On my first trip to the Czech Republic (I suppose I’m supposed to call it Czechia, but that sounds so ridiculous I can’t bring myself to even write it, much less say it), I realized that my beloved Czech genealogy is inextricably linked to the Czech language. Therefore, I must not only learn everything there is to know (!) about Czech genealogical research, but I must become a fluent speaker of Czech.
I’m so excited about this! I love learning languages, and I really especially love Czech! Learning to speak Czech is a totally achievable goal, through a lot of hard work, of course. I know this because I am an advanced-high speaker of French, advanced-mid in Arabic, and I’m guessing that I would get an intermediate-low for several other languages if I were to randomly take an OPI right now. Too bad the Foreign Language Achievement Testing at BYU (the only test of its kind in the nation!) came out a year after I graduated. Anyway, it doesn’t have Czech. Yet.
The point: I love languages. I studied how to teach world languages. I’m quite excited about learning Czech.
Part of me feels that my whole life has prepared me for this goal. This is the first time that I have been in a position to learn Czech, really. In High School, the choices were Latin, French, or Spanish. In University, I would have taken Czech, were it available on a 100 level course. Sadly, it was only available to returned missionaries at a 300-level. So I took French, Arabic, ASL, and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) instead.
I sometimes wish that I had taken German. After all, that would be so much more relevant to my study of Czech genealogy. However, I think that my skills in Arabic also prepared me to learn Czech.
- Arabic a marked language. This helped me to understand cases.
- Arabic is difficult. It helped me realize that I can do difficult things.
- Arabic is a non-Indo-European language. While Czech is technically Indo-European, it is from a totally different branch from English: the Balto-Slavic branch. Experiencing a language that is farther from my native tongue was helpful
- I learned how to navigate a language (and language pedagogy!) that has very few materials for English speakers. This is totally similar to Czech. If anything, there is more material for English speakers wanting to learn Czech than those who want to learn Arabic.
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Ted’ jsem just being stupid…ale co jiného je zřejmý? Užívám moje “nerdiness.” I recently described myself this way, and I really think it fits: a nerdy, bookish, extrovert. That kind of defies the stereotype, but so it is!
What is life for if not to find joy. I can’t tell you how much happier I have been since discovering my love of Czech genealogy, and trying to find answers. I feel that the trip Danny and I took significantly expanded my vision. It feels frustrating, humiliating, and daunting: but it’s also so exciting and fun. It’s the kind of fulfilling challenge that I have been craving for the past decade.
Thanks, schwa. You’re great.