Czech Lessons

Have you ever sat in a classroom and felt as if the teacher were speaking in another language? That maybe you had accidentally walked into the wrong room, were having a mild nightmare, or were possibly the victim of some elaborate practical joke? If you have, than you know exactly how I felt on my first day of Czech lessons at Charles University...except I guess in my case, the teacher was actually speaking in an entirely different language: Czech. When I sat down in class last Monday, I expected the four and a half hours of class to consist of a Czech teacher who spoke in English giving my classmates and I an overview of the Czech alphabet, maybe some vowel and consonant pronunciations, and perhaps, if we were all doing well, some simple vocabulary words. It was a beginner course for English speakers, how bad could it be? I was mistaken, it turns out it could be pretty bad. Shortly after I set my pen on the desk, the teacher, Hanzo, began speaking Czech. No English, just Czech. He spoke at least as fast as an auctioneer and sounded about twice as foreign as a Japanese game show. I sat and stared at him like I would a Spanish soap opera, it sounded nice but I didn't understand a word. Pretty soon the words that were streaming from his mouth started to sound like questions, and worse yet he was looking at me. I knew that I wouldn't be able to give him the answer that he wanted to hear, but I had to say something in Czech to maintain any shred of credibility I had with my new students and teacher. I reached into my limited Czech vocabulary and chose the word "prominte" (excuse me) hoping that that could buy me some time. The teacher repeated what he had said earlier, only slower and with greater diction, I had to think fast. This time, after several minutes of flipping through my five dollar english-czech two-way dictionary, I answered with "nerozumím, jsem z Americky" (I don't understand, I'm from America). The teacher then rolled his eyes and skipped me, (a reaction I've grown familiar with in my years of schooling). It ended up being the most difficult first day of any class I've taken in my life, the teacher didn't even speak English for the first forty-five minutes. Since that first day, I've slowly begun to pick up words here and there and have spent quite a bit of time studying on my own. So I'm learning, just very slowly. And although the classes aren't any less difficult, they've become more manageable. It's very much an international classroom (1 from Israel, 3 from the U.S., 1 from Japan, 1 from Taiwan, 1 from Italy, 1 from France, and 2 from Greece), and all of my classmates are pretty sharp. I'm definitely the dunce in my class but a dunce in a room full of egg-heads is still pretty bright, (or at least that's what I keep telling myself).

The pictures with this post were all taken right outside the place where I go to school, with the second to last being my actual school building. It get's pretty easy in the third hour of class to stop paying attention and stare out the window at Prague.

Once again, thank you for all the comments.

Adjusting

I'm sorry that it's taken me a few days to get a new post out, I've been busy acclimating to my new environment. Since I arrived a few days before my classmates, I spent the first two or three days here getting a feel for my surroundings. I walked about 5 miles in every direction down multiple streets to build a mental-map of the area that I'm in. I found some nice parks, shops, and a fairly cool old monastery. I'm not going to lie, these first few days were a little rough. I was dealing with some sleep problems and a little home sickness, but both have progressively improved as I've met more of my new classmates and kept busy with school activities. I always forget how much I take advantage of the comfort and convenience of home and how I don't fully appreciate the people and places that I'm most familiar with until I'm separated from them. That's my sentimental post for the month.
The activities for my class started yesterday at an older portion of Charles University in the center of town. There was an orchestral string quartet playing music by Dvořák, (probably the most famous Czech composer who was also extremely influential in American classical music), some speeches by some of the campus big-wigs, a placement test, and then a dinner that night. The music was exceptional and the surroundings were equally awesome, but I got absolutely nothing out of the forty-five minutes of speeches that were all in Czech, a language I don't speak and am taking this course to learn. The purpose of the test I took was to separate the 202 students from 39 countries and 4 continents into different groups based on our Czech language skills. Since I've never been known for my skills especially when it comes to foreign languages, as my Spanish and Japanese teachers can attest, I turned in the exam blank with only my name, country of origin, and perceived skill level (beginner) written at the top. I think I was the first person to leave the lecture hall out of the whole group of students, my mom would be proud. After turning in the test I went outside and met a few other guys, (one from France, one from Germany, and one from Greece), who had all done the same. Despite our lack of Czech skills we all spoke English and decided to go for a walk around the Old City portion of Prague and have a beer. Later that night all of the students and faculty had a party where we chowed down on some finger food and wine, while representatives from each country sang an impromptu song, (I was part of an attempt at "When the Saints Go Marching In" sang by the five or six U.S. students). This morning I showed a few of my new classmates the places I had found near campus and took a quick but practical tour of Prague given by one of the teacher's assistants.
Thanks for tolerating my ramblings and poor punctuation skills, it means a lot to me that some people back home are taking even a passive interest in what I'm doing. From now on I'm going to try and write about my happenings every other day.