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Chapter 4: CZECH

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I moved to the United States from Prague, Czech Republic at 17, so I didn’t have the

experience of growing up in a community different than my own. I did not know any English

when I arrived so it was difficult to make friends in the beginning. I moved to a small rural

area of Tennessee and felt separated from other kids my age because of the language barrier.

I think the hardest part was that I liked to make jokes, but not understanding the language or

culture well enough, I was unable to show my funny side. Instead of going out, I stayed home

and watched tons of American movies, mostly comedies. That was how my English grew, and

I learned jokes that were relevant to American culture.

After high school, I went to college in Arkansas where I was able to make lots of close

friends. It became much easier to have conversations and joke with them. I was finally able

to show my personality in English, and it helped me make connections with new people and

form long‐time friendships.

Ivo Pletka, Graduate student

REFERENCES

Barton, M. (2012). 20 Common English Mistakes Made by Czech People. Retrieved February
10, 2014, from English Current: http://www.englishcurrent.com/esl‐materials‐
2/common‐english‐mistakes‐czech‐people/

Czech (n.d.). In Ethnologue. Retrieved August 10, 2013, from
http://www.ethnologue.com/language/ces

Czech Phonology (n.d.) . In Wikipedia. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_phonology

IPA for Czech and Slovak (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved Octover 17, 2014 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Czech_and_Slovak

Native Phonetic Inventory: Czech (n.d.). In The Speech Accent Archive. Retrieved Octover
27, 2014. 22

Remediosova, H., & Cechova, E. (2005). Do You Want to Speak Czech? Czech Republic:
Liberec.

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