If Czech could be used in Take One, I would be winning (I would say Scrabble, but I don't really play Scrabble... Take One is as close as I get!). Never have I seen so many j's, k's, v's and z's in words. Though q and x are pretty non-existent, but still, rack up those points!
Most difficult for me is this fun letter: ř. This letter sounds like "rž", which is a combination of a rolled r and the "ge" sound in rouge. I think I've gotten to the point of being able to say it on it's own, but put it in a word and my tongue doesn't know what to do. They also like to put these letters together that seemingly are missing vowels, like čtvrtek (the word for Thursday). Yep, you just say the sounds the letters make (and that č sounds like our "ch"), but even in hearing the word spoken I think it's missing something - most specifically an e after the v. Can I buy a vowel? I can manage the rest of the word, but please, even one more letter?
However, it's been kind of fun to figure out what words are, how to say them, and be able to "master" a very few simple phrases. My Czech-English dictionary is a constant companion - necessary after my first trip to the grocery store and I had to guess at most of what I was buying! But I enjoy looking up new words and attempting to remember them. And I'm actually looking forward to learning more to be able to communicate. Remind me of that in a few months when I'm exasperated. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment