David Livingstone

1. David Livingstone Please, Please Me: English or Czenglish Updated

2. Don Sparling • English or Czenglish?: jak se vyhnout čechismům v angličtině. Prague: Státní pedagogické nakladatelství, 1991. ISBN 80-04-25329-6. • http://www.maths.ed.ac.uk/~jmarecek/czenglish/

3. Current state of affairs • Czechs rank among the weakest post-Communist countries in terms of language skills • Many people still unable or unwilling to use the most basic English phrases; often not even willing to try • What are we doing wrong?

4. General Thoughts build up student confidence not take it away, don't overly correct; not always one right way welcome new technologies, use them to our benefit, TV series, excellent tool encourage them not to translate word for word from one language to another, think in English. embrace different accents, not attempt to force everyone to speak Received Pronunciation; pronunciation is often a gift, not something which can be taught. New shiny textbooks make us lazy sometimes

5. Don't overstress tenses and articles Be more concrete in English; Czech tends to be abstract Czech 'flowery' style

6. Telling time-- simplify when possible Titles: Mrs. Miss, Ms., Dr. Use of first names, cultural rules Teach normal greetings Be wary of colloquialisms (okie dokie, hiya, dude) Register of politeness in English, different

7. Writing Issues sentence structure, time references at end, start sentences with subject or there is, not adverbial phrases, important information at beginning, opposite of Czech, KISS, keep it simple, stupid don't always avoid repetition at all costs Teach difference between formal and informal English: contractions, phrasal verbs, starting sentences Use of the royal we, use I, one or passive Use non-sexist language

8. Confused words scientist/academic/scholar; town/city/village; offer/provide; boss/chief/head/supervisor; loose/lose; teach/learn/study; attend/visit/frequent; actual/current horrible/awful/terrible; menu/daily special; meal/meat/course/dish; tramp/slut/bitch; teacher/professor/lecturer/instructor; still/continually/constantly; flute/recorder;

9. sympathetic/empathetic/charming/likeable; atheist/non-believer/non-religious/ agnostic; pathetic/moving; series/serial/ cereal; vocabulary/dictionary; say me/tell me; hostel/dorms/halls of residence; dinner/supper/lunch/tea; lettuce/salad; college/university/faculty/high school/higher education; hot dog/sausage/frankfurter;mineral water/bottled water; wine bar; tea house;

10. Misused words Czenglish Please, nice, clever, nature, cottage, we can, hi, concrete, corrupted, Mr. Teacher, feminist, plum brandy, rum, non-stop, happy end, home-made, credit card, spa, horrible, hi, pupil, family house, basic school, pencil case, according to me, cup of tea, I think Yes/no/so, perfect, action, engineer, apologize me, special, night-club, unique, alley, American potatoes, Turkish coffee, salami, famous, home-made,

11. Untranslatable words, culturally specific chalupa/chata (cottage), slivovice (plum brandy), rum, domácí (home-made), lázně (spa) wellness, gymnázium (grammar school), maturita (school-leaving exam), čajovna (tea-house), knedlík (dumpling), panelák (block of flats), desítka (ten degree beer), vrátná (guard, receptionist) reprezentativní, dobrou chut', hajzlbába (shitter hag), jít na houby/sbirat houby