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Official Organ Of The Slavonic Benevolent Order Of The State Of Texas, Founded 1897 HUMANITY
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Postmaster: Please Send Form 3579 to: SUPREME LODGE, SPJST, P. O. Box 100, Temple, Texas 76501 LISPS — 658480
VOLUME 66, NUMBER 49
DECEMBER 6, 1978
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK Recently, our office has been receiving many letters and inquiries about information concerning the availibility of Czech books and especially courses in the Czech language being taught and it keeps us rather busy answering all the questions, however, we do the best we can; please be patient and you will receive the desired inform ton because sometimes we have to turn elsewhere to be able to give complete details. It seems that the appearances of the Moravanka Czech Brass Band and the Symposium held a week or so later has made many of our members and readers, not only the youthful, but many of our middle-aged people, realize how they have neglected their own culture, heritage and especially language! Maybe those two incidents In October, 1978, were the ones that drove that realization home to so many of us. Did you ever realize how we ourselves have butchered up a correct Czech language with our bad use of it and mixing other languages in with it, especially English, because it is convenient? We not only butcher up our Czech, we also butcher up our English. Many of our members and readers have spoken to and written to your editor during the Moravanka appearances and these discussions with them, and discussions with Mr. Pavel Pechacek of the ICA (International Communications
QUOTES... The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. —Adm. Hyman Rickover, Two great talkers will not travel far together. —Spanish proverb To love is to admire with the heart; to admire is to love with the —Theophile Gautier mind. If you think one person can't make a difference in the world, just consider what one cigar can do to a nine-room house. —Bill Vaughan The time to relax is when you don't have time for it. —Sidney J. Harris What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. —Joseph Addison Agency), Washington, and Dr. Antonin Robek of Czechoslovakia, and some have made this remark: "I had to get used to their dialect.' My dear readers, they did not speak Czech with a dialect — we did. They would very likely speak English with an accent or a dialect, but not Czech. As an example, we may wish to tell them: "My pants were old so I went to the store and bought new pants and shoes." We very likely would tell them: "Moje
pants byly stare, tak sem shel do shtory a kupil nove pants a shuze." Now would they understand this whpn the most important words in the sentence are these: pants, store and shoes, and correctly would be: "Moje kalhoty byly stare, tak jsem gel do obchodu a koupil nove kalhoty a stnvice." Now do you see the difference? in the first expression they would have no idea what we were talking about. One suggestion to all of our readers, especially students, this editor has to offer is to have pride in whatever you are endeavoring to do, be it English, Czech, or any other language, or anything else. There is a Czech proverb: "Prace kvapna, malo platna," which means: Work hastily done is worth very little. That is also true of studying any subject. We have good teachers of the English language in our schools and yet when we hear our reports from our national headquarters, we find that over 25 percent of our population cannot read or write correct English, so to those of you who wish to better your English and/or Czech — apply yourself. Take it from yours truly, it can be done if the desire and will to succeed are there! * * In recalling incidents pertaining to the above, we had occasion to visit with Dr. Antonin Robek at Prof. J. J. Skrivanek's home for a