Why Run

Not everyone is a runner as talented as Forest Gump but why not run? There are plenty of health benefits of running but I'm not going to brag about losing weight, making you live longer and those we all know. I found some interesting facts on the Internet (such a reliable source, I know). I'll make a list. No, I'm not obsessed with making lists...pfff.

1. Strenghtening your joints and bones 

Yes. The myth about how running destroys your knees is not truth (under normal conditions). If you already have "knee issues" you can reduce damage done to your knees by not running on asphalt or concrete surfaces. In case you're overweight, you should lose some kilos in order not to cause some injury to your knee. (Try swimming.) Running strenghtens your ankles, knees and other joints used while running. Dot.

2. Goodbye to depression, anxiety and stress

It was scientifically proven that any type of exercising reduces stress and fills your brain (especially the part called nucleus accumbens, I guess) with endocannabinoids (one type of hormones that make you feel happy). Runners also report that while running they think clearer and find solutions easily and sleep better. As any substance that makes us happier even these hormones can be addictive. Once you experience the feeling of relaxation during running, you won't want to stop and you will not regret it. 

3. Reducing the risk of cancer and preventing other diseases

Read more here.

4. Boosting your metabolism 

And so on. 

There are lots of articles on health benefits of running so go through them. 

What made me write this is that I have many, many, many tips for you. 

How to make yourself run and keep running

If you don't enjoy running itself or struggle to run (due to an illness), you might find the following list useful. Again, I'm not obsessed with making lists.

Get an app for runners.

It's much better and cheaper than buying special equipment for runners. I prefer Sports Tracker because there's enough information, I like the design and I don't have any problems finding satellites. You can watch your progress, you have a training diary included, you can share your results on their website: www.sports-tracker.com. And it's free.

Tell your friends

Tell them to download the app and run with you; you can compete. You won't be able to stop because once you tell you friends to start running with you, they won't let you stop. If you have the "red face" issue and don't want anyone to see you while running, this is the best way to run "with" someone. 

Take your dog with you

I'm sure it will be happy to get some fresh air more than three times a day when walking it. In addition, dogs are always active so if you want to stop to catch your breath, it will keep you moving which is good for you (usually). If you have a dog, a male dog, walk him before you run– I'm sure you don't want to stop at every tree, grass, pole, or person you meet. Also, you should watch it constantly since they really like to cross your way (my own experience... ouch). 

Choose wisely where you'll go running

I know– nobody likes to be watched when running (especially those with the "red face" issue– don't worry, most people have it, even I do, but I turn blue and purple because I like these colours ^^ And have struggles getting oxigen into my lungs.). However, if you live near a forest, where a wild boar can appear, watch out and take a telephone with you. In Sweden, you can go running literally anywhere. 

Well, that's probably all I wanted to say. My main goal wasn't to give you these advices, I want to make people do sports because lately I've seen so many obese children and overweight adults... Everything gets extreme...

Love & peace 

Ciray

Mom Baked...

Meet My Li'l Dog. He's A Riot...

Hi,

I'm back here... I didn't know the previous lesson was so long and exhausting, I just kept writing and when I posted it, it was longer than anything on this blog. So I decided to amuse you by posting something very funny. I walked my dog in a forest and he, apart from falling into mud, picked like all the dirt possible. Therefore he had to be cleaned properly.

And this is the result:

I hope you found this funny and now get down to work, you have to study a lot to be able to talk to me fluently. (:

Love & peace

Ciray

Lesson 10– Introducing yourself in Czech

Hej hej!

This is my 10th lesson! Yay! So, I'm glad you've gotten so far and, as a reward, I've made this article more conversational. There won't be much to learn except for the vocabulary which is, as you know, the most important part of learning any language (except for C++ and so on).

When you come to a foreign country, you usually want to talk to local people. And you need to introduce yourself to them. I think you don't long to sound as if you were illiterate and talking to a Czech in English isn't the best option either. Not that we weren't taught English at school, I must say there are tons of people who speak English perfectly. But many, many, really MANY people here just cannot speak it because what teachers want from them at school is grammar.

So, back to the topic.

Introducing yourself in Czech

Raphaël is new to the school. He's alone and confused in the turmoil of the first school day but everybody looks enthusiastic and those who have studied here longer with welcoming smiles help "newbies" get where they need. Raphaël meets a Czech girl named Daniela who was entrusted with doing a survey among the new students. How did she know Raphaël was a foreigner? He looked pretty disoriented.

Daniela: Ahoj, můžeš mi prosím pomoct? Dělám průzkum.

Raphaël: Dobrý den. Rád vám pomůžu. 

Daniela: Můžeme si tykat? Jsem Daniela. Jak se jmenuješ?

Raphaël: Jmenuji se Raphaël Perret. Těší mě. 

Daniela: Nápodobně. Takže... Kolik je ti let?

Raphaël: Je mi dvacet jedna. A tobě?

Daniela: Ta otázka je součástí průzkumu. Haha. Ale mně je dvacet tři. Odkud pocházíš?

Raphaël: Jsem z Francie, ale já a má rodina žijeme v Německu. 

Daniela: Co studuješ? 

Raphaël: Studuji slovanské jazyky a dějepis. 

Daniela: Bydlíš na internátě, nebo máš vlastní byt?

Raphaël: Bydlím se třemi dalšími studenty v bytě v centru Prahy.

Daniela: Děkuji za odpovědi. Uvidíme se později, měj se hezky. 

Raphaël: Nemáš zač. Ahoj!

Vocabulary:

ahoj ['ahoy] hello/ hi, bye; (informal)

moct ['motst] can/ be able to; forms used here: můžeš, můžeme

já ['ya:] I; forms used here: mi, mě, mně

prosit ['proasit] to please; forms used here: prosím

pomoct ['pohmotst] to help; forms used here: pomůžu

dělat ['dyelaht] to do; forms used here: dělám

průzkum, m. ['proo:zcum] survey

dobrý den ['dobree: 'den] good day; (formal)

rád/a, adv. ['ra:d] gladly

vy ['vee] you; (formal); forms used here: vám

tykat si ['teecut sih] tutear (Spanish), to address as "ty" not "vy", i. e. informally

jsem ['ysem] I am

jak ['yuck] how

jmenovat se ['ymehnovaht seh] to be named/ called; forms used here: jmenuješ se, jmenuji se

těší mě ['tyeshee: mnye] nice to meet you (enchanté, mucho gusto)

nápodobně ['nah:poadobnye] likewise

takže ['tuckzye] so

kolik ['coleek] how much/ how many

být ['beet] to be; forms used here: je, jsem

léta, pl ['lae:tah] years (used in plural only, if you want to say "1 year", it's "1 rok")

dvacet jedna ['dvatset yednah] twenty-one

a ['ah] and

ta ['tah] that (when referring to a noun of feminine gender; "ten"– masc.; "to"– neuter)

ale ['uhleh] but

dvacet tři ['dvatset trzih] twenty-three

odkud ['odcood] wherefrom

pocházet ['poacha:zet] to come (from); forms used here: pocházíš

z ['z] from

Francie, f. ['phrantsieh] France

má ['ma:] my/ mine (when referring to a noun of feminine gender; "můj"– masc. and neuter)

rodina, f. ['rodyinah] family

žít ['zyee:t] to live; forms used here: žijeme

v ['v] in

Německo, n. ['nyemetscoh] Germany

co ['tso] what

studovat ['stoodovut] to study; forms used here: studuješ, studuji

slovanské/á/ý ['slovunskeh:] Slavic

jazyk, m. ['yazick] language, tongue

dějepis, m. ['dyeyepis] history (a subject at school)

bydlet ['bidlet] to live, dwell; forms used here: bydlíš, bydlím

na ['nah] on

internát, m. ['intaernah:t] boardinghouse

nebo ['nehbo] or

mít ['meet] to have; forms used here: máš, nemáš

vlastní ['vlustnyee:] own (your own, my own, ...)

byt, m. ['bit] flat, apartment

s, se ['s, 'seh] with

tři ['trzi] three

další ['dulshee:] other, another

student, m. ['stoodent] student

centrum, n. ['tsentroom] centre/ center

Praha, f. ['pruhah] Prague

děkovat ['dyecovut] to thank; forms used here: děkuji

za ['zah] for (only in this case), behind

odpověď, f. ['odpohvyedye] answer

vidět se ['veedyet] to see "each other" (like in "see your later"); forms used here: uvidíme se

později ['pozdyeyi] later

mít se ['meet seh] to be well/ do well; forms used here: měj se

hezky ['hezki] nicely

nemáš zač ['nehma:sh zutch] you're welcome (informal)

These are your new words.

I'm making a dictionary where I'll add the paradigms by which the nouns are inflected.

Now let's translate the conversation:

Daniela: Hi, can you please help me? I'm doing a survey.

Raphaël: Good day. I'll be happy to help you.

Daniela: Can we "use the informal form"? I'm Daniela. What's your name?

Raphaël: My name is Raphaël Perret. It’s nice to meet you.

Daniela: Likewise... So, how old are you?

Raphaël: I'm twenty-one. And you?

Daniela: The question is a part of the survey. Haha. But I'm twenty-three. Where do you come from?

Raphaël: I'm from France. But I and my family live in Germany.

Daniela: What do you study?

Raphaël: I study Slavic languages and history.

Daniela: Are you staying in a boarding house or have your own flat?

Raphaël: I'm staying with three other students in a flat in the city center of Prague.

Daniela: Thanks for the answers. See you later, stay cool.

Raphaël: You're welcome. Bye!

It doesn't seem so complicated now, huh?

Now that we understand whole text, let's look at the phrases.

Phrases

As some of you know, I've already made two posts on casual greeting phrases (Lesson 2– Greetings, Lesson 3– Short conversations) so I'm not going to talk about them. 

Můžeš mi prosím pomoct? = Can you please help me? (Informal.)

Můžete mi prosím pomoct? = Can you please help me? (Formal.)

The difference between the formal and informal versions of the sentence is the modal verb's conjugation suffix. The conjugation of MOCT/MOCI is here. Because in Czech we conjugate the verb and for each person there is a suffix, we don't have to use the pronoun anymore. You can say it using conditional mood but it's too sophisticated but anyway, I suppose you can get away with this.

Rád/a vám pomůžu. = I'll be happy to help you. (Formal.)

Rád/a ti pomůžu. = I'll be happy to help you. (Informal.)

The difference between the formal and informal versions of the sentence is the pronoun. "Ty" and its inflected forms are the informal way to say "you" in Czech. "Vy" (+ other forms) means "you", too, but it's formal. Now "ti" and "vám" are in the third case. How do I know? Except for being a native speaker I also know that the verb "pomoct" (to help) is always connected with the mentioned third case. 

As to the word "rád/a" (gladly)– it depends on whether a man or a woman is speaking. If it's a woman, she says "ráda". If it's a man, he says "rád".

Můžeme si tykat? = Can we "use the informal form"? 

Now this sounds weird in English. Hehe. Usually, the older one of those speaking asks this question because it's a way to express honour and respect and they give them up by using the informal way of speaking.

Jak se jmenuješ? = What is your name? (Informal.)

Jak se jmenujete? = What is your name? (Formal.)

The suffixes make the difference here. I hope you all know at least one of these words: llamarse, s'appeler, heissen, chiamarsi, heta, because "be named" sounds strange and I try to avoid using it. "Jmenovat se" is the equivalent of all of the words mentioned above.

Jsem ... = I'm ...

Jmenuji se ... = My name is ...

I think this is obvious. I just wanted to say that there are two ways of telling someone your name.

Kolik je ti let? = How old are you? (Informal.)

Kolik je vám let? = How old are you? (Formal.)
(Kolik máš/máte let?)

Alternatively: kolik ti je let? kolik vám je let? There's nothing to talk about. It's a phrase. Just remember– the pronouns in this sentence are in the third case.

Je mi ... let. = I'm ... years old.

Mně je ... let. = I'm ... years old.

(Mám ... let.)

Another phrase, always with the third case. You might have noticed I didn't use "let" in the answers in the dialogue. People usually don't say it. The same applies to the questions: kolik ti je? kolik vám je?

A tobě? = And you?

The pronoun is in the third case again. It just has to be because you’re asking “kolik je ti let.”

Odkud pocházíš? = Where do you come from? (Informal.)

Odkud pocházíte? = Where do you come from? (Formal.)

Odkud jsi? = Where are you from? (Informal.)

Odkud jste? = Where are you from? (Formal.)

When there's the question word "odkud", it refers to the second case.  "Z" (from) is an "official" preposition indicating the second case.

Jsem z ... = I'm from ...

Pocházím z ... = I come from ...

The following word will be in which case? If you don't know, go three lines backwards. It's the second case, of course.

Děkuji za ... = Thanks for ...

The following word is in the fourth case because it's a direct subject. "Za" means "for" in this case only. It usually means "behind".

Nemáš zač. = You're welcome. (Informal.)

Nemáte zač. = You're welcome. (Formal.)

I think this is enough for today. I hope you enjoyed this lesson, if you have any questions, feel free to post a comment below or send me a message.

Now I'm going to stimulate my brain cells by considering whether studying for a tomorrow's test is worth it.

Love & peace

Ciray

Conjugation– MOCT/MOCI (to be able/allowed to)

Mohu & můžu; mohou & můžou; moct & moci are interchangeable.

PRESENT TENSE 

Já mohu/ můžu                              My můžeme

Ty můžeš                                        Vy můžete

On/a/o může                                   Oni/y/a mohou/ můžou

FUTURE TENSE

Já budu moct/ moci                       My budeme moct/ moci

Ty budeš moct/ moci                     Vy budete moct/moci

On/a/o bude moct/ moci                Oni/y/a budou moct/ moci

PAST TENSE

Já jsem  mohl/a/o                            My jsme mohi/y/a

Ty jsi mohl/a/o                                Vy jste mohl/i/y/a

On/a/o mohl/a/o                              Oni/y/a mohli/y/a

IMPERATIVE

Já ------                                             My -------    

Ty ------                                            Vy --------

On/a/o ------                                      Oni/y/a -------

Example sentences:
Mohla jsem mu to říct, ale nechtěla jsem. (I could tell him but I didn't want to.)
Můžeš prosím otevřít okno? (Can you please open the window?)
Až budu mít osmnáct, budu moct dělat cokoli. (When I'm 18, I'll be able to do anything.)

"Scary" Messages On Facebook– Let's Look At Them Logically

Lately, I've been (I've been losing sleeeeep...) thinking about what makes them send these messages on. Then I stopped because I feel that nobody is so stupid to believe this piece of sh*t. 

I have one theory which popped up in my mind just a few minutes ago so I just had to write the idea down. I'll read it in the morning, find out it's stupid and delete this anyway. 

So, the theory goes: if the messages had really worked, it would have been used as a weapon of mass destruction. I'm utterly serious. I read one of these messages approx. two hours ago. I just started reading and continued (surprisingly) till the end and I doubt I'm the only one. Some of us understood and some of us didn't because it was in French. Imagine someone just drinking in the beauty of the French language, "reading the text" and then just die. It's so absurd that I cannot even believe I'm posting anything on this topic!

This is the message by the way:

"Je suis blonde aux yeux bleu, si vous arreter votre lecture, une dame sonnera chez vous a 1h du matin et si vous nouvrez pas elle rentrera. Cette chaine n est pas une blague. L autre jour Loic Baucher a ete tuer, il etait mort. Il etait meme sur fb. Pour annuler, envoyer ce message a 20 photos différentes , sinon la mort vous suivre ce soir! V ous avez 1 h bonne chance"

So if you do this only to piss me (and others) off, you're doing very well. *claps* 

Anyway, I'm going to sleep. Bonne nuit et dormez bien!

Love & peace

Ciray 

Hate Being A Pedant?

Do people say that you're too perfectionistic and you want to change but don't know how? Do you feel like it's impossible, because everything you do just has to be perfect?

Alright, I should stop sounding like an advertisement...

I have one tip for you. (Oh, it's amazing when you don't have to think about the correct spelling of "tip".) Actually, I'm not a pedant myself, it's just... I am; I can't even lie because lies hurt people… It's pretty frustrating.

Anyway, what I want to do is to give you an advice some of you will not appreciate but whatever, I don't care... I do. Dammit! 

Wow, I've already written so many lines without saying anything meaningful. Are you still reading? Okay, I'm proud of you. Now the point: use American recipes when cooking. (This only works in case you're not American already.) I think many of you see what I mean. Of course, this can't solve everything but it's a good way to start changing your approach to the world. 

I personally hate their "tsps", "tbsps", "cups", 3/4 cups and 2 tbsps... Like... Are you serious? How can you bake anything this way? You know, there are like fifty million types of cups in the Central Europe, now envisage France and its billions of coffee types with a unique cup for each one. Seriously? Moreover, they look like they want to kill you when you enter a room holding a cup you've just bought in a coffee vending machine. (Maybe I shouldn't have entered a coffee shop with it. Ummm, worth considering but no.) 

There’s a similar situation with their "spoons". OK, maybe it's not so analogous. 

Nonetheless, the point is that there are not any exact amounts of ingredients therefore you just can't make the requested meal precisely. So you'll just have to get over it… We’ll have to.

That's all... I just felt guilty for not having posted anything lately.

Love & peace

Ciray

Lesson 9 – Nouns (basics, declension)

It's been a long time since my last grammar post. Wow, I could hear your heartbeat speed up.

As I have promised, I'm going to dedicate this article to the nouns of our model sentence. Let's check it out.

We now know which two words create the ZSD together. (If you don't, go back here.) One of them, the subject, is a noun (or a pronoun). If you've read the Lesson 7 carefully, you know that the subject can only be in the first case. So "pes" (="a dog") is a noun in its basic form, nominative (the first) case. (If you don't see why, just look at this sentence: "I'm going shopping." The subject is "I" and, as you can see, it's not inflected. How do you know? Well, the English language evolved from Latin and German and there are still some "anachronisms" or relics which include the declension of pronouns. It's not a big deal, really, but every time you want to say "I" in a different place than as a subject you say "me". That's it. If you'd use "me" in English, it's the sign that the Czech word is inflected.) 

What about the object? That's tricky. Let's write down what we know. It's a noun.... Man, we don't know much about it. Let me give you a hint. Check out the list of prepositions for each case mentioned in the Lesson 7. Now look at the preposition in our model sentence. It's "s" (="with") which indicates which case? The instrumental (seventh)! Great, now how do we find out the gender, number and the paradigm? I'm sorry to disappoint you but no how. There’s no way of figuring it out. I decided to make it easier for you by using the word "kost" (=bone) which is a paradigm itself. But still you have to know which paradigm the noun belongs to. This has an advantage, though. If you memorize the paradigm, you don't have to learn the gender because each gender has its own group of paradigms. 

"Kost" is neuter and singular. Why do I refer to the object of our model sentence as "kost" not "kostí"? It's not a typo. The word "kost" is in the nominative (first) case which means it's in its basic form. When I talk about a word I shouldn't use the inflected forms because it's confusing. (Now that I'm talking about "confusing", I should mention that diacritics are pretty important because "kostí" is the seventh case of the word "kost" whereas "kosti" is a plural form of the word "kost".)

I've nothing more to tell you about this since all you need to know are the suffixes which you just have to memorize.

It's been a lot of information in the last few lessons, I'll make a conversational one next time! (:

love & peace

Ciray

The Police Is nebo The Police Are?

"....Hmmm... vzpomínám si, že nám o tom učitelka něco říkala.... ale nevím, jestli říkala, že tam máme dávat to nebo to!" (smích)
Tak tohle jsem už párkrát slyšela a nejen od těch, které doučuji.
Zaprvé, mám pro Vás fintu. Když si pamatujete, že Vám o tom paní učitelka/učitel/lektor/lektorka něco říkal/a, asi Vás chtěl/a upozornit, že to není jako v češtině, tudíž tam patří plurál, čili "are".
Na toto není žádná hrozná gramatika, jen si to musíte zapamatovat. Je to podobné situaci u "dress", "hair", apod., které jsou pro změnu jen v singuláru, avšak to se pamatovat nemusí, protože angličtina prostě pomnožné číslo nemá a nic to nezmění.
Takže k příkladům: The Police are still searching for a girl who was snatched last night. (= Policie stále hledá dívku, která byla včera večer/v noci unesena.)

PRO POKROČILÉ:
Toto ovšem není ojedinělý případ, nicméně je jediný nediskutabilní. Dalšími slovy jsou:
Family– The family are/is sitting around the table. Zde je to víceméně o zvyku, Američané "are" většinou nepoužívají, přičemž Britové ano.
Government– The Government are considering another elections. (Mluvíme o členech vlády, oni je zvažují.) A government includes the executive. (Určitý a neurčitý člen zde nehrají roli, jde o to, že označujeme tu instituci, nemá to nic společného s lidmi v ní.) Zde je to opět AE vs. BE, Američané preferují "is".
Company– stejný princip jako u "Government".
Týmy– Bayern München have/has scored. Opět BE (are) vs. AE (is).
A spousta dalších! (:
To je vše...

love & peace
Ciray