CzechFolks.com

When I used to live in the communist Czechoslovakia, I did not have a chance to learn English. I had no other choice than to learn Russian and German. I started to learn English a few years after the Velvet Revolution and most of it was self-taught. Today, Czech citizens are surrounded by American movies and English courses that will keep them connected with the rest of the world.

Many of Czech baby boomers from the 1980’s don’t speak English because their former comrades did not allow them to learn this international language in their teens but their options to learn are growing. Nowadays, children learn to speak English already in kindergarten and adults are catching up in evening courses.

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The European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions reports that most of new members of EU, including Czech Republic, work much longer for less vacation.

Based on the report, Bulgarian, Romanian and Czech workers spend at work over 40 hours a week, while average working hours in France, Italy and Denmark are less than 40 per week. Unfortunately, paid holidays don’t reflect the overtime in countries such as Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia and Romania. Their average paid time off is about 21.9 days per year. Conversely, Sweden workers get 33 days of vacation per year, Norway 26.7 days, and Greece 23 days, increasing the EU average of 25.2 days per year.

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As you know the US stock market is not doing very well nowadays, but the situation is very similar in the Czech Republic. Today, the shares on the Prague Stock Exchange (BCPP) fell to the lowest closing level since mid-July 2006. Just in one day, the PX index lost 4.92 percent and in one year 24.78 percent. The reasons for this decline are loses on advanced foreign stock markets and falling prices of commodities. Many foreign funds and banks are selling their assets. Moreover, new investors are not interested in putting their money in real estate market and commodities. The Czech Republic is now involved in global market, thus, its economy will be likely affected to a similar extent that is visible in the United States.

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Are you looking for the most recent list of Czech Embassies? Here is a complete summary of 20 locations in the U.S.A. but also in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. The complete list includes locations, contacts, and hours of operations.

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Hledate nejnovejsi seznam Ceskych ambasad? Zde najdete kompletni souhrn 20-ti oblasti v U.S.A., ale take ve Velke Britanii, Kanade, Australii, Novem Zelande a Irsku. Tento kompletni seznam obsahuje adresy, kontakty a uredni hodiny.

Clanek v CESTINE dole.

Almost every day on the Czech calendar has a person’s name. It is a person’s special name day and is usually held together with family and friends. Basically everybody has two chances a year to celebrate - their name day and birthday. Name day is usually of less importance than birthday but sometimes it is celebrated in a larger number since everybody, even co-workers, can look up all names in a calendar.

The original list of names was from the Roman Catholic calendar of saints. For example, Saint Michael’s feast was held on September 29^th; thus, this day was later dedicated to all Michals. Nowadays, Czechs are experimenting with more exotic names that are not in the calendar but the czech name days are still very popular.

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It has been 40 years since Russians occupied Czechoslovakia (last Russian soldier left in June 1991) and started a 20-year long repression. Prague was the main target for this attack since it was a center of political happenings. About 160,000 soldiers entered our country on August 21^st, 1968 with about 6,300 tanks. Approximately 80 people died during the first days of occupation and hundreds were injured. The harm to our nation can be still seen today.

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Clanek v CESTINE dole.

I have lived in the U.S.A. for a while. I have to say I assimilated very well and don’t feel homesick as I did in the beginning. Even though I browse Czech websites from time to time, my Czech is not what it used to be; especially the written part. One of the reasons may be that I don’t keep in touch with my friends much anymore. Well, we still write short emails to each other but very rarely and calling is not convenient with the time difference. Thus, I decided to register with two Czech social networking websites in order to stay connected: http://www.spoluzaci.cz/ and http://www.lide.cz/ and I made some surprising observations.

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The statistics below only includes Czech citizens living abroad permanently or long-term. The numbers are obtained from Czech Embassies for the year of 2007. The numbers are not accurate (but still good estimates) since Czechs permanently living abroad are not forced to register with local Czech Embassies.

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Statisticky prehled nize pouze zahrnuje Ceske obcany trvale nebo dlouhodobe zijici v cizine. Pocty jsou ziskany z Ceskych ambasad z roku 2007. Tyto cisla nejsou presne (ale stale dobre odhady), protoze Cesi trvale zijici v zahranici nejsou nuceni se zaregistrovat u lokalni Ceske ambasady.

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Welcome to this new site about the Czech Republic, Czech citizens, Czech culture, and much more. The site is created exclusively by a couple living in the U.S.A. One author was born in the Czech Republic and has lived in the U.S.A. for about 10 years. The second author was born in the U.S.A. but his parents are immigrants from Czechoslovakia. Both authors speak fluent Czech and English and have much to contribute to this site.

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Cheers,

Czech Folks