A Brief Tutorial

     Dobrý den! That's probably the most common, formal way of greeting someone - it means "good day". Informally, there's "Ahoj", which you may recall hearing a pirate say at some point (note: Czechs pronounce their j's as y's). I'll mention a few phrases occasionally but don't worry, I won't bore you with a linguistics course. However, since I plan on writing things using the Czech alphabet, here are a few pointers. 

   A č is like a ch as in Charlie, a š is like a sh as in ship, a ž is like a like the s in pleasure or the j in Jacques, an ě is like ye as in yeti, and the ř has no real equivalent in English (or any other language) but the best way to approximate it is to roll an r and follow it quickly with a ž-sound made by pressing the tongue against the roof of your mouth. It's virtually impossible for any non-native speaker to do correctly, so usually you can substitute a rolled r / ž instead. 

They can also place accent marks over the vowels to elongate them. For example, náměstí, which means "(town) square" is pronounced "nah-mye-stee". Of course, there are a billion subtle differences in pronunciation (a c is said like the ts in hats and so on) of the alphabet letters we share but that's not important. Czech is a beautiful language but there is no doubt that it can be headache to speak. I'll spare you the nightmarish grammar unless I find it culturally significant to reference. That being said, I'll shortly post more details about my living arrangements. Na shledanou!