CZECH REPUBLIC
JAN JAVOREK, HONZA@JAVOREK.NET

Where it is? Africa?
● Česká republika
● Central Europe
● Bordering with Germany, Poland,
Slovakia, Austria
● EU (May 1, 2004), NATO, Schengen
● EU presidency (2009)
● Prague (Praha)
● CET (Greenwich + 1)
● 1 € [EUR] = 27 Kč [CZK], Czech crown
(Koruna česká)
● 78.800 km2 and 10.500.000 people
(Finland: 340.000 km2 and 5.300.000 people)

I have never seen a mountain. Are
there any in Czech Republic?

Ok, you are just another Europeans.
How can I recognize you?

Huh, why such crazy coat-of-arms?
● Bohemia (Čechy)
● Moravia (Morava)
● Silesia (Slezsko)

Guy, do you have some more pictures?

By the way, why such stupid name?
● Czechoslovakia (October 28,
1918) = Czech Republic +
Slovakia (January 1, 1993)
● Czechia? :-/
● Czech & Slovak language

You mentioned language, so...
● Czech (Čeština)
● West Slavic language, 12 million native speakers
● similar to and mutually intelligible with Slovak, we can understand a bit
Polish (when trained, we can understand quite easily a lot Polish)
●
Try to say Ř :-)
● Dobrý den, Dobré ráno, Dobrý večer, Dobrou noc (Good day, morning, ...)
● Ahoj, Díky, Prosím (Hello, Thanks, Please)
● Jak se máš? (How are you?)
● Jmenuji se Mika Häkinen. (My name is...)

And what does „pivo“ stands for?
● It means BEER. Beer is a part of our
national heritage
● Today's type of beer was invented in
Pilsen (Plzeň), 1842, Czech Republic
● Pilsner Urquell = the world's original
pilsener, golden beer
● First Pilsener, first Budweiser
● First in per capita beer consumption
(160 l of beer by human per a year)
● First Beer Museum in the world
● Nearly 100 breweries,
http://mapa.pivni.info/

Wow, but – what about some prices?
● Alcohol can be freely bought in every
supermarket (all the day), every
second kiosk (usually NONSTOP).
● 1 beer (0.5 l) in pub … 0.8 EUR
● Cheapest bottle of vodka … 2.5 EUR
● Cheapest bottle of rum … 3.2 EUR
● Cheapest 0.7 l of wine … 0.7 EUR
● Usually consumed wine … 3.6 EUR
● Shot of Absinth … 1.8 EUR

And what do you do but drinking?
● Maybe some religion?
● Long and interesting history
● Beautiful nature
● Rich cultural background
● Prettiest women :-P
● Economy, industry, IT
● Sport!

Catholic? Muslim?
● Atheist 59%, Roman Catholic 26.8%,
Protestant 2.1%
● We are one of the most atheist
people in the world, and we are very
proud of it. This is true especially in
large cities. Don't assume that
anyone from Czech Republic you
don't know believes in God or has a
passion for Christianity.
● Respect that and your religion will
also be respected :-)

So, tell us sth about the history, but
don't bore us, please...
● First people 700 000 BC
● Than Celts, German tribes
● Slavic kingdoms since the 6th
century
● Kingdom of Bohemia (1198 – 1918)
● since 1526 under Habsburg rule
(personal union with Austrian lands
& Hungary)
● Czechoslovakia since 1918
● Czech Republic since 1993

And some important events? People?
● Saint Wenceslas (Václav), duke of
Bohemia, patron of Czech Republic
● Charles IV., king of Bohemia, Holy
Roman Emperor, called as „father of
the country“, 14th century
● The Hussites, Christian movement
following the teachings of Czech
reformer Jan Hus (protestant
reformation, but 100 years before
the rest of Europe), never defeated
by Crusaders, 1415-1434
● Habsburg Rudolf II., king of
Bohemia, Holy Roman Emperor, 16th
and 17th century

And then? Thirty Years' War?
● Thirty Years' War started in Prague,
The Bohemian Revolt (Second
Defenestration of Prague), 1618-1620
● John Amos Comenius, was a Czech
teacher, scientist, educator, and
writer, „teacher of nations“, father
of modern education
● Part of Austro-Hungarian Empire,
wishing to have the same autonomy
like Hungarians; Czechoslovak
Legions were volunteer armed
forces fighting together with the
Entente powers during World War I
● 1918 declaring independence,
Czechoslovakia

World War II and modern history
● Munich Agreement of 1938, UK and
France forced Czechoslovakia to
cede the German-speaking
Sudetenland to Nazi Germany
● 1939 the rest of Czechoslovakia was
invaded by Nazi Germany and
divided into parts of Empire
● CS was freed by Allied forces, part by
US, but most of country by USSR
● Country felt into communist power
● In 1989 the country became
democratic again through the Velvet
Revolution
● Václav Havel, Václav Klaus

That was loooong! Is there something
really important to remember?
● We have a lot (thousands) of
wonderful medieval castles in whole
our country, many of them are part
of UNESCO!
● We don't like Germany and Austria
too much, however, we have a lot in
common
● We were always between powers of
Germany, Austria and Russia.
● Did you know the former US'
Secretary of State, Madeleine
Albright is born in Prague and speaks
Czech fluently?

Is your nature so nice like ours?
● Finnish nature is really unique, but
we have no reason to feel
ashamed ;-)
● Of course, we don't have a sea
● Lot of mountains, rivers, vineyards,
protected areas
● 15 % of area protected
● Highest mountain is Sněžka, 1602 m
● Central European climate (average
from 5 to 9°C, winter from -9°C to
2°C, summer from 20°C to 35°C)

And what else than beer and wine
produces your land?
● Invents, such as contact lenses, ● Writer Karel Čapek and his brother,
sugar cube and for the present the painter Josef Čapek, who invented
most effective cure of AIDS and the international word – ROBOT
Jaundice B (Antonín Holý)
● Movie directors Miloš Forman
● Jan Janský, inventor of 4 groups of (Loves of a Blonde, One Flew Over
blood the Cuckoo's Nest, Hair, Amadeus,
The People vs. Larry Flynt, Goya's
● J. G. Mendel, founder of genetics
Ghosts), Jan Svěrák (Kolya, Dark
● Vladimir Remek, Czech cosmonaut Blue World), Jiří Menzel (Closely
Watched Trains)
● Composers Antonín Dvořák and
Bedřich Smetana
● Writers Franz Kafka and Jaroslav
Hašek (The Good Soldier Švejk)

And...?
● THE PRETTIEST GIRLS...!
● Some top models: Eva Herzigová,
Karolina Kurková, Petra Němcová,
Alena Šeredová, Tereza Maxová, …
● The last image are NOT models, just
ordinary girls in park

Okay, gorgeous girls must have a car...
● Škoda Auto cars
● Baťa shoes
● Software: NetBeans, PSPad, Kerio
Firewall (earlier, now it's Sunbelt),
Avast! antivirus, AVG antivirus,
WinSCP
● PC Games: Original War, UFO After*,
Fish Fillets, Mafia: The City of Lost
Heaven, Operation Flashpoint: Cold
War Crisis

...and a sporty boyfriend.
● Emil Zátopek (probably best known
for his amazing feat of winning three
gold medals in athletics at the 1952
Summer Olympics in Helsinki)
● Kateřina Neumannová (skiing)
● Martina Sáblíková (speed skating)
● Jan Železný (greatest javelin thrower
ever), Barbora Špotáková (first in
javelin in Beijing)
● Roman Šebrle (decathlete, records
breaker)

Well, but... do you play hockey?
● Czech national men's ice hockey
team is one of the most successful
national ice hockey teams in the
world, currently ranked fifth by the
IIHF
● Gold medalists in World
Championships 1996, 1999, 2000,
2001, 2005
● Gold in Olympic Games 1998 Nagano
(first games with hockey players
from NHL), bronze in 2006 Torino
● Jaromír Jágr, Dominik Hašek, Patrik
Eliáš, … I am sure you know them :-)

And football?
● The greatest success was definitely
silver 2nd place in Euro 1996.
● Czechoslovakia was in the final
match of the World Cup 1934 and
1962 and won Euro 1976
● Many of our football players are
worldwide famous: Patrik Berger,
Jan Koller, Tomáš Rosický, Pavel
Nedvěd, Karel Poborský, Vladimír
Šmicer, Petr Čech, Milan Baroš, ...

Man, you are boring. Everyone in the
world plays football.
● Prague is called „stověžatá“ (means ● Firm Gufex which produces one of
that has 100 towers), in fact, there the finest pucks was the only
are more than 500 towers exclusive distributor for e.g. Olympic
Games
● The Prague Castle is in the Guiness'
book of records as the largest castle ● Name of the coin from Jáchymov,
in the world tolar, is the origin of the name of US
currency, dollar :-)
● Klementinum in Prague is the only
250 years old meteorologic station ● Strahov Stadium is the largest
in the world sporting place in the world (220.000
seats, 63.500 m2)
● Charles' University in Prague was the
first university northern from Alps ● Punk-rock band Visací zámek (means
and eastern from Paris „padlock“) and U2 are the only
bands which are considered to be
● Beer Barrel Polka (Škoda lásky) is
part of UNESCO for their long time
the most known Czech song, it
of playing in the original formation
became famous during World War II (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Barrel_Polka)

Okay, maybe I'll make a trip to Prague.
● Praha
● Prague is very different from the rest
of country
● The largest, the capital, 1.200.000
people (with aglomeration nearly
2.000.000 people)
● One of the most beautiful cities in
Europe
● Thousands of interesting sights
● Very expensive

And where are you from? What about
studying at your home university?
● Brno, Second largest city in Czech
Republic, 400 000 people
● Earlier called „Manchaster of Austria-
Hungaria“, today it's very modern
and familiar city with lot of nature
around
● City of students – more than 6
universities, Masaryk University
(second largest after Charles' in
Prague) and Brno University of
Technology (my school, mainly
technical studies)
● BUT has 20.000 students, 8 faculties
and is considered by one of 500 best
universities in the world by
The Times

Finally, what you really hate, man?
● Panelák = blocks of flats, prefab;
during communist times, millions of
them were built in whole the country
(nowadays we are trying to
reconstruct them and give them
colours :-) )
● Unstable government system, silly
politics
● Criminality (but it's the same like in
all the central Europe, you know...)
● Gipsy problem

Man, go hang! You're boring enough.
Thank for paying your attention!
● http://wikitravel.org/en/Czech_Republic
● http://flickr.com/search/?ss=2&w=all&q=czech&m=text
● https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ez.html
● http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_republic
● http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Czech_Republic
● http://www.czech.cz/
● http://www.czechtourism.com/
● http://www.fit.vutbr.cz/index.php.en