Talk:Czech Republic

Archived discussions Talk:Czech Republic/Archive 2005-2012

Formatting and language conventions For articles about Czech Republic, please use the 24-hour clock to show times, e.g. 09:00-12:00 and 18:00-00:00. Please show prices in this format: 100 Kč and not CZK100. Please use British spelling (colour, travelled, centre, realise, analogue, programme, defence).

Map on the right

One comment: the map in the right infobox (don't know how it's called, but it's the box with picture, flag, quick facts...) has an error in the map - in the map is Czechoslovakia, which is former country. Since 1993, it's separated to Czech Republic and Slovakia. I can't correct it with tools I have at my computer now, maybe someone else? :) 88.101.134.63 03:55, 17 January 2013 (UTC) dj-bobr, CZ

I don't think you are right—I see Slovakia grayed out and distinct from the Czech Republic on that map. Maybe the map projection is confusing you? --Peter ^Talk 04:09, 17 January 2013 (UTC)

The map appears right to me, too. I am not sure if the picture illustrates CZ very well though... --Danapit (talk) 19:03, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

What do you mean? It seems to have most of what we look for in travel maps: a clear regional breakdown, main transport routes, and principal destinations/cities. --Peter ^Talk 20:25, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

Ah, sorry, we're talking about the one in the Quickbar. Those are kind of pointless, IMO. --Peter ^Talk 20:26, 14 March 2013 (UTC)

I mean the lead picture (Plzen). I see if I can find something ... let's say more exciting. --Danapit (talk) 20:08, 15 March 2013 (UTC)

German names

I just edited the following:

"Never mention the Czech towns and places with their former German names, when asking for directions (e.g. referring to Karlsbad instead of Karlovy Vary etc.) or while chatting with the locals. Czechs will be offended and they will regard it as ignorance and a lack of respect towards themselves."

I think this is a bit of an exaggeration, and the example used is a bad one since Carlsbad was used in English to refer to Karlovy Vary, look for example on the label of a bottle of Becherovka and you'll see it written there. I've heard Czechs use it when they speak English. Pilsen is also used in English including by the city council. Using other historical German names is more likely to simply confuse people. filelakeshoe (talk) 13:13, 10 July 2014 (UTC)

Vysocina (Highlands) vs. Bohemian-Moravian Highlands

The region split comes from WT, so probably the author is not here. Anyhow technically, Vysocina is not the same as the B-M highlands.

vs

If there are no responses in the following days, I'll probably consider fixing this... Andree.sk (talk) 07:06, 11 November 2017 (UTC)

2nd-largest historical center

Both Brno and Olomouc are described as having the "second-largest historical centre in the Czech Republic". If you know which one does, please correct the other one's description accordingly. Ikan Kekek (talk) 06:12, 13 October 2018 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:

• Centrum České Budějovice.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 15:37, 23 August 2019 (UTC)

Translator needed?

https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/specialy/3037207-koronavirus

Seems there are more restrictions on the way. ShakespeareFan00 (talk) 14:16, 12 March 2020 (UTC)

Via Czechia - longest hiking/biking/ski routes in Czech Republic

It would be great to add this info to your page - added directly from Via Czechia Via Czechia (hiking trails) on mapy.cz

Via Czechia is a unique system of long-distance hiking, cycling and skiing trails in the Czech Republic, running across and around the whole country. No matter whether a hiker, biker or a cross-country skier, you can give it a go! Via Czechia offers all three trail alternatives, in total of 5,160 km. Both North Trail and South Trail span between the westernmost and easternmost points of the country, roughly copy the border-line and lead over all of the Czech highest mountain peaks. By completing both trails, you will hike or ride almost a perfect circuit of 2,200 kilometers. Via Czechia passes through mountain sceneries, nature reserves, forests and meadows and other places of natural beauty, and also leads you to stunning cultural and historical places along the way. Pictures, maps, logo to download: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11lOzy923DfWL8EdiQvKxCv-evIHAPN1n?usp=sharing Jan Hocek, founder, info@viaczechia.cz

Hello, Jan, and welcome! You say "your page". Who is "you"? This is a Wiki. Add the info yourself; just make sure you read the following links first: don't tout and external links. If it's possible and definitely relevant to travellers to add information about these trails and you can do so without touting, go ahead, and don't expect anyone else to do it. Ikan Kekek (talk) 19:11, 30 December 2021 (UTC)

I'd say this would fit nicely as an itinerary article. Ideally, it would be good to have the paths mapped in OSM (as relations), which is however a major undertaking. Otherwise, you could provide the GPX under some WV-compatible license. Of course, it's also possible to just include a single listing "Via Czechia" somewhere and link it for further information... For me, the first option (OSM+itinerary article) would make most sense for WV, but I imagine it's also the least preferable for you (owner of the page) :) .... -- andree 19:02, 2 January 2022 (UTC)

Slovak

Slovak is covered to nearly the same extent as Czech in Czech Republic#Talk (I removed some of it), but there is no mention on whether it is widely spoken in the country. It looks like the section were written during the time of Czechoslovakia and not rewritten to totally account for the divorce – although no version of this site existed in 1993. Could somebody tell to what extent (and in what areas) there are Slovak speakers around. –LPfi (talk) 10:29, 5 December 2023 (UTC)

I'd say the section is pretty accurate, if somewhat of a low value - unless the visitor speaks one of the languages (in which case they'll most likely know)... In the end, the two languages get mixed the more you go towards the eastern Czechia border :-) -- andree 20:50, 30 January 2024 (UTC)

Dynamic map of the counties (okresy)

(Created with https://wikidata-extractor.renek.cc/)

-- andree 20:47, 30 January 2024 (UTC)

Hard to grasp?

We currently say:

"The Czech language is very difficult for English-speakers to grasp, especially for those who are not really familiar with any other Slavic language. However, if you can learn the alphabet (and the corresponding letters with accents), then pronunciation is easy as it is always the same – Czechs pronounce every letter of a word, with the stress falling on the first syllable. The combination of consonants in some words may seem mind-bogglingly hard, but it is worth the effort!"

Is it really the grasping that is the hard part? Is Czech any harder to "grasp" than other Slavic languages? Is it surprisingly hard, for those who have tried to understand or learn other languages not closely related to English?

I haven't been much exposed to Czech, but my impression is that it's the pronunciation that is difficult part, with many sounds that don't exist in English. Knowing the alphabet and the accented letters doesn't really help if you cannot utter those sounds, or certain combinations of them.

–LPfi (talk) 08:38, 28 September 2024 (UTC)

Are you arguing that Czech might be harder to speak rather than understand? I think 'grasp' here refers to just learning the language in general. Then it seems ok to say it is easier for other Slavic language speakers, though that is kind of an obvious statement.

It is true that there is a fair amount of regularity in pronunciation once you know the sounds of individual letters (or rather letter groups). I think this information is of some value for the traveller. From the traveller's perspective, I'd say it's impossible to learn to understand the spoken language (due to many declensions and syntactic forms of words), while it can be possible to learn to pronounce some basic Czech.

Czech phrasebook has a good introduction on the topic, I'd say. Rarade (talk) 18:48, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

I think that learning or understanding Czech generally is as hard as you'd expect from a Slavic language (and we say its Slavic, and tell about related languages). I think the "very difficult" is misleading and should be removed (of course, you wouldn't try to learn a language just for a casual visit).

On the other hand, I believe pronouncing Czech is harder for an English speaker than what you might expect just knowing it's Slavic. I maintain that learning the alphabet isn't enough for pronouncing the language – even if the pronunciation is regular. The latter helps at the point where you indeed have learnt to pronounce the sounds and sound clusters (well enough to be intelligible).

We should tell that the pronunciation is regular, but that there are several sounds not present in English, and that there are weird consonant clusters (I think the present sentence on the latter is nice). But I think we shouldn't say that "grasping" the language is hard or that the pronunciation is easy. And we probably don't need to mention the alphabet, as pronunciation of individual letters varies.

–LPfi (talk) 06:47, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

I haven't been to Czechia yet, but I'm guessing Hungarian, a non-Indo European language, is harder for English-speakers than Czech, yet I attained a survival level of it in 2 weeks plus a few weeks of listening and repeating after a teach-yourself-Hungarian tape (this was 1994). I had good days when I understood people and made myself understood and other days when people couldn't understand my pronunciation and I had a lot of

trouble understanding basic sentences, but I felt like I could have developed decent basic facility if I had stayed in Budapest for another 3 months or so. Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:56, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

City names in German

...moved from User talk:Ibaman:

Hello Ibaman, can we please discuss our edits for Czech Republic regarding the German names of cities? (Your edit, current state)

You are right about the German names being historically relevant. As such I would suggest to mention them in the Understand section of the respective articles where history is typically discussed. Knowing the German names can be useful when encountering an old postcard or seeing very old writing on a wall, but they are not commonly relevant in daily life.

As for including them in the Cities listing in Czech Republic, my main objections come from the fact that they are generally unused and even unknown by most people. I feel like the listing should give names and alternative names that locals will know when asked for directions for instance.

Another issue is that Prague and Pilsen have the Czech name where other cities have the German name - this can confuse the traveller into thinking the German names are actually Czech (or the other way around), so German: ... and Czech ... should be added, which seems overly complicated for a listing, doesn't it? To add to the confusion Pilsen has got the German form in English.

• Prague (Praha)
• Brno (Brünn)
• Pilsen (Plzeň)

So I'd prefer to stick to the form of

• English name (Czech name)

and mention the German variant in Understand. Rarade (talk) 22:05, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

@Rarade: I quite like your proposal, but we should probably move this to Talk:Czech Republic. --SHB2000 (t | c | m) 22:16, 1 October 2024 (UTC)

I'd say that Carlsbad is well-known enough to be worth mentioning in the list. To avoid confusion, you could tell it in the form "…German: Carlsbad", or tell the name later in the one-liner instead "…(known by its German name Carlsbad)". The other German names aren't familiar to me, other than Budweis, because of the beers – which could be mentioned. (And yes, move the discussion.) –LPfi (talk) 07:00, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

The way it's currently written is confusing, as Rarade mentioned, because some of the names in parentheses are Czech names and some are German names and it is not clear which is which. I think the solution would be to have the Czech names in the parentheses, while the German names can be mentioned in the ledes of the respective city articles. The dog2 (talk) 19:36, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

For Carlsbad or Budweis (or any other foreign names people might recognise) that approach doesn't work, as people may not click the city unless they realise it indeed is the one they would be interested in. What do you think about my suggestions? –LPfi (talk) 20:27, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

I think mentioning the German name in the one-liner works too. The dog2 (talk) 20:49, 2 October 2024 (UTC)

For cities with well-known German names, we should make sure there are redirects from those German names. Ikan Kekek (talk) 09:02, 5 October 2024 (UTC)

Yes, I agree that there should be redirects for these cities. The dog2 (talk) 16:11, 7 October 2024 (UTC)

Done: created missing redirects (Carlsbad is a disambig), removed the parentheses with German names, added Budweis and Carlsbad to the one-liner descriptions instead. If other German names are well-known enough to merit being mentioned here, please add them to in similar manner – and tweak my edits if they are unnecessarily clumsy. –LPfi (talk) 08:00, 24 October 2024 (UTC)