, our posts will make it easier for you to cope with different cultures and help you understand why things are the way they are. This will, however, require your input as well. One or two individuals can’t describe different situations that many of us may encounter while living abroad. Therefore, we hope that you all will help us to capture situations, experiences, and solutions related to culture shock.

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