What do you think of Czechs?

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It was only last week the Czech deputy Prime Minister came to my place of work and Iam going around saying, the Czechoslovakian deputy Prime Minister and every time I said it one of the group he was with kept saying, Czech Republic and I kept saying Czechoslovakia, and this person would instantly say Czech Republic, now I know why!, hope I didnt offend him!

Arnt you the guys that make the real Budwiser beer as oppossed to that poor imitation from America?

my last name is Dvorak (spelled with the little accents)...i don't know what they are called

My dad's family is Czech. First immigrated to Chicago in the 20's or so...then went back to Prague...then ended up settling in Houston. I recall my grandfather saying he was not fluent in English till he was 13 or so...

Growing up, my relatives would all speak Czech at the dinner table when they didn't want the rest of us to know what they were saying. My aunts would also frequently visit. My cousin acutually married a guy from the Czech republic...(but they have since separated)

I only have one Czech-speaking relative left who lives in the U.S....a great aunt...
My other great aunt would show us pictures of our Czech relatives sometimes.

There is a slight rumor that we have gypsy blood somewhere in us, but that is heresay, only enforced by the fact that several of us are short, dark and swarthy and are really good musicians....in photos I have seen of him, my great-grandfather looked like kinda like a gypsy...exotic looking..big nose...olive skin...etc..(I like to entertain the notion even though it may not be true)

Still...I don't know very much about the country.

i feel the same way about my native country (Slovakia), racist claustrophobic society plus problems with consuming too much of alcohol... (besides some nice things.)

Emil Zatopek and his wife Dana, also a Czech gold medalist (in the javelin), were born on the same day: September 19, 1922. Emil died on November 22, 2000, at the age of 78. Dana is still alive at 85.

Other Czech gold medalists include:

Vera Caslavska, gymnastics
Jan Zelezny
Josef Odlozil, track

Emil Zatopek's greatest competitor in the Olympics was a French Algerian, Alain Mimoun. Mimoun finished second five times to Zatopek before winning the marathon in 1956. Chris Chataway, a friend of Roger Bannister, finished fifth after tripping on the last lap of one race Zatopek won.

I'm part Bohemian. My great, great, great grandfather was a glass (& other) engraver.
One piece of his work.

That's beautiful.

On the Czech side of my family i have alot of architechts and engineers....(in addition to art/music)...my dad and his brother have always done both...my dad was a draftsman when i was a kid, and he was always musicly inclined..now he sells pianos....His older brother can build houses, and design custom furniture...also was in bands when he was young...used to record all kinds of weird experimental music..AND a painter/conceptual artist...

My grandfather was an engineer for Standard...later Exxon....but he also worked on my great-grandfather's business, which was concrete casting....as in sidewalks, walkways, ventillation systems for houses....

My great-grandfather had a patent on a house that was made entirely out of concrete....There are currently two that are standing...one where my uncle lives (but they are selling the family land)..and one that is uninhabited where my great-uncle used to live (he was very eccentric...very obsessive..never married....compulsively hoarded)

My great-aunt also never married and was an architecht. She designed her own house....travelled all over the world...etc...

I have no inclinations towards this type of stuff whatsoever...I am very dull in comparison...

A member on my cat site, who has the screenname Boheme, introduced me to WP.

Where is your cat site? You should put a link in your profile I want to see. I have two rescue chocolate siamese.

Wrackspurt,

What are your two cats' names? I have a Lynx point Siamese named Prince. My first Siamese, Samantha, was also a Lynx point. I also have a feral Snowshoe named Faber.

As a Czech myself, I'd say Czechs are a very meek and peaceful nation. They can't even dislodge the thieving politicians who impoverish the country for 20 years and neither they can give firm limits to rowdy Gypsy communities. (however this creates certain bitterness and passive tolerance to racists) Czechs are very resourceful, they have "golden hands", which shows on many technical inventions and makeshift solutions, but also sadly on many financial scams. Czechs are relatively tolerant or lukewarm, they generally don't care who goes to hell, or they see religion as a very private thing. They don't drag it into the filthy pit of politics, that would be dirty.

One thing Americans told me about us, is that Czechs are very hospitable. An American may put a guest at the hotel, so they are both comfortable. A Czech will accomodate you at his home, because leaving a guest to be robbed by hotel prices would be impolite. And yes, they say Czechs are thrifty.

For more insights about Czechs see the blog girlinczechland dot wordpress dot com.

I've seen pictures of the Czech Republic and I know it looks very beautiful but I have no idea about how your country is or how the people are. I'd love to know more about it. We're talking Central Europe or Eastern Europe right? Is it close to Hungary?

I've been to the Czech Republic, and I have to admit that most of people there are really nice.

I usually prefer to use cash or my debit card.

Sorry, that was the first thing that popped into my head when I read the title of your post. Unfortunately, I know very little about that part of the world. But I like Smetana. He's from somewhere over there, right?

Nicer than poles?

I think its obvious that the answer to "what do you think about czechs" is that few people do. Even your European neighbors dont have thoughts, good or bad, about you all.

When I used to be into stamp collecting I was especially proud of stamps I had from countries no longer on the map. And I had a few stamps from "Bohemia and Moravia", the Nazi puppet state created out the Czech part of what had been the Czechoslovakia.

I was a map geek so I know something about your country.

Ironically now that the Czechoslavakia has been split apart again along the same ethno-geographic lines the same piece of land that was called "Bohemia-Moravia" is now back on the map as "the Czech Republic". So some countries vanish, and then reappear on the map!

I worked with a lady from Slovakia here in the USA. She said that it was "silly to break up the country in two".

Whats your view?

Was the original union between the Slovaks and the Czechs silly, or is the current split silly?

In my mental image I think of the Czech republic as being the more modern of the two. The Czechs write in this Roman Alphabet, while the Slovaks write thier similiar spoken language in something akin to the Russina Cyrllic Alphabet. So their spoken languages are similiar, but their writing is very different.

That Ive heard.

I used to work alongside a Czech girl,who I still keep in touch with,and at one stage I dealt with daily groupage exports to Brno,so I know a bit about the country. I know that Sigmund Freud lived in Pribor and that Bohemia is part of the country.
(I'm interested in geography and the history of all countries).
I also find it interesting how the split between Czechs and Slovaks seemed to be relatively straightforward in comparison to the possible split between Scotland and the rest of the UK,which to me would be very complicated and unworkable.I suppose the difference is that Czechoslovakia was only created by outside forces after the war whereas the UK is over 400 years old.