During my life here in the Czech Republic, I have tried as a mark of respect to learn my second home country’s language so that I can better communicate with locals and set myself apart from the tourists. In this linguistic journey, I have studied Absolute Beginner Czech twice, Beginner three times, and Intermediate twice. The last couple of years, I‘ve been taking private lessons which helped as I can’t get any of my friends to take classes with me.

So, I have been doing anything to interact with the language: listening to the radio, watching movies or lately I have been reading fairy tales, ghost stories, teen lit, whatever is interesting enough to keep me reading every day.

One conversation:
Katka: Next time you meet someone, you say ‘Těší mě’, not ‘Těším se’. Also, please introduce me as your girlfriend ‘přítelkyně’ and not your friend, ‘kamaradka’.
Tim: Was I really nervous, when I did it?
K: Yes, you were.
T: Okay, but I am getting better with my Czech reading.
K: Yes, but reading a comic book about killing Zombies won’t really help you with either situation.
T:-----
I texted a witty comeback line on my way to work.

Feel free to share with me your joys and heartache of learning another language!