Wait, what?

Forgot to mention a recent movie experience. A couple weeks ago, we spotted a listing of Miyazaki's movie Spirited Away at a local theater, which usually shows foreign films (more on that in a moment). The listing said it was English verse with Czech subtitles. Perfect.
This past weekend, we make it to the theater and get a beer (wonderful perk to the cinemas here). Friendly pint glass holders built into each seat. The movie comes on, and I see the Czech subtitles.... but there's something a miss. That's not English! That's Japanese! Yes, so I sat through a movie I've never seen before, with the dialog spoken in Japanese, and the not-quite-helpful subtitles in Czech.
However, the upside to that experience was that I learned a few new Czech words and phrases. I did download the movie the next day (here comes the MPAA) and watched it dubbed in English so I now know what went on.

I've thought recently how the idea of "foreign" films and music is, well, foreign here. Every time I've seen movies grouped, there are all the typical sections: comedy, action, horror, etc. But there is no "foreign" film section. Czech films are lined side-by-side with American, French, Italian and British films. There is no need to separate out the "foreign" ones. Why do we do that in America? Aren't all so-called foreign films also comedies, horrors, chick flicks, or any of the other Blockbuster categories?
Same thing with the radio. Czech song, followed by American, followed by Greek, followed by British, followed by...
Ah, ethnocentrism. Gotta love it. (as the theme song from Team America: World Police goes cruising through my head... "America! Fuck yea!")

A Breath of Fresh Air

Amazingly, the forecast was accurate. Amazing weather we had at the end of last week. (see that English? Yes, I am a teacher.) A few of us decided to take advantage of the sun, summer-like temps (45 F!!) and the beer-anywhere policy, and headed to this park with a nice view of the city.


The few remaining patches of ice came in handy too...


But, of course, that lasted only so long...


Many people have contacted me about the "play with myself" story, and I've since been hoping for a story to top that. Sorry to say, I don't have one, and I think that's gonna be pretty hard to beat, in the long run. The best question I've had since then was the explanation of "to make out" (the student had mixed it up with "to make up").
But, on the bright side, a brand-new pet peeve has arrived. When reading an article on Abraham Lincoln this week (being in Prague is all the more reason to call attention to Presidents' Day, and spread the good Americanism I can), a student started reading things that weren't on the page. The word "ended" was read as "elected." I know English is tough to learn to pronounce (think about "wind" - did you say to yourself "wind" as what you do to a clock or "wind" as in the thing that blows outside? or "wound" and "wound"?), but surely we can all agree on the fact that "ended" does not have an l, c, or t. When encouraged to take his time, and really sound out each syllable, "seceded" became "severed", "regarded" turned into "regalled." Ummm... that's better?

But really, no complaints on this end. There's nothing like a couple days of sunshine to brighten the spirit.

Fakt, jo?! (roughly translated to "Really, yea?!", but sounding a whole lot more profane to the native English-speaker)

We're having a heat wave... a tropical heat wave

Woke up the other morning to the most glorious of things - BLUE SKY!

What an uplifting wake-up call. The weather report read warm (read: 34 fahr.) and sunny. Hezky den! Glorious day! It's funny, that same day I spoke to my mom across the Atlantic, and she was lamenting that it was getting cold, as in, 36. If anyone needs me, I'll be over here in the corner crying a little river for all the tortured souls and their unfair winter.
Of course, this is still central Europe, so by 11:30 the sun had vanished behind grey skies. But wow, what a couple hours! Amazing how quickly one can fall in love with a city again given a little sunshine. And with the weather report calling for a high of a whopping 9 degrees Celsius (that's 49!!) later this week, I'm ready to bust out the swim trunks and head to the Vltava for some sunbathing.

Nothing much else to report - went out Friday night, and was blessed with some great lighting (and some equally great tutelage by Ben).


Then made it to a Mexican food place, and felt a bit nostalgic for home:


Cau for now.

The Woes of Teaching

I like teaching. A lot. It's really been a wonderful career move. But as all things, it has its moments where you want to pound your head through the wall. The working-when-not-at-work thing is a bit annoying (lesson planning, test writing, and paper grading sucks ass - though I haven't had to do the 3rd one in that list, and am currently procrastinating on the 2nd...), as is the 6AM wake-up call (all CPAs reading this, please hold your contempted chuckles).

My most recent frustration has been students speaking so slowly because they are unsure of what word to use. They look to me as they say each word (in a questioning voice) and I have no idea if they've chosen the right word or not simply because they haven't finished the sentence. For instance, "I...explain?...to my colleague?...about?...my ex-husband?" In this instance, the student was confused between "complain" and "explain." That by itself is fine. But if you hear "I explain" and then a dramatic soap-opera style pause and a "is that right?" stare, how do you respond? "I explain" is correct English, but with the rest of the sentence and the intended meaning, it's wrong. There's also the issue of when they think they're using the right word, but are questioning their pronunciation versus when they're not sure they're using the right word in the first place.

Situations like that prompted my roommate to quip, "Teaching these kids reminds me of talking to my ex-boyfriend." Zing.

So given this, you have to do things to make it fun, even if you're the only one in on the joke. For instance, one student was doodling in class, and so I asked her to explain (in English, of course) what she had drawn. She did, and ended with "and here I still have half a page left to play with." I smiled, and said, "Good," all ready to move on.
Yet she responded with, "Yea, I usually play with myself when I'm bored." I did a double-take, and said, "Uhh...you what?" She repeated, "I play with myself when I'm bored." Another student chimed in, "Yea, and she always wins!" The class laughed, but not one of them had any idea the alternative meaning to what had just been said. So, unable to quell my urges, I said "Yea, when I play with myself I always win too." Then my internal voice said, "OK, move on before you really lose it!"

Continued the Eyerman family tradition of making chili for the Super Bowl, and had a small chili cookoff at the place yesterday. As in previous years, all pots of chili were combined in the end, making "super chili." Mom's recent visit and bringing of some American TP was greatly appreciated by some. Yes, the game came on after midnight here. I was able to make to it to an American bar with a few dozen other expats and stay up till 4 to see the whole game. Fortune of fortunes had all my morning classes cancelled today, allowing me to sleep till noon.

One final thought on the effects of teaching English. My knowledge of the language has never been greater. I can identify all tenses, explain phrasal verbs and the difference between "to say" and "to tell." But my spoken English has become horrendous. A combination of being used to dumbing things down to be understood by both my students and the public at large, and for some unknown reason mimicking my students' speech patterns, has me leaving out articles, mixing tenses, and saying things like "Far more better is my knowledge than ever before." Yea, I look forward to interviewing for teaching jobs in the States. "Me fail English? That's unpossible!"

Groundhog day

So Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. Another 6 weeks of winter. I know that all you northeasterners are just shaking in your boots about the thought of another six weeks of 40 degree weather.
When trying to explain Groundhog Day to Czechs, I initially got a "wtf?" response. One person even said, "You're from a strange country." But upon explaining the day more, they said, "Oh yea, we have that here too... minus the groundhog." Basically, if it's sunny on February 2nd here, it means 6 more weeks of winter. Which is all that Punxsutawney Phil is reporting, if it's sunny that day or not.
So here's hoping that your February the third really is February the third, and that wherever you are, you get a taste of winter, but aren't confined by it.
Na Zdrave!

U Flek This

Something for my fellow math friends out there - at U Fleku the other night, my friend Tim (third from the left, below) opined, "If you want to have fun at a party, park yourself next to a math guy." Right on.