Czechast, Radio Prague International Radio Prague International

This episode of Czechast brings you stories of women in Calgary, Canada, London and Manchester, UK, who organize teaching Czech language, culture and history to kids far away from the old country.       

Czechast brings you the first part of the story, or rather stories, of several amazing Czech women who help Czech communities abroad keep their language and cultural heritage alive. 

He started his career working for the Czech News Agency, or ČTK, as we Czechs call it, first as a regional correspondent in Central Bohemia, later in the central newsroom. In the early 1990s, after the Velvet Revolution that saw the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia, Ivan was selected as a correspondent in London. 

In the last episode we heard emeritus professor of Masaryk University in Brno Don Sparling. Among other things, he mentioned why he left Prague for Brno and that he considers the Czech Capital to be very “self-centered”. I agree and I also think that foreigners who come to Czechia often make the mistake of staying in Prague only. There are many other interesting and fascinating places and Brno is certainly one of them.

Canadian by birth, Don Sparling found a new home in Brno. Among other things, he explains why he prefers living in the second Czech city rather than the capital Prague. 

Tomáš Masaryk, the first president of independent Czechoslovakia, married the American Charlotte Garrigue. She had been born to a wealthy and patrician family in Brooklyn, New York. On her father’s side she had ancestors among the French Protestants who had found refuge in America. On her mother’s side, she had ancestors who traveled to America on the Mayflower. So there was a very strong link that President Masaryk felt with the American people and its history and roots.