Learn how to talk about food
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Michael: Hi everyone, and welcome back to CzechClass101.com. This is Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 11 - Enjoying a Delicious Czech Meal. Michael here. |
| Martin: Ahoj. I'm Martin. |
| Michael: In this lesson, you’ll learn phrases you can use at meal times. This conversation takes place at Tom and Irina's house. |
| Martin: It's between Tom, Irina and Martin. Martin is invited to dinner at Tom and Irina's house. |
| Michael: The speakers know each other, so they are using informal Czech. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| (zazvoní kuchyňský budík) |
| Irena: Tady to je, posluž si! |
| Martin: Jé, to vypadá úžasně. |
| Tomáš: Jdeme jíst! |
| Martin: (mlask mlask) Mňam. Výborný! Ireno, díky, že jsi uvařila. |
| Michael: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| (zazvoní kuchyňský budík) |
| Irena: Tady to je, posluž si! |
| Martin: Jé, to vypadá úžasně. |
| Tomáš: Jdeme jíst! |
| Martin: (mlask mlask) Mňam. Výborný! Ireno, díky, že jsi uvařila. |
| Michael: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| (timer goes off) |
| Irena: Here, help yourself! |
| Martin: Oh, that looks delicious. |
| Tomáš: Let's eat! |
| Martin: (munch munch) Yum. Delicious! Irina, thank you for making the dish. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Michael: Martin, let’s talk about Czech meals and table manners. |
| Martin: The main meals for Czech people are breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and lunch is the biggest meal of the day. |
| Michael: How many courses does a meal usually have? |
| Martin: Traditionally, lunch consists of three courses - a starter, which is usually a soup, the main meal, and a dessert or coffee. In a restaurant, the server will first ask you about a drink before he or she takes your order. If soup is one of the courses of your meal, that gets eaten first. |
| Michael: The main meal comes after that. It’s also fine to request both the soup and the main course at the same time, but if that’s your preference then you need to specify that you’d like them together. What about table manners, Martin? |
| Martin: When dining, try to avoid putting your elbows on the table or making loud sounds when you’re eating. Eating loudly is considered impolite by the Czech people. Also, soup shouldn’t be drunk from the bowl, you should spoon it into your mouth. |
| Michael: Czech ideas of proper table manners seem pretty standard internationally speaking. Is there anything more specific you can tell us? |
| Martin: Well, Czech people don't normally share their food in the middle of the table; everyone tends to just eat the meal they ordered. The only exception would be certain Asian restaurants that feature “family style” dining. |
| Michael: I see. Are there any useful expressions we should learn for dining situations? |
| Martin: Yes, you should remember Na zdraví! |
| Michael: which means "Cheers!" Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Michael: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Martin: kuchyňský budík [natural native speed] |
| Michael: kitchen timer |
| Martin: kuchyňský budík[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: kuchyňský budík [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: posloužit si [natural native speed] |
| Michael: to help oneself |
| Martin: posloužit si[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: posloužit si [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: vypadat [natural native speed] |
| Michael: to look like, to appear |
| Martin: vypadat[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: vypadat [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: úžasný [natural native speed] |
| Michael: amazing |
| Martin: úžasný [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: úžasný [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: jít [natural native speed] |
| Michael: to go, to walk, to leave, to depart |
| Martin: jít[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: jít [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: jíst [natural native speed] |
| Michael: to eat |
| Martin: jíst[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: jíst [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: mňam [natural native speed] |
| Michael: yummy |
| Martin: mňam[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: mňam [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: výborný [natural native speed] |
| Michael: excellent |
| Martin: výborný[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: výborný [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Martin: uvařit [natural native speed] |
| Michael: to cook up, to make, to prepare |
| Martin: uvařit[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Martin: uvařit [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Michael: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Martin: mlask |
| Michael: This is the onomatopoeia that refers to the sound of someone eating noisily. There’s no direct translation into English, only a description - ''to eat noisily.'' |
| Martin: There’s also a specific Czech verb with the same meaning, mlaskat. This verb is conjugated just like any other verb in the Czech language. |
| Michael:Is it a word used a lot when talking about people and the way they eat? |
| Martin: Yes. The word mlaskat can be also a noun, mlaskání, which means “noisy eating.” In fact, according to Czech table etiquette as mentioned earlier, mlaskání is considered impolite. Children are often told nemlaskej, which means "Stop eating noisily,'' to get them to eat quietly. |
| Michael: Can you give us another example using this word? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say.. U jídla se nemlaská. |
| Michael: ..which means "Eating should not be noisy." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Martin: uvařit, |
| Michael: meaning "to cook up a meal, to finish cooking." |
| Martin: This verb belongs to the group of perfective verbs. |
| Michael:"Perfective" means that the action expressed by the verb has been or will be finished. |
| Martin: So Uvařit literally means that the action of cooking is done and finished or will be done and finished. Specifically it’s the prefix u that indicates the end of an action. We can also just say vařit, meaning “to cook,” but this verb doesn’t indicate that the action is or will be finished. |
| Michael: The difference between the two verbs is that one is perfective and the other is imperfective. Let’s give two examples using these two different verbs. |
| Martin: vařila večeři |
| Michael: “She cooked dinner,” or “She was cooking dinner,” but based on this sentence, it is not clear if the dinner is ready yet. |
| Martin: Uvařila večeři |
| Michael: “She cooked dinner and the dinner is now ready.” Can you give us an example using this verb in a different tense? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say.. Uvaříme si něco dobrýho. |
| Michael: .. which means "We shall cook up something tasty." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Martin: budík, |
| Michael: meaning "alarm clock, timer." |
| Martin: This word derives from verb budit, |
| Michael: “to wake somebody up” |
| Martin: Budík is any type of alarm clock or a timer. |
| Michael: In this form it has no other meaning except for an alarm clock or a timer, right? |
| Martin: Right. On the other hand, the diminutive form of budík, which is budíček, means "wake up signal," such as a morning wake up call in the army, at a summer camp, or in a hotel. |
| Michael: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Martin: Sure. For example, you can say.. Vstávejte! Ranní budíček! |
| Michael: .. which means "Wake up! Morning wake up call!" Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this lesson, you'll learn phrases for mealtimes that you can use at Czech dining tables. We’ll give you a guide to some basic phrases. What’s the first one, Martin? |
| Martin: Dobrou chuť! |
| Michael: “Bon Appetit! Enjoy your meal.” |
| Martin: Dobrou chuť! is a general phrase you use before you eat. Dobrou means “good” and chuť means “taste,” or “appetite.” |
| Michael: Literally this is “have a good appetite,” but more naturally translated it means “enjoy your meal.” Are there any alternative expressions? |
| Martin: You could use dobré chutnání, which has the same meaning. Chutnání is a noun meaning “tastiness,” and is hardly ever used outside of this phrase. |
| Michael: What’s next? |
| Martin: Nech si chutnat or Nechte si chutnat |
| Michael: These also mean “Enjoy your meal” and are used before eating. The literal meaning is more like “may you enjoy your meal” or “let yourself or yourselves enjoy your meal.” Does that mean these are interchangeable with the first phrases we heard? |
| Martin: Yes, Dobrou chuť! and Nech si chutnat are interchangeable. Which you use just depends on the speaker’s personal preference. |
| Michael: Okay. Let’s hear the next phrase. |
| Martin: Posluž si or Poslužte si. |
| Michael: “Help yourself” or “Help yourselves.” This is another phrase used before meals. It invites a person or people to start taking food from the table and eat. |
| Martin: Posloužit si is the infinitive of “to help oneself to something,” and si is the dative form of the reflective pronoun si meaning “to or for oneself.” |
| Michael: The next phrase is... |
| Martin: Vypadá to výborně. |
| Michael: “It looks delicious.” This phrase praises a prepared meal for looking good and tasty. |
| Martin: Vypadá to means “it looks, it appears.” To is a demonstrative pronoun which has the same meaning as the English “it” or “this.” In the context of food, výborně means “great,” “tasty,” or “delicious.” |
| Michael: Following that we have... |
| Martin: Je to výborné |
| Michael: “It is delicious.” This phrase is used when eating. It expresses that what you’re eating is well prepared and tastes good. |
| Martin: Je to literally means “it is” and výborné means “delicious, great.” |
| Michael: Finally we have... |
| Martin: Na zdraví! |
| Michael: “Cheers!” You can use it before drinking and when lifting up your glass, |
| Martin: Right. The literal translation is “to good health.” Na is a preposition meaning “on” or “to,” and zdraví means simply “health.” Through this toast, you are wishing everyone good health. |
Outro |
| Michael: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. To reinforce what you’ve learned in this lesson, be sure to check the lesson notes. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Martin: Děkuji. |
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