Thursday, April 14, 2005

What's šunka?

Today the firm finally bought me some of the tools of my trade: a large hardcover English dictionary, a Roget’s Thesaurus, a large hardcover English-Czech/Czech-English dictionary and an English-Czech legal dictionary (the Czech-English is on order).

I love language reference books. Most of my personal belongings are in storage in Gareth’s dad’s garage in Hemel Hempstead, northwest of London. The things I miss most are my photographs, my CDs, my beautiful beaded shoes, my hat from last June’s Royal Ascot and my dictionaries. I love words. Here is my inventory of dictionaries:
2 English dictionaries
Roget’s Thesaurus
The Oxford Dictionary of Law

1 Czech-English
1 French-English
1 Polish-English
1 Polish-Czech
1 Slovak-English
1 Spanish-English
2 German-English
a 3-volume Hebrew-English
1 Russian-English
1 Russian-Czech

Sharon has lived in Spain, the Czech Republic and Japan. Sharon’s husband Brian was with her in two of those countries. One day Sharon asked Brian, “What’s šunka?” Brian said, “It’s ham.” And Sharon said, “I know it’s ham, but what language is it?”

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like words too. Today I asked my doctor for Xanax and he wrote me a scrip for Neurol. The translation is a bit off but the price is even wackier. A box of 30 Xanax in America drained about $25 out of my pocket, a box of 30 Neurol set me back $3.20. I bought 4. I like pills more than I like words.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm question is there a good word for pills in Czech?
k

Anonymous said...

Yes, we call them "monkeys".

Monkey's Max said...

Anon, what is Neurol? And are you going to share?

Knotty, the Czech word for pills is pilulky -- not terribly exciting.

Anonymous said...

Neurol is the Czech equivalent of Xanax, at a fraction of the price. Has Anonymous ever not shared?

Monkey's Max said...

Sorry, Anon, did not mean to imply any selfishness on your part. You are one of the most generous and giving anonymous people I know.

Anonymous said...

You are a geekess.