Headlines

• Great weekend away in Moravia.
• Still looking for that great opportunity in the Czech Republic, now is the time to mail me with the offers, people!

Wealth / Career

• Job Hunting - Still the main focus of effort, more good leads, nothing yet.

Skills / Personal Growth

• Began publishing to the blog a new series of posts on ‘glue phrases’ in Czech.
• Continued reading The 80/20 Principle (really struggling to get into this). It’s a PMBA book.
• Two new lessons from ChinesePod.

Health / Fitness

• Other than a couple of nice hill walks (see Enjoyment) not a great week for exercise as the weekend reactiveated my foot (canoe-meets-weir, me-meets-rock) injury.

Enjoyment

• Great weekend away in Moravia which included BBQ,  some great people, a walk up Praděd (highest hill in moravia, 1491 metres) in the pouring rain and then a walk up a nearby hill the next day for the view we missed . There are a few photos in the gallery here.
• Started listening to the podcast/audiobook edition on Chris Anderson’s Free.

This is the fifth post in a series on Czech ‘Glue Phrases’, if you want to start from the beginning start here or you view all posts in the series here.

Offers & Requests
Things we might offer or request…

Breakfast. / Snídane.
Lunch. / Oběd.
Dinner. / Večeře.
Tea. / Čaj.
Water. / Vodu.

Would you like … ?
Dáš si / chceš … ?

I would like … .
Dám jsi / chci … ?

I don’t want.
Nechci … .

Could you pass me … .
Můžeš mi podat … ?

Can you bring me … ?
Můžeš mi donést … .

Examples…

Would you like breakfast? / Dáš jsi snídani?
Would you like lunch? / Chceš oběd?
I don’t want dinner. / Nechci večeři.
Could you pass me the tea? / Můžeš mi podat čaj.
Can you bring me water? / Můžeš mi donést vodu.

What would you like to eat?
Co chceš jíst?

What would you like to drink?
Co chceš pít?

What would you like to do?
Co chceš dělat?

If you have any suggestions or corrections I’d love to hear from you. All credit goes to E, all mistakes are my own.

This is the fourth post in a series on ‘Glue Phrases’, if you want to start from the beginning start here or you view all posts in the series here.

Lost & Found

Things you might lose, find or want…

Phone / Telefon. (sg)(m)
Keys / Klíče. (pl)(m)
Glasses / Brýle. (pl)(m)
Bread / Chléb. (sg)(m)
Salad / Salát. (sg)(m)
Ham / Šunka. (sg)(f)
Cheese / Sýr. (sg)(m)
Beer / Pivo. (sg)(n)
Wine / Víno. (sg)(n)
Glass (cup) / Pohár. (sg)(m)

Places they might be…

In the kitchen. / V kuchyni.
In the drawer. / V zásuvce.
In the bedroom. / V ložnici.
In the living room. / V obýváku.
In the bathroom. / V koupelni.
In the toilet. / Na záchodě.
On the bench. / Na drezu.
On the table. / Na stole.
On the bedside table. / Na stolku v ložnice.

Looking for things…
I can’t find … .
Nemůžu najít … .

I’ve lost … .
Ztratila jsem …. .
Be careful, ‘ztratila’ implies more finality than ‘lost’ does in common English usage.

Where is … ?
Kde je … ? (sg) / Kde jsou … ? (pl)

My.
Moje (pl) / můj (m) / moja (f) / moje (n).

Examples…

I’ve lost my phone. / Ztratila jsem telefon.
I can’t find my glasses. / Nemůžu najít moje brýle.
Where are my keys? / Kde jsou moje klíče?
Where is the bread? / Kde je chléb?

Finding things…
He / she / it.
On / ona / ono.
Used based on gender of the noun, usually omitted when answering a question.

Is / Are.
Je / Jsem.
Singular and plural, just like English

Examples…

Here it is. / Tady je.
Here they are. / Tady jsou.
They are in the kitchen. / (Oni) jsou v kuchyni. [The item is male, plural]
It is in the drawer. / (Ona) je ve zásuvce. [The item is female, singular]
They are on the table. / (Oni) je na stole. [The item neutral, plural]

Things we have…
Have we?
Máme (my) … ?

We have … .
(My) máme … ?

We don’t have … .
(My) nemáme … ?

Examples…

Have we bread? / Máme (my) chléb?
We have beer. / (My) máme pivo.
We don’t have wine. / (My) nemáme víno.

If you have any suggestions or corrections I’d love to hear from you. All credit goes to E, all mistakes are my own.

This is the third post in a series on ‘Glue Phrases’, if you want to start from the beginning start here or you view all posts in the series here.

Describing the Environment
Is it cold? / Yes, it is cold. / No, it isn’t cold.
Je zima? / Ano, je zima. / Ne, není zima.

Is it warm? / Yes, it is warm. / No, it isn’t warm.
Je teplo? / Ano, je teplo. / Ne, není teplo.

Is it raining? / Yes, it is raining. / No, it’s not raining.
Prší? / Ano, prší. / Ne, neprší.

Is it sunny? / Yes, it is sunny. / No, it’s not sunny.
Je slunečno? / Ano, je slunečno. / Ne, není slunečno.

If you have any suggestions or corrections I’d love to hear from you. All credit goes to E, all mistakes are my own.

This is the second post in a series on ‘Glue Phrases’ in Czech, if you want to start from the beginning start here or you can view all posts in the series here.

Basic Feelings
Are you cold? / Yes, I’m cold. / No, I’m not cold.
Je ti zima? / Ano, je mi zima. / Ne, není mi zima.

Are you warm? / Yes, I’m warm. / No, I’m not warm.
Je ti teplo? / Ano, Je mi teplo. / Ne, není mi teplo.

Are you tired? / Yes, I’m tired. / No, I’m not tired.
Jsi unavený? / Ano, jsem unavený. / Ne, nejsem unavený.

Are you hungry? / Yes, I’m hungry. / No, I’m not hungry.
Máš hlad? (Jsi hladový?) / Ano, jsem hladový. / Ne, nejsem hladový.

Are you thirsty? / Yes, I’m thirsty. / No, I’m not thirsty.
Máš žízeň? / Ano, mám žízeň. / Ne, nemám žízeň.

If you have any suggestions or corrections I’d love to hear from you. All credit goes to E, all mistakes are my own.

This post begins a series of eight blog posts that introduce the basic Czech language building blocks I have collected to get me using Czech day-by-day.

My on-going mission to learn to speak Czech as quickly as possible continues. I find, however, that working simply with a book is slow and at times at little uninspiring. I know that I personally learn language much better in context. This led naturally to the conclusion that, as a priority I wanted to start using Czech at home for basic day to day conversations. My feeling was that this would serve several purposes…

• Make the process of learning the language more fun and rewarding. Using Czech in simple ‘would you like a cup of tea’ type conversations brings it alive and into real life.
• Provide a vehicle for quickly adding the nouns and verbs I need most urgently to my repertoire. I feel I need a short list of basic sentences (I want to, where is, etc) in order to be able to use nouns and verbs as I learn them otherwise, again, it becomes an academic exercise.
• Begin the process of learning grammar through hearing the language. This is the only way I know for me to effectively learn grammar. Trying to learn foreign language grammar from a book is nearly impossible for me, probably due to my lack of formal knowledge of English grammar.

I have collected some really basic sentence building blocks that I hope fulfil the purposes described above. The posts will cover the following basic areas and will be published over the coming week or so.

1. Basic Feelings
2. Describing the Environment
3. Lost & Found
4. Offers & Requests
5. Making Arrangements
6. Making Plans
7. Language Words & Phrases

Headlines

• Weekly Reports are back! It’s been a crazy few weeks and while I’ve done all kinds of cool and useful stuff, somehow Weekly Reports fell by the wayside. Well, no longer, they’re back.
• Fabulous long weekend canoeing and camping.

Wealth / Career

• Job Hunting - Still the main focus of effort.

Skills / Personal Growth

• Wrote and published to the blog a diagram showing basic ‘house related’ vocabulary in Czech.
• Attended a Toastmasters meeting and evaluated a really nice speech.
• Continued reading The 80/20 Principle (I’ve been reading other things in the mean time). It’s a PMBA book.
• Began studying Chinese again, again.

Health / Fitness

• Three day canoeing trip, see below – Exerting more effort than my rowing partner is willing to give me credit for .
• Didn’t run, due to a canoe-meets-weir, me-meets-rock injury (I’m fine now).
• Did manage a yoga class, we’ve found one I really like, I really feel like I get a work-out.

Enjoyment

• “Na Vodu” – “On the water” as described above, fabulous three days in the sunshine making our way north on the Vltava from Rozemberk, through Český Krumlov, almost to České Budějovice. Camping each night which is something I’ve not done in years. There are a few photos in the gallery here.

As part of my on-going efforts to use more Czech in daily life we recently labelled a whole bunch stuff in the house: windows, the fridge, etc. I’ve used it before and find it’s a good way to learn vocabulary as you see things repeatedly and in-context.

Sticky notes though seem to be impermanent and I suspect that there is a finite amount of time that the house, so decorated with stickies, will be tolerated. So I’ve put together a little Gliffy diagram that contains the same information.

For those who are interested, the flat shown bears a passing (though only passing) resemblance to our place in Prague.

A full size image of the diagram is shared via Gliffy here.

All credit goes to E, all mistakes are my own. Corrections welcome.

UPDATE: My Twitter account has been unblocked as of some point on Saturday. I’ve still not found any information about how the account was compromised.

My twitter @triviality account has been compromised. A tweet appearing to come from me was posted during the night. The tweet read:

Hey evry1, peep http://high-profits.org ! ez way to make some extra cash!

Twitter have suspended my account, which I guess is a reasonable response in the circumstances.

I’ve logged the incident with Twitter using the support system here. There is currently nothing posted to the Twitter Status Blog, or in the known issues list. The only information I’ve found so far is on mashable, that at least suggests it’s a wider problem affecting 1000s of accounts and not just my account.

I’ve temporarily removed the Twitter feed from the sidebar of this blog as it was throwing a diaglogue box asking for login details, apparently an odd symptom of the block.

I’ve no idea at this stage how the account has been compromised. I’ll update this post with any new information.

This is my brief review of The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss, posted to the PMBA Forums.

4-Hour Work Week Cover

I chose to read The 4-Hour Work Week at this point for some specific reasons, beyond the mere fact that it is a PMBA text. I’d just quit my job, moved to a new country and was looking to start a fresh, not with my own business at this stage but with a new ‘corporate’ job. I was not disappointed by the choice to read this book, now.

The greatest value from the book for me was further proof behind the idea that there is another way, beyond the regular approach to corporate life, and that it’s achievable. I found that in this respect the book was inspiring and instructional.

There are some real gems in the book regarding personal productivity, Timothy Ferris has taken this to quite some extremes but there is a lot of food for thought in the book regarding virtual personal assistance, outsourcing, managing inputs, prioritisation of your life goals and more.

The book is organised such that if you want to follow the Timothy’s path fairly closely then it’s a step-by-step how-to, this was done with out detracting from it’s readability by someone taking another route.

I found that the specific ideas around what your business might do or how to go about achieving it (roughly the middle part of the book) not always relevant to my situation or likely projects. It steered dangerously close to ‘get rich quick schemes’ at times which left me a little cold. For me the passing references to ‘information products’ were closer to my likely projects and would have made for more pertinent examples that were, shall we say, for business ventures with more noble aims.

Again, the greatest value of the book was that he promotes an approach to life, and your happiness in it, which resonated with me in quite a profound way. Beyond that there was a lot of practical advice for managing your life and your business in such a way as to maximise your time, hopefully for more fun and happiness.

An enjoyable and useful read. The book is backed up by a great web site with extra material, surely a must nowadays.