Czech Update

Lost in translation: Prudish Washington Post journalist mistranslates spa, has time of her life in Karlovy Vary

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:15:41 -0500

A slender blonde sitting next to me on a bench in Karlovy Vary's Spa III got up, tossed off the white sheet she was wearing and jumped naked into a pool 20 feet away. I sat there, paralyzed, wondering how to discreetly grab my clothes and find an exit.

Image via Wikipedia

I was more than a little amused reading this article on the Czech spa town Karlovy Vary in the Washington Post. First, the opening paragraph shows nicely how different the European and American sense of modesty is. There is nothing peculiar for two Czechs of the same gender to see each other in the nude. Americans seem to engage in a much more intricate dance of modesty.

But even more enteretaining was the way the article contrasted two experiences based simply on a mistranslation of the word 'spa' or ' lázně'. In Czech, the word only has medicinal, curative connotations (as it presumably did in English not so long ago, too). You do to a spa for healing not for a day of beauty of treatments. That's why the idea of a 'day spa' is simply not available. A visit to a spa that lasts less than a week sounds strange. Sure you can even be treated in a spa as an 'outpatient' but you will still receive a whole treatment - not surprisingly called 'kůra' (cf. cure). Sure, spas are also a place to socialise but that means getting to know your fellow patients, not to go for a relaxing day out with your friends. In that light, much of what she talks about in the article makes relatively little sense. If the author began by saying 'In Czech the word for spa, means something slightly different' she would have avoided looking rather foolish.

However, in the end, Mary Ellen Monahan had a good time and provided her readers with lots of useful information about a wonderful place to visit. Of course, there are many 'spa towns' in the Czech Republic that would provide just as enjoyable an experience with more authentic Czech feel and a lot fewer Russian nouveaux riche. To name just a few Františkovy Lázně, Mariánské Lázně, Poděbrady, or Lázně Libverda will all repay a visit.

No-Frills Pampering in Czech Spa Town of Karlovy Vary - washingtonpost.com Western Bohemia is rich with thermal springs, and spas began sprouting up around them hundreds of years ago to harness the waters' reputed healing properties. While initially available only to European royals, aristocrats and the literati, the masses began arriving for rest or medical treatment following the Iron Curtain's descent after World War II.

Czech Language Institute makes dictionary available online

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:08:30 -0500

Czech Language Institute, the guardian of Czech language usage guidelines, made available a wonderful online resource on http://prirucka.ujc.cas.cz. It's targeted at Czechs, thus the interface and many of the grammatical explanations are in Czech but even beginner learners can take advantage of the search. Just type in any word in any form, click [Hledej] and get a full listing of its other forms as in the picture below.

Slovník českého jazyka je na webu - www.lidovky.cz Na internetu lze od včerejška najít nový internetový slovník češtiny, který dokáže zastoupit dosud používané „papírové“ jazykové příručky.

Czech Language Institute makes dictionary available online

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:08:30 -0500

Slovník českého jazyka je na webu - www.lidovky.cz Na internetu lze od včerejška najít nový internetový slovník češtiny, který dokáže zastoupit dosud používané „papírové“ jazykové příručky.

Czech Language Institute makes dictionary available online

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:08:30 -0500

Slovník českého jazyka je na webu - www.lidovky.cz Na internetu lze od včerejška najít nový internetový slovník češtiny, který dokáže zastoupit dosud používané „papírové“ jazykové příručky.

Learn multiple Slavic languages at once with NiceTranslator

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:24:17 -0500

Nicetranslator.com uses the Google Translate service to give instant response as you type and you can even choose multiple languages at once including Slovak, Polish, Russian, Slovenian, or Croatian. This could be useful for students of Slavonic languages in general but it also shows bits of sentences as you type them in. For instance, when you're typing in 'I remember', you see the appropriate Czech 'Vzpomínám si' and when you add 'you' to make it 'I remember you', the phrase changes to 'Pamatuju si tě' - again the right word for the context. Pretty impressive! But unfortunately, it's not reliable. Simple phrases like 'How do I get to the train station' are mistranslated (eventhough still intelligible to a Czech). So not perfect but a decent start.

Learn multiple Slavic languages at once with NiceTranslator

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:24:17 -0500

Learn multiple Slavic languages at once with NiceTranslator

Dominik Lukeš — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:24:17 -0500

Google Announces Czech<->English dictionary - Best Online Tool Yet for Learners

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:29:56 -0500

Google just released a Czech/English - English/Czech http://www.google.cz/dictionary that is the best online tool I've seen for learners. It offers examples in context, English definitions, and for some common words like bread even pictures (although not pictures of the culturally appropriate pictures - the bread is not what typically Czech bread looks like). For transltion work, I'd still go to http://www.slovnik.cz which offers many more alternatives but not context and explanations (so you basically have to know what the word means already to make it possible to choose the right equivalent).

Google Announces Czech<->English dictionary - Best Online Tool Yet for Learners

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:29:56 -0500

Google Announces Czech<->English dictionary - Best Online Tool Yet for Learners

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 07:29:56 -0500

Google struggling to translate 'friends' into Czech

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:25:08 -0500

According to Zive.cz, Google.cz is asking the Czech internet community how they would like to translate the now ubiquitous word 'friend' into Czech. This is a real problem. There are two basic words for friend in Czech 'přítel/přítelkyně' or 'kamarád/kamarádka' (with different forms for male/female). 'Kamarád' is a general friend (more of a buddy) and in some contexts considered less formal while 'přítel/přítelkyně' would be used in more formal language and would mean 'boy/girl friend' when used of somebody of the opposite sex. But both these words actually mean something closer to what English would refer to as 'close personal friend' - the kind of friend depicted in the sitcom 'Friends' but not the kind of friend you acquire on Facebook in the hundreds. For those friends, Czech reserves the word 'známý/známá'. But that would be very impersonal for most contexts so classifying your real friends as that on a social network would be tantamount to an insult.

There are two possible solutions. 1. Forget about the fake 'friend' and just use the generic 'kontakt'. 2. The whole social web world could take a lesson from Czech and divide friends into two kinds 'personal friends' and 'internet friends'. Facebook already does that with the 'Friend/Fan' distinction but I think many people would appreciate it to be able to have friends with whom they share more info than with others.

V minulém týdnu se v diskusním fóru českého

Google User Group pro uživatele řešil překlad termínu tab (diskutovalo se o možnostech karta, záložka a panel), nyní se Jana Vořechovská, která pracuje v Google

jako jazyková specialistka v Google, všech uživatelů ptá, jak v aplikacích a službách překládat slovo friend. Někde totiž překlad přítel není to pravé, lepší

je třeba známý, ale někdy se může hodit například kamarád.

Google struggling to translate 'friends' into Czech

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:25:08 -0500

V minulém týdnu se v diskusním fóru českého

Google User Group pro uživatele řešil překlad termínu tab (diskutovalo se o možnostech karta, záložka a panel), nyní se Jana Vořechovská, která pracuje v Google

jako jazyková specialistka v Google, všech uživatelů ptá, jak v aplikacích a službách překládat slovo friend. Někde totiž překlad přítel není to pravé, lepší

je třeba známý, ale někdy se může hodit například kamarád.

Google struggling to translate 'friends' into Czech

Dominik Lukeš — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:25:08 -0500

V minulém týdnu se v diskusním fóru českého

Google User Group pro uživatele řešil překlad termínu tab (diskutovalo se o možnostech karta, záložka a panel), nyní se Jana Vořechovská, která pracuje v Google

jako jazyková specialistka v Google, všech uživatelů ptá, jak v aplikacích a službách překládat slovo friend. Někde totiž překlad přítel není to pravé, lepší

je třeba známý, ale někdy se může hodit například kamarád.

Irglová: Czech singer and actress reaps fame rewards after Oscar win

Dominik Lukeš — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:55:19 -0400

"Co Čech to muzikant" (Scratch a Czech, find a musician) goes an old Czech saying (going back to 1800s at least) that used to be known around the musical world. And now it is again! A little bit and on YouTube where there are dozens of clips of her singing including on David Letterman or Later with Jools Holland.

AFP: Fairytale rise to fame for Czech singer turned actress PRAGUE (AFP) — With low-budget musical movie "Once" winning awards from Hollywood to Moscow, and its soundtrack ballad "Falling Slowly" climbing the charts worldwide, Czech youngster Marketa Irglova has experienced a fairytale rise to stardom.

Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - Falling Slowly (Later)

PĚT "P" (Pohromadě)

Aczua — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:52:17 -0400

People speaking Czech on YouTube 1: 10 Survival Phrases

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 17:01:29 -0400

Sometime ago I started a theme of Czech music on YouTube but never followed up on it. Here's an extension of it: People speaking Czech on YouTube. There are lots of people speaking Czech on YouYube, sometimes the clips are funny, sometimes interesting and informative, and sometimes obscene. The first example is a run down of top 10 phrases from travellinguist.

Note that strictly speaking How are you? is not a particularly useful phrase for a tourist in the Czech Republic since Czechs only use it with people they know and never with someone they just met!!!

People speaking Czech on YouTube 1: 10 Survival Phrases

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 17:01:29 -0400

Note that strictly speaking How are you? is not a particularly useful phrase for a tourist in the Czech Republic since Czechs only use it with people they know and never with someone they just met!!!

Strčprstskrzkrk.com launches

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:42:08 -0400

I've owned the StrčPrstSkrzKrk.com domain for a year but only now did I find a few minutes to make it live. All it contains is a video of me pronouncing the phrase. But with any luck, I will be adding more Czech tongue-twisters there, as time goes on.

Strčprstskrzkrk.com launches

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:42:08 -0400

Strčprstskrzkrk.com launches

Dominik Lukeš — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:42:08 -0400

Google Translate now does Czech, makes for a useful phrasebook

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:59:24 -0400

Google Translate is mainly a source of merriment when funny mistranslations occur as they do on almost any text. But if it's all you have to get the gist of a page, it is (marginally better than nothing). And now, you can get Google translate for Czech (and many other related languages).

You can you Google Translate in one of three ways.

Type in text and have Google suggest translation
Give it a link and have Google translate a whole webpage (with mouseover showing the original text)
Type in a search term in your own language and receive results in target language with translation

I've done quite a bit of testing and here's my verdict:

It is remarkably good at translating basic phrases as might be needed by a tourist (How much does it cost? Where is the train station? The beer is too expensive.) But there are surprising gaps: 'How much is it?' is translated as 'Kolik je hodin' rather than 'Kolik to stojí?' and the translation isn't always the same in both directions.
The search translation is very good for basic searches people might need. E.g. 'Prague walking tours' or 'best been in brno' gave decent relevant results in Czech with fairly accurate translations of page titles but not perfect
Translations of complete pages show up the most errors - on a news story, you may get the the theme the story is about, e.g. an accused politician but the verdict will be wrong. Sometimes the translation error is hard to comprehend, for instance, on the translation of the front page of Seznam, the 'Erotica' section is translated as 'Education'.
Any complex sentences with conditionals, pronouns and most adjectives result in errors. (This is not surprising.)

How can learners of Czech from tourists to translators use Google Translate?

A tourist entering a simple phrase in English can be about 90% confident of getting the right Czech equivalent which is about the same as with most phrasebooks (where the errors are usually in the choice of query), also typing in something in Czech seen or heard on the street is pretty likely to get a decent result.
A tourist needing to search the web in Czech for the right results will also not be disappointed.
More serious learners of Czech can use it for a quick look up of phrases if no other reference sources are available.
More advanced learners of Czech can use it to correct the errors and learn that way.

Google Translate now does Czech, makes for a useful phrasebook

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:59:24 -0400

You can you Google Translate in one of three ways.

Type in text and have Google suggest translation
Give it a link and have Google translate a whole webpage (with mouseover showing the original text)
Type in a search term in your own language and receive results in target language with translation

I've done quite a bit of testing and here's my verdict:

It is remarkably good at translating basic phrases as might be needed by a tourist (How much does it cost? Where is the train station? The beer is too expensive.) But there are surprising gaps: 'How much is it?' is translated as 'Kolik je hodin' rather than 'Kolik to stojí?' and the translation isn't always the same in both directions.
The search translation is very good for basic searches people might need. E.g. 'Prague walking tours' or 'best been in brno' gave decent relevant results in Czech with fairly accurate translations of page titles but not perfect
Translations of complete pages show up the most errors - on a news story, you may get the the theme the story is about, e.g. an accused politician but the verdict will be wrong. Sometimes the translation error is hard to comprehend, for instance, on the translation of the front page of Seznam, the 'Erotica' section is translated as 'Education'.
Any complex sentences with conditionals, pronouns and most adjectives result in errors. (This is not surprising.)

How can learners of Czech from tourists to translators use Google Translate?

A tourist entering a simple phrase in English can be about 90% confident of getting the right Czech equivalent which is about the same as with most phrasebooks (where the errors are usually in the choice of query), also typing in something in Czech seen or heard on the street is pretty likely to get a decent result.
A tourist needing to search the web in Czech for the right results will also not be disappointed.
More serious learners of Czech can use it for a quick look up of phrases if no other reference sources are available.
More advanced learners of Czech can use it to correct the errors and learn that way.

Google Translate now does Czech, makes for a useful phrasebook

Dominik Lukeš — Tue, 20 May 2008 03:59:24 -0400

You can you Google Translate in one of three ways.

Type in text and have Google suggest translation
Give it a link and have Google translate a whole webpage (with mouseover showing the original text)
Type in a search term in your own language and receive results in target language with translation

I've done quite a bit of testing and here's my verdict:

It is remarkably good at translating basic phrases as might be needed by a tourist (How much does it cost? Where is the train station? The beer is too expensive.) But there are surprising gaps: 'How much is it?' is translated as 'Kolik je hodin' rather than 'Kolik to stojí?' and the translation isn't always the same in both directions.
The search translation is very good for basic searches people might need. E.g. 'Prague walking tours' or 'best been in brno' gave decent relevant results in Czech with fairly accurate translations of page titles but not perfect
Translations of complete pages show up the most errors - on a news story, you may get the the theme the story is about, e.g. an accused politician but the verdict will be wrong. Sometimes the translation error is hard to comprehend, for instance, on the translation of the front page of Seznam, the 'Erotica' section is translated as 'Education'.
Any complex sentences with conditionals, pronouns and most adjectives result in errors. (This is not surprising.)

How can learners of Czech from tourists to translators use Google Translate?

A tourist entering a simple phrase in English can be about 90% confident of getting the right Czech equivalent which is about the same as with most phrasebooks (where the errors are usually in the choice of query), also typing in something in Czech seen or heard on the street is pretty likely to get a decent result.
A tourist needing to search the web in Czech for the right results will also not be disappointed.
More serious learners of Czech can use it for a quick look up of phrases if no other reference sources are available.
More advanced learners of Czech can use it to correct the errors and learn that way.

Expand your vocabulary with this online gadget!

Dominik Lukeš — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:22:56 -0500

I just got an early look at a great new gadget by the good people at Learnit Lists! It helps you practice 10 new words every day by putting it on your iGoogle page or in one of your social networks.

Expand your vocabulary with this online gadget!

Dominik Lukeš — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:22:56 -0500

I just got an early look at a great new gadget by the good people at Learnit Lists! It helps you practice 10 new words every day by putting it on your iGoogle page or in one of your social networks.