Know your Czech
Our Czech daughter-in-law, Iveta, was most concerned to read of the reply made by the guide to Mary Anne DeBriyn’s pleasant greeting of “Tesi me,” which is quite correct (May ’05, pg. 56). The Czech phrase for “Will you sleep with me?” is “Vyspis se se mnou?” It sounds nothing like the greeting phrase.
Iveta would like to apologize to Mrs. DeBriyn and her husband for the rudeness of this guide. Apparently, he was toying with them, and that’s not nice!
Also, a traditional Czech breakfast is porridge, eggs and/or pastries. It is not and never has been pork goulash and dumplings (which is a typical lunch or dinner).
We enjoyed this article about learning some of the local language and wholeheartedly agree with Mrs. DeBriyn that learning even a few phrases of a language goes a long way in making one’s trips abroad even more pleasurable.
BARBARA GLAVISH
Incline Village, NV