Things Just Don't Translate

Translations, translations, translations. They can't be explained too easily. Let's take "my name is" in Slovak. You would say it like this, "Volam sa". I you translate this back to English literally, it would be, "I call myself" If your asking someone age you would say, "kolko maš rokov?" or "How many years do you have?" Words like grandmother or grandfather are translated to "old mother" and "old father". The word "auto" means car, so what does "autobus" mean. Bus! Some improper English is proper in Slovak. "Ja nikdy nemam nič" means, "I never don't have nothing". Double negatives are proper Slovak. You can sometimes have triple, quadruple, or more negatives. The word for light in Slovak also means easy. My Slovak teacher once told me to do something and said, "It is light, is it not?" Slovaks would not say, "Do you like it?", they say "Do you have like it". That was odd to hear the first time I was in Slovakia. So if you ever learn a foreighn language, don't expect literal translations all the time.

Deutsch-English

Having a German student in my class I find that if my my predictions are correct, (and this could be a rather obvious statement for some history people) German came out of English or English came out of German. I think this because I have heard words like "unt, nacht, schwimmen, winter, mann, butter, bier, or wetter. These words translated means, (in order of listing above) and, night, swim, winter, man, butter, beer, or weather. Now some words sound totally different like (I will give translations after the word) Gift-poison, wald-forest, kopf-head, schmrez-pain, or baum-tree. find it amazing that if you listen clostly to what they are saying, you actually uunderstand one or two words then that gives you the basic gist of the thought or sentence. I also think that German (with all due repect to all Germans) is one of the choppiest languages. I do think that "to je(ye) pero" or "this is a pen" sounds smoother that "das ist griffel" I think that this shows how languages can be similar in many ways.

Slovakia in Brief

Slovakia is cosidered "Undiscovered" by some. It is only about 10 years old and has a languadge that is similar to Russian, Czech, Slovien, and Polish. Slovakia is devided into reigons called krys. Three of the major krys are Kosicky, Presovsky, and Banstoristricky. Slovaks enjoy many sport and activites but There favorite is deffinetly hokey. (Hokej) There is a slovak league called extraliga that has different teams from slovak cities play hokey. In slovak hokej, there are no fights because they are not only strick, but hokej is all about the fans. If a bad call is made, all fans start wisteling like crazy. Kosice and many other cities in Europe have main walking streets with shops and bars and restaurants. In Kosice, these streets are called Hlavna or Main Street. When some people say that slovakia is in Eastern Europe, slovaks say that they are in Central Europe. Almost all the slovak People speak Czech too. That is because Czech and Slovak are very alike. I hope you learned a lot about this amazing country, and remember to check out Kosiceslovakia.blogspot.com!

Do you know car companies like Peugeot or Citroen? They make nice cars but there is always room for changes. There are the changes that are more simpol like the lights on Peugeot or something like that. There is one change that is needed most. It is the change of something that almost every car company does once. The change of the boring names. Some of the leaders of this problom ane Audi, Peugeot, Citroen, and Skoda. How are names like C5, A4, c300, or 206 suppost to make it easier to tell cars appart? I feel that not only I think this. You could replace these boring names with names like Quatro, Roadster, or Spy. Skoda is already fixing this problom by naming there new car the Roomster. Why peugeot is not naming there new car something like that and not 207 is beyond me so please do not ask me why.

Extra Comment: This is on my other blog. (bobandhiscat) It is not on any other.

Two days ago my class went to a place called Dukla Pass. This is right along the Slovak, Polish border. This is where one of the major battles of WW2 took place. It was the deadliest battle in the World Wars. Not only that but many Russian, German, and Czecloslovakian tanks, planes, and other equipment are still in the fields. We found a lady that was 96 years old. She told us (in slovak) about the battle there. She also took us into the cellar where the Germans had hidden and installed a phone. Many land mines are still found there today. One of the tanks we were on had the top open so we went inside. Inside there was things like gun holders and other things like that. The engine was still there. It was located in the back of the tank. We also saw and climbed on a tank with a hook for picking up other tanks, a truck with weaponry still on it, a transportation vehicle, and Russian plain. It was great!

Slovakia vs Poprad

Last night I was At a hockey game. It was Kosice vs Poprad. It was a close game with goal after goal. It was being played in the new steel arena. Steel Arena is a new arena that was just built for hc kosice. For a long time they played in a tiny little building called Zimny Stadium. (Winter Stadiam) It was old but nice. This new arena is just like an NHL stadiam but the seats are more elevated and still closer. Anyway, back to the game. At the begining Poprad scored the first goal. The second goal was by Kosice. I already knew it would be a close game. I was sure right due to the fact that the goals were scored in patterns untill the last minute. In that last minute The score was 4-4. Poprad scored twice with 34 seconds left. In the last ten seconds the score was 6-4 and Kosice had odviosly lost. They got blown out in the game after too.

License plates

I have a problem with the license plates in Slovakia. They are changing the Slovak cross to the European union symbol. Not to mention that it will take years to change them all but it, again, is taking away the personality of the country. I feel that every country should have the symbol of their country and the European union symbol. You would think that Slovakia swiching to the euro is enough, but no! They have to take away the character of the country of Slovakia. I do not agree. The things that give Slovakia its personality would be things like license plates. Unless everyone knows almost all the cities in Europe, they will not know where the car is from. I have found that more and more countries are doing this. It will make everything look the same. It is annoying me more and more. I'm not saying the European union symbol is bad though. After two or three years the changes of currencies and license plates will make Europe look like one huge country. But like last time, I can't do anything about it so I should just be quiet. Which I am because I am not saying this I am typing it.