Speaking of Which...

Europe in terms of rest of the world is a weird place. So many countries stuffed in such a small area. And almost all of these countries have a distinctive language that only people on their side of the border speak and understand. Like Czech. Once crossing the border it is almost impossible to get the message through with any other language than the country’s native. Same goes to many other countries. Take for instance the US. Ok, there are many people who are not born Americans, but nevertheless, it is probably quite a challenge to come across with any other language than English (or nowadays increasingly also Spanish). But of course… everyone knows English, or at least should, right? Nay. Actually only in our office there are folks that alongside with their native Czech (or Slovak or whatever other) master perfectly e.g. German or Dutch but when speaking English with them you notice that you are not on the same level. This was something that I first found very peculiar here. In Prague I even met a medical student who spoke two languages: Czech and Finnish! Of all the languages, he had chosen to learn the latter. Respect!

My friends from back home spent a good 5 days here last week, so I got to practice my Finnish again. I mean, it takes some few seconds of mumbling when talking it after a long time, eg. if mum calls or something. Funny. Even if I was exhausted as hell after an intensive period of shouting, joking, laughing and going crazy in my native language, I really did enjoy it. There are still so many more ways to express yourself in your own mother or father tongue. And it makes absolutely no sense to try to explain the funniness to someone else. It is also a good “oral code script” when strolling around in the city. Or actually nowadays one has to be a bit careful as us Finns, we find our way everywhere.



In general, it is fascinating to try to figure out the origins of certain words. My colleague who is studying linguistics told that for example the Swedish word for Doctor “läkare” was somehow stolen from Czech language (lekár) by the vicious northern conquerors during the 30 year war. Even if it would only be a myth, it works fine as cool story :). I have also come a cross several Slavic words that I can somehow link to Finnish. For example the following:

FI: leipä = CZ: chleb (bread)
FI: lavitsa (pretty old word) = CZ: lavicka (bench)
FI: saiju (used by my Carelian Granny) = Caj (tea)
FI: lääkäri = CZ: lekár (doctor)
FI: puoli = CZ: polo (half)
FI: ananas = CZ: ananas (pine apple)
FI: pusu = CZ: pusu (a kiss)

Ok, this list is not long, but there are many more…