I studied French in school and when I go there I can find my way around the city and order from the menu. I can read it easier than speak it. I try to speak the native language in a non-English speaking country like Spain or Italy because I think they appreciate that you are trying to be understood. You both speak English very well and understand the grammar better than many Americans. And Tommy has a very keen sense of humor in English. He makes me laugh.
I agree, it's a nice gesture to learn at least a few words when you visit another country to show the locals that you cared enough 😊 Of course sometimes it backfires as it can encourage them to reply back to you fluently in their language and you'll understand nothing 😃
I am a volunteer ESL tutor and sometime substitute ESL instructor. My students are adults who have recently arrived in the US, some came here because of bad events in their home countries. I am so proud of their achievement learning English. It’s not an easy language (lots of rule exceptions). My grandparents emigrated from Austria-Hungary in the 1900s. I guess this is my “give back” to those who left their native country. I always enjoy your videos.
Hi Frank, that is so interesting! Our former monarchy 😁 It's never easy to learn a new language, so it's great that you've been helping in this matter 😊
That was REALLY interesting! I've always wondered how you both became so proficient in English. From this video, it would appear that the study of language has always been a part of your lives - from early on. That explains a lot. A question for you: being as proficient in English as you both are, do you ever find yourselves thinking in English - and then having to translate back to your first language?
True, although it's the same for everyone on our countries nowadays since it's mandatory to start learning your first foreign language very early on. It's then up to everyone how they will continue when they finish their studies. A lot of people never use foreign languages in their lives and they lose all their knowledge. Good question about thinking in English - since we watch movies and TV shows in English with English subtitles, we don't translate them into our languages but process all the information directly in English. So yes, sometimes I find myself thinking in English and I have a hard time remembering what the Czech translation is 😃
i think it is kinda same for everyone in most slavic countries, especialy for generations born from 1980, in my country (croatia), when i was in school first foregien language we start to learn is in 4th grade ( age 9/10, depending did you start elementary school at age 6 or 7), and we were able to schoose between english and german, (coast and istria had usualy english and italian)second one came in 1st grade of highschool (age 14/15), so in highschool there were 2 obligatory foregien languages for all schools ( both gymnasiums and tehnical schools ( car repairmen, eletricians, hair dressers etc), but if you went to gymnasium like me, then you had more than 2 obligatory languages( general gymnasium had english, german, italian as optional, latin, classic gymnasium had mostly english, german, optional italian or french, greek and latin), tehnical schools had italian as optional. plus 80ties generations were war generations, so we grew up mostly or as refugess in west europe ( thaz why i speak icelandic and my cousines speak swedish) coz i spent 5 years in iceland from ages 13 to 17, would never go there, but life wanted me to be hit by granade, but thaz other story). so a lot of us spent some time outside country, the ones who did not, well it was a time of cartoon network without any subtitles, time of amigas, comodore, ataries, nintendos, first pc, everything was on english, so english for us become something we must use, we must know.. then came forums, internet, chats, MMO games and we start to speak with bunch of people online, not to mention a lot of tourists on coast started to come, people on coast speak to 5 languages, especialy younger ones working in tourism. generations born from 2000 till today are even different than us, they start to use english or german as obligatory first foregien language at age 7 or 8, second grade of elementary school, at grade 6 i think, ages 11 to 12, they start to learn second, then in highschool, they start to learn third, gymnasiums even have 4 to 6 foregien languages. add all MMO games kids play today, social medias etc and everyone from younger generations is fluent in both german and english, coastal areas italian.so for majority of us, watching movies and tv shows in english and or german without subtitles is normal, i even think in english, german or icelandic once i switch to certain language. when i play mmo games i literaly think in english, if someone ask me something in croatian i answer in english, coz i did not switch back lol.. for most slavic nations, especialy younger generations english is more of a need to function in job market ( especialy if you are in eu member state), here in croatia you cant even get simple jobs without a knowledge of at least one foregien language. also a lot of people leave to work in other parts of EU, so most people have at least B or C level of english or german..
That was fascinating. When I was in elementary school we were taught a little Spanish (Florida's second language) but later I tried to take it in college and couldn't do it. The best time to teach a second language is when your are young which is what your system did. I wish I had learned when young. I took Latin in high school but barely made it through. You guys are smart so learning a language comes easier to you (my opinion). English is hard. It has so many weird exceptions on how to use it. Your English is better than many Americans I have known. The US is isolated language territory except for Spanish. You have a greater opportunity for multi-cultural interaction. Congratulations Peter on your citizenship. I would want Tommy if I ever toured Europe. Thanks guys.
Yeah, they also say here that it's easier to learn new languages when you're still a kid. But it's never too late to start, it's just gonna take longer :) I feel like every language has its difficulties, Czech grammar is crazy and much more complicated than English in general, except tenses and articles 😁 In Europe it's almost impossible not to need languages, unless you never leave your village.
I first found your channel while searching for TH-cam channels about travel in Croatia and enjoyed it. Now, I've watched this video and loved it. As so many others have said, your English language skills are great. Don't worry about the small stuff. I've been learning German for years, and cannot speak it as well as either of you speak English. My husband and I had the pleasure of visiting Prague a number of years ago and loved your beautiful capitol city. This summer we will take a trip to Croatia and I hope to visit the village my grandparents left when they immigrated to the United States. Best wishes and hugs from Palm Springs, California.
Hi Tony, thanks for sharing that. We love hearing from our viewers, learning where they're from and how they found our channel. German is a pretty difficult language so well done for even trying to learn it! We're glad to hear you liked Prague. We haven't been there for a few years either since it's not near where we live. We hope you'll enjoy your time in Croatia. It's a beautiful country and we can't wait to visit it again.
I learned so much: about you, your countries, your languages, and the preferences within your country. I was one who asked you for a video in your language (turning on CC!) because I think its important to hear and appreciate you in your natural language. Thank you for this small example of your language(s)! Watching this video several times I was (somewhat) able to follow the similarities in language. Again, your English (tenses, and all) are well understood and knowing how much struggle it is for you to learn and care about "proper" words to use is for me, humbling. That is, until I learn Slovak, or Czech! Where can I hear / see Peter's weather forecasting? Yet another example of language understanding. Together forever? Oh yes, no doubt!
Thanks, David, we're happy you enjoyed the video! We felt a bit weird speaking on camera in Czech/Slovak so we kept it short, maybe in the future we'll feel more comfortable 😃 We were actually thinking of including a snippet of Peter's weather forecast in the video but then we forgot! He's on TV only very rarely but maybe we'll get a chance to include it some other time.
You don't need to act the beginnings of your videos. They are perfect because they are real. Real people getting in touch with real people. And I think your suscribers love the way you are. At least I really do. "The baby was born". Poor Peter!!!! So cute. I live in Argentina so my native language is Spanish. I studied English at primary and secondary school. But I am university teacher of Portuguese. Beautiful mix. Hugs/ abrazos/ abraços from Argentina. Stay safe.
Thanks, Liliana! We never know what to say at the beginning of the videos to start it off, that's usually our biggest struggle 😃 That's a really nice mix of languages! Especially knowing Spanish and English is very useful in a huge part of the world. It's also cool to find out that you're a university teacher. Well done! 😊
Howdy Guyz!! In America, schools are K-6 is elementary, 7-9 is Middle school or Junior High & 10-12 is High School. I have often heard that English is a very difficult subject to learn because of all the incongruities of our language. You have a real handle on the English language! It's a wonderful gift to pick up so many other languages the way that Tommy does!! I love to hear you speak in your native language! You two are so cute together! Love the way that Peter blushes!!! Big Hugs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Ken! We don't have middle schools here (although we call high school middle school in general 😃) but on the other hand kindergarten is a separate school here. I guess English difficulty is dependent on your native language. Czech and Slovak are much more difficult so we find English quite easy in comparison. We're glad you enjoyed the video 😊
Ken Stickles I am from Indiana, and when I went to school we did not have Kindergarten, we went straight to first grade. So elementary was 1-6. Our Junior High was 7-8. And High School was 9-12. When my son and daughter went to school, it was in the order of how you went. High school (for me) was Freshman (9th grade), Sophomore (10th grade), Junior (11th grade), Senior (12th grade). It was strange to me when my son and daughter had only 3 years of high school, and we had 4!!!
In Poland the MOST MOST popular Czechoslovak TV series is: "Nemocnice na kraji mesta" (Szpital na peryferiach)...... To watch also on TH-cam..... Greetings from Poland.
Your English is really very good! I'm sure making the videos improves it too. I grew up speaking German at home but mostly lived in the United States, so both are my native languages. I've studied Spanish and speak pretty well, and now I'd like to learn Hebrew. Languages are so much fun!
Thanks, Tom! The two languages both of us studied at school and they're both your native languages. Someone has it too easy 😃 Hebrew is an interesting choice, must be rather difficult!
First of all, I like your intros! Secondly, thank you for sharing your languages backgrounds. Thirdly, English is a difficult language to learn and master. As you may know, learning another language in the United States is for the most part optional. Though I took Spanish in high school, spent 6 months going to an American school in Madrid, and walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain, my Spanish is almost non-existent. I know I missed out a lot by not speaking Spanish. I cringe when I hear stories about Americans who travel abroad and get upset when the locals don't speak English - sheesh! As for France, many, many years ago when I was visiting Paris, I needed to purchase a subway ticket in French (with help from a traveling companion who spoke French). As I stumbled through the request, the station operator, in almost perfect English said "You must learn to speak French." I was mortified at the time but now would think it was a funny but valuable lesson. I appreciate the work you both put in to share your lives while speaking a nonnative language and for your videos.
It's a pity you lost your knowledge of Spanish but it's understandable - just like when Peter used to be fluent in German and now he can't put a sentence together because he never needed to use it. Your story from France is funny but it would be hard to learn a different language every time you travel to another country. It's a nice gesture to learn a few words but I wouldn't expect tourists to speak fluently in the local language 😊
What a wonderful conversation to watch and listen. Your accents have always reminded me of my Grandmother who grew up in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The area her family lived in would have been the Sudetenland. In grade school I was first introduced to German and had a total of 5 years of study. I was never able to speak to my Grossvater or Grossmutter or my poor Grandmother, She was also disappointed since we were taught high German and not colloquial German. So, as they say, if you don`t use it, you lose it,,, sadly I have lost it. You are such a loving and wonderful couple. I look forward to your next video. P.S. You both speak English very well.
Thanks, Terry. Looks like your grandmother was part of the German minority in what is now the Czech Republic, as were my ancestors. My home town is/was part of the Sudetenland with majority of people speaking German prior to WWII. Now it's completely Czech.
Thank you for doing this video! I am glad that you two learned English! :) It's nice to see you speak Czech and Slovak! Thank you! Danke! Děkuji Ďakujem!!!!!
I think you guys are brilliant. I love how practical Tommy is. I love how sweet Peter is. I very much appreciate your speaking English. But...my only disappointment is that Peter does not stick his head outside for a weather report! Haha! Because he said he wanted to be a meteorologist/weatherman.
Thanks! Not only Peter wanted to be a meteorologist but he is one! Believe me, he gives me a detailed weather report every day, whether I want to hear it or not 😁
Sorry, so, the John guy is/was on the American version of The Office. He started doing a TH-cam program about a year ago called “SGN”, which stands for “Some Good News”. He has since sold out to CBS, I think. Anyway, it was a very good vlog. One of the things he did on his program was that he would have celebrities like Brad Pitt or whomever, stick their head outside and let the SGN viewers know what the weather was right then. It was funny. Just thought I’d mention it. I’m going to bed now. Bye.
Hi Tommy and Peter, Loving this video and also others you filmed. 💕💕💕 Your English is very good and improving from video to video, take it easy, you have progressed and will progress a lot. Recently I needed to help a relative on learning a foreign language and I said let me try and install Google Translate App on my phone. Or you can try some other similar App. It can be handy to quickly get a word or phrase translated Or even, after translating into the foreign language, just to press the "voice" button to "hear" how to pronounce it. (This is not advertising hahahaha). Good decision on choosing to talk in English in your videos, right, it makes them more available to people all over the world. Your love for each other shows up in each of your videos! You are a lovely couple! See you in the next one. Take care. 💕💕💕
Thanks! We're trying to continuously work on our English skills, it's a never-ending process. We also use Google Translate on our phones when we need to find a certain word. It can be harder with names of plants, then it's better to check on Wikipedia if it's really what we want to talk about. See you in our next video 😊
Ok Tommy and Peter I am just catching up on some older post. I worked and hosted High School Foreign Exchange students in the 90's and up to 2005 including a young man from the Czech Republic. Trust me your English is absolutely great. I have no problem understanding every word you say. Have a good day.
You both speak amazing English! The video was very interesting. I took Spanish as my second language and I also use a translator to translate other languages. My husband speaks Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic, and English.
I'm so glad to have found you guys. You're great! The content your create takes me back to my roots. My grandma and great grandparents were from Czechoslovakia. It's a beautiful land. Thank you for all that you do and best wishes for happiness and productivity at your country home! Hugs!
Hi guys ! Descovered your chanal at the cyclintour in Danmark , suscribed at once . You got me smiling on this one because I was born Dutch , grew up speaking spanish and french while living in spain as a kid . Returned to nederland when I was 10 , learned english at school there . Many years later moved for love to danmark ( speaking english together) learning to speak danish , wich is still hard after 7 years . But I menage . I will watch more of you because you do interesting things ❤( ps : german was never my thing 😄)
Hi Ineke, welcome to our channel 😉 You have such an interesting story with all the countries you've lived in and of course all the languages 😁 We are sure you'll learn Danish eventually 😁 We loved our vacation in Denmark, and we have more videos from there 😊 If you haven't seen them yet and you'd like to, here is the link: th-cam.com/play/PLCdvxBTaMtaLQpdD-84h9hVqNpLN6PC8_.html
I find your videos delightful and informative. You are a lovely couple. As an American I find you english very good. I have a German sister in law who has mastered english as you have. Best wishes to both of you
Indeed, watching English speaking movies and TV shows helped a lot. We started watching them with Czech subtitles at first and later on we switched to English subtitles which helped even more.
I'm French-Canadian born in Montreal and now living in New Brunswick with a dual citizenship with the States. I learned to speak English when I was about five when we moved to the States. I speak French, English and some Spanish. My husband was Mexican. Wouldn't it be great if we all spoke the same language in the world? Maybe the world would be a friendlier place. Your video today was very interesting... thanks.
Does everyone in the Quebec province learn to speak English or are there people who only speak French? It would definitely be much easier if all spoke the same language. Although sometimes it's nice being abroad and knowing that when we talk to each other, people around us don't understand us 😃
@@tommyandpeter Quebecers in rural areas speak only French (the official language of Quebec), but in cities, people know both languages. Most English speaking Quebecers speak some French. There's a lot of problems based on languages. In New Brunswick both French and English are the official languages.
Congratulations on your citizenship Peter. Oh and Tommy is right. It is so important to know a little of other languages. You never know when you might need to know where a bathroom is. LOL You boys are so fun to watch. In a good gun not a bad way. I also think you both speak English very well. But it us still cute when you guys get all red in the face as you talk. You can so see you second guessing your prononceation of some of your words. Don't worry your doing fine. You boys stay safe and healthy bye.
Good point about bathrooms! Although as introverts we try to avoid talking to people so we'd probably try to find it ourselves 😄 We do second guess ourselves while we're talking on camera but hopefully it's getting better. Thanks for your kind words 😊
I like your story very much (and your channel 😊 ). I'm Austrian, but my great-grand parents were Czech (from Brno and Ostrava), and I feel so very connected to the Czech-Slowak culture. Before Covid I regularly traveled to Brno, Bratislava, Prag. Didn't go to Ostrava yet, but it*s on my list. Unfortunately my dad's family wanted to leave their Czech heritage behind them, thus I don't speak or understand any Czech. Wish I could, though, because - like Tommy said, it really makes a difference if you can express yourself and talk to people in their native language. Using German in Czechia is nice, too 🙃
Hi Chris! Willkommen auf unserem Kanal 😊 Our countries share a lot of history so we can often see Czechs with German last names and Austrians with Czech last names as well. It's nice to hear you visit our country and even our city frequently 😊
@@tommyandpeter Danke, Tommy und Peter, ich freu mich hier zu sein 😊 vielleicht lerne ich noch tschechisch, aber Peter sagt, die Sprache ist so schwer 🙈😅
It’s very interesting to hear more about your backgrounds, plus your English is pretty good, if a little accented (but that’s attractive too). As for me, I’m British (from Scotland, although I’ve also lived in England and in many other countries, in connection with my job). My first foreign language is French and I speak/write it pretty fluently, initially I learned it at school and the first country I lived in outside the UK was French-speaking and it was useful both in the office and socially; later I lived in other French-speaking countries and in France itself as I spent 4 years in Paris, as well as visiting many other parts of the country before and since on business or for holidays. However it was an Arab country (Morocco) so it was useful to learn it too and I both read/speak it, although not so well any more. Apart from Morocco I also lived/worked in many other Arab countries so understand a number of local dialects/accents. Apart from those I also speak some Vietnamese (having lived in Vietnam for a few years) and Spanish (as I had a holiday home there for many years). I do also have a minor smattering of Cantonese, having lived in Hong Kong for several years and my husband (of over five years at this point) is himself mainland Chinese so in recent years have been trying to learn Mandarin, without much success, but luckily his English has been improving steadily since he came to the UK and since we met, to the extent his accent and use of idiomatic English is now extremely good.
Wow, you've lived all over the globe! The list of countries and languages you picked up along the way is really impressive. A lot of the languages must have been quite hard to learn as they're not related to our European languages. Our accents are probably not going to disappear, you typically need to live in the country and be among locals to pick up the native accent like your husband. But the good thing about filming these videos is that when we watch them back, we notice our own mistakes and we try to work on them.
I am fortunate to be fluent in French and English. My mother spoke only French. She was from Canada which this part of Canada spoke only French. She married my dad who was in the United States and move to the states thus the school being English. I now work and live in Canada for government this required to be bilingual. I also have dual citizenship American and Canadian.
Bilingual kids are lucky, knowing two languages automatically since their childhood 😊 It's great you could benefit from the situation and get such a job.
So interesting. Y'all are never boring. English has a lot more words, generally, than other languages. A lot of foreign language words are incorporated into English and anglicized so that adds a lot more words to our language. The Oxford English dictionary has 615,100 words. There is a reason English is used at airports for traffic control. Note:Off topic but interesting to me as I am a Southerner living in the USA. I wish our country could have separated peacefully as yours did. It would have changed our/world history and for the better.
It's interesting that English has so many words officially but we feel like there are no words for a lot of things - for example there is no English word for "garden bed" or "watering can" so you have to combine two words together, while in other languages there's one specific word for those things 😁 Czechoslovakia is often mentioned (at least in Europe) as a nice example of a peaceful split - something that doesn't happen very often unfortunately.
@@tommyandpeter That's interesting about having to use two words for a one word thing in other languages. I've never been aware of that until your post.😊
South African here - we use English as a lingua franca because we have 11 official languages - I can definitely relate to feeling like there are no English equivalents to a lot of our words.
Hello Peter and Tommy, very interesting to hear about the languages etc . Myself from The Netherlands 🇳🇱 speak Dutch , but as you know now live in England for over 23 years again. Having family here but also in Australia 🇦🇺 ofcours it was a no brainier to be able to communicate with our English speaking family , one desired to learn the language . Ofcours now well established cannot excuse with , me not understand lol 😂! Two years ago after visiting my Australian family first time , on way back stopped in Thailand and stayed in wonderful apartment of one of my customers. Went twice more in 2019 enjoying the gay area closeby . As my birthday is in April sadly last year and this due to pandemic my trips to Pattaya, Thailand were cancelled . Now hoping as booked to fly on 7th February 2022 to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi AirPort with apartment, which I call “ my apartment “ now 124 is mine lol 😂! So, during lockdown the last months since September last year started to learn Thai language, very difficult but have wonderful Thai teacher , the lady is also one of my customers for my taxi service Maartenstaxi ( have website if you like to check ? My services as a taxidriver .) As written to you last week I went to Czech Republic early 80ties , one was in early twenties . This year will be 59 . If one day I plan to visit Prague and other places I would love to meet you guys . I also recently started chatting to very nice Thai man here in UK . He found me on Facebook dating . Now every night we FaceTime on WhatsApp. His English still not very good, and me trying to talk Thai to him makes it very interesting. He is 54 now , hopefully we meet soon. And we can both travel to Thailand but other places too .in October this year all going to plan hope to visit Dutch friend I know there and owns and runs a hotel . My flight is to Salzburg then a train journey to Schladming , the hotel is in Ramsau am Dachstein, been twice before and it is lovely there in the mountains . In afternoon I use the pool and sauna , perfect there . Then hopefully can plan 10 days to Malta soon too, another of my lovely places to visit , staying in Bugibba , in self catering apartment . Hopefully soon together with Nammon , my Thai man ? Well my friends , better say Cherio , hope to catch up soon . You are both lovely and beautiful, making my week more happy 😃. Sending love 💕 and hugs 🤗 and kisses 😘 your friend Maarten
Hi Maarten, living in a foreign country is the best way to learn the local language. Having lived in Englad for so long, your English must be perfect by now 😊 You sure travel a lot! We've never been to Thailand but it must be pretty hard to learn Thai, since it's not related to European languages. Now you have at least good motivation to learn it to be able to communicate. You have a lot of travel plans, hopefully you'll be able to make them all happen. Here we are still waiting to see how the COVID situation will progress before making any plans as we far behind the UK. Good luck!
Thanks guys .That was such an entertaining and informative video. I think (speaking as an Englishman), that your English is amazing. Maybe if you are filming a video and cannot remember an English word you should just speak in Czech and put a subtitle in later.
Thanks! That's a good idea adding English translation ad hoc. We want our videos to be as good as possible but sometimes we don't realize that you guys probably don't care about such details 😊
Really? We only understand "dobro došli" in Croatian 😄 When I was a teenager, there was a dance group from Croatia called "Karma", they were very popular in the Czech Republic. Sedam dana and Da sam ja tvoja jedina were big hits 😃
@@tommyandpeter Yes, I remember Karma being popular in Croatia, but I wasnt fan.Also I remember, as a kid watching some Czeck cartoons like Lolek y Bolek, Pat y Mat (A je to) and some others.They were very popular. All slavic languages have similarities, it is not like you would understand 100 %, but about 70-80 % for sure, if you listen very carefully.At least thats my experience.
@@dorakranjc8361 Bolek i Lolek is from Poland and Pat a Mat from Slovakia 😄 But I think Krteček is the famous Czech one. It seems each country has its own international cartoon.
Your both great and speak very well. I went to Paris and there was only 3 people that didn't want to speak English. Even in the cafe at Notre dame along the walls the writing was in all different languages I was very surprised. I got French at school but like you said you don't use it so you loose it. My grandfather was Italian but we never learned Italian. Such a shame
In some countries (including the Czech Republic) you'll find quite a lot of people speaking English in the tourist exposed areas (in our case Prague) while in other parts of the country where people aren't use to tourists, you'd spend a lot of time looking for someone able to speak English.
Wow what an interesting story. I can totally relate, I speak fluent German, and obviously English, but I also lived in Russia for a year (2014) and learned the language prior, but like you say, if you don't us it, you loose it. I have this passion for French, and learn a odd sentence here and there, and of course in Canada we were taught French in School, well Quebec French, don't get me started. As always, great videos and TschueB bis naechsten mal. :-)
You know a lot of languages! I wish I could speak fluently more languages, but I can't imagine using them all on a daily basis to maintain my skills. Once you know English, other languages become less important unless you need them for work or you talk to people who use that language frequently.
I have no idea what you were talking about in the beginning about tenses LOL 😂 . It’s funny when you’re a native speaker you “just know” how to read, write, and speak your language and much less on how to describe or explain the structure of the language itself (if that made sense). Here in the U.S. our public school system is broken down into Elementary School (grades K - 5), then Middle School (grades 6 - 8) and finally High School (grades 9 - 12). 🌴☀️🌴
I know what you mean but it's funny to us because here at school we learn all about grammar structure and sometimes we even have to learn Latin terms while Americans are like "what's an article?" 😃 If K stands for Kindergarten then that's a different school here, then we have Elementary/Basic/Primary School for 9 years (grades 1 - 9) and then High/Secondary School (where we call grades again 1 - 4 but it's basically 10 - 13).
Oh, this was a very inormative video. Your english is very understandable. My first language after my native english was french, and I chose it because they were no longer teaching russian which I was interested in, and my mom had moved to france to 'enjoy herself', so I thought I should be able to talk when visiting her there. A year later she was back in the US but I continued with french until college and took another year of it there, then studied for 3 months at a university in Nantes, France and everything was in french! I started learning russian about a year before the ukraine war, then continued with it using Duolingo. I like the way russian sounds, it's very sexy to me. In Czech Republic or Slovakia do the children carry their father's first name as their middle name?
That is so cool that you've also learnt different languages. But it's the first time we read someone saying that Russian sounds sexy, haha 😀 Middle names are not really a thing here, almost nobody has them. In 99% it's simply just first and last name. But in the past (not very long ago) kids sometimes have been named after their fathers, so sons and fathers could have the exact same first and second name 🙂
@@tommyandpeter in my family it's common to have a middle name that once belonged to another family member, usually two or so generations before. My middle name belonged to my grandmother's father, and her brother, and my uncle (her son). When I say russian sounds sexy, I really mean certain russians make it sound so, lol. I really like some modern russian music, hip-pop or rap, but my favorite is an folk rock singer songwriter guy named Sergey Serotkin: th-cam.com/video/9QFKHAIKB_4/w-d-xo.html
It's nice that Tommy wanted to learn french but it's a very difficult language. You are right when you said that french peoples do not want to speak english or even other languages because they speak badly. At school we never have learned languages very well it's not a priority in our education and i regret it because it's usefull.
It's interesting that it's not only English speaking countries but also France where learning other languages is not a priority. But to be fair, when we travelled in France, of course we also met people who spoke English and didn't refuse 😊
Hey, something unrelated. Just watched a Czech movie called Honeymoon (Libanky), a really good movie that deals with homophobia in Czech Republic. Have you guys seen it? In one of your next videos you could talk about the general attitude and how it is to be LGBT in Czechia/Slovakia. I'm really interested how it compares to other Slavic countries. Maybe also talk about movies/music from CZ/SK?
We haven't seen the movie, actually this is the first time I hear about it 😄 But yes, we have been thinking about doing a video about gay life in our countries. We have it on our list so sooner or later we should film it 😊
@@tommyandpeter Another cool idea would be a sightseeing tour of Brno with the main attractions, your favourite places. Maybe in sommer, when the corona measures aren't so strict. I was in Brno last year and didn't see anything but the Astronomic clock and that famous horse statue with a big "you know what". I wanted to see Villa Tugendhat, but it was booked for weeks and galleries and museums all closed. Then I ate the worst spaghetti of my life on main square near Astronmic clock for like 30 euro. I felt robbed :-/ Bratislava on the other hand made a much better impression on me.
@@kleinerfuchsi Haha, that statue as well as the astronomical clock are both famous for all the wrong reasons 😄 Villa Tugendhat is very popular, you need to book your tickets months in advance. We went there a few years ago. Those spaghetti were really overpriced, normally it would cost maybe 5 euros, it must have been a tourist trap or you ordered something super special 😊 We don't visit the city center during the pandemic but when the situation gets better, we'd love to film a video about our city.
Hi guys. As a speaker of the Russian language I completely understand your struggle with articles, tenses and other grammatical stuff. That is the disaster of slavic languages speakers. But your English is good. At first Peter's pronunciation seemed funny to me. The first video I saw on your channel was video about your coming out story (probably that was Peter's story). So the topic was very serious and the conversation was very meaningful. But I was wondering "I heard somewhere such accent. Where was it". And then I gasped. It reminded me the voice of Denis Reed (well, not completely, but some intonations). And I used to have a roommate from Poland, he spoke with the same pronunciation. But his pronunciation was not funny for me, because I met him long before I saw any of Reed's videos. Anyway, now I love Peter's shy and timid manere of speaking. Peter, you are getting better and better with your speaking skills.
We had to look up who Denis Reed is 😄 Interesting that you pay attention to accents when watching his videos 🤔 It's a funny association, especially with Peter who is Slovak and not Czech, but I guess the accent of our Czech/Slovak/Polish region is all similar. Since we are from the region, we can hear some differences, for example I can recognize Polish accent and to me it sounds different than our Czech accent 😊
Hey guys, your English is progressing very well, don’t feel a need to explain yourselves and as a gay American I would like to see an entire video of you two speaking your native tongue. It’s how I learn other languages as well, by watching others speak their language with the closed caption on and I read a long. So keep on moving forward, your inspiring my husband and I to start a TH-cam channel as well and we appreciate your videos.
Thanks, Cody! As we said in the video, that's how we improved our English skills as well. First we started watching American TV shows with Czech subtitles and eventually we switched to English subtitles to enable us to "think" in English as well without the need of translating into our language. Good luck with your channel 😊
Thanks guys, my husband and I are in our mid 30s and we live in the south. We do a lot between our careers, redoing 150 year old houses, our mountain home, we are extremely adventurous, hiking, kayaking, lake life, it would make a good channel it’s just making time to film and edit. We may try it though, recording our life’s, it would be awesome to be able to show our kids once we have some one day. Keep up the videos, we enjoy seeing other gay couples especially in Europe. Once this “pandemic” is over we can’t wait to travel.
That sounds like a lot of fun, and a lot of work! Unfortunately filming TH-cam videos is quite time consuming, at least in our case - it takes a lot of time to edit everything together, But at least it would be easier for you to film in English so that would make it faster 😃
Thank you. I only had the choice to learn French but I really wanted Spanish. I was quite good with French but now it is gone. Spanish would be great as we now have so many Spanish speaking people in the US. It is funny how life and education opportunities affect us later in life. Please keep up the great Podcasts.
Thanks, Sam! We figured Spanish was the most commonly learned foreign language in the US due to its Spanish speaking minority. Interesting you only had the choice to learn French.
wow so interesting. love it all. i am australian, english speaking of course, but speak fluent indonesian. It is common here through primary school and secondary school to learn two useless languages - italian or french. more recently though asian languages are being taught which are more useful because of our asian neighbours. anyway i hope one day you will visit Oz.
Haha, it's funny that Italian and French are useless for you, it's of course completely different in Europe. It's good that now people can choose languages that make more sense in your part of the world.
It is interesting to hear about the implications and interactions after Czechoslovakia split. As for languages, in the USA we are spoiled. Since the country is large, most never go where they need another language. We had options of Spanish and French in school. I chose French, but Spanish would have been more useful. If you want to practice English, we can set up a video call. :)
I remember a lot of kids who chose German as their first language regretted their choice later on and wished they'd chosen English instead since it's more useful. I guess it's the same with French and Spanish in the US (perhaps unless you live close to the French speaking part of Canada).
Wow, very interesting, obviously in your country, they stress learning a second language. In US schools now, I think one has a choice of studying a foreign language in high school, 10 through 12 grades. Now in this area because it was predominately settled by the French and some versions of that language are still spoken in the southern part of Louisiana, the state has tried to reinstate the French language by a French immersion program in the lower grades. That has helped some to preserve the French language in Louisiana. My mother and fathers generation had mandatory school attendance however they were forbidden and punished for speaking French at school. They were forced to learn English. Prior to starting school they spoke only French as was the norm for all of this area. Both my parents spoke French to each other and English to us children. I rode a school bus where most of the children spoke French to each other, therefore between home and the school bus, I learned French. Had to if you wanted to know what was going on and being said. Today, my children know very little French and it is the same with others their age. They had a choice to learn a different language in high school but many don't take that opportunity, and if they do , it's only for one year. Getting back to my statement about speaking different versions of French From the start, Louisiana was a French colony. Then it was ceded to the Spanish, then again to the French, then sold to the US by Napoleon. A lot of public records are in French and Spanish. In the 1700's there was the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia by the British, most of which settled in south Louisiana. The French they spoke was the old French language of France which did not change much and became known as Cajun. Then there was all the unrest in the Caribbean islands of Santa Domingo and Haiti where many blacks came to the New Orleans area in the 1700"s. They spoke a French patois which is still spoken by many black people today. Sorry for the long narrative but I thought it would be interesting to the two of you. You don't have to worry about your English, you both do very well. Take care and I look forward to next week. Tony
Hi Tony, thanks for the history lesson, it's very interesting. It's crazy to think that your parents were discouraged from speaking French in a democratic country, it sounds rather like something from our communism era. Good thing you managed to learn French on your own as a kid. It's hard for me to understand why someone would choose not to learn a language at school when they get the opportunity but as we said in the video, it must be different for native English speakers who know they can use their language all around the world.
Hi friends, I just watched a part of the video, but once again, I don't have an Eng>>Fr translation. I will look tomorrow morning if it works better at the beginning of the computer. Good night. Kisses
Hi Musu, it's strange that the translation doesn't work sometimes. You see English subtitles but sometimes there is no option to choose French translation? I hope it's not a problem only with our videos.
@@tommyandpeter Hello, The problem is the same with the other videos. At first everything works fine, but after several translations it doesn't work anymore. The translation English (automatically generated) >>>FR or other languages is not done anymore. I reset in the translation menu without any effect. In the translation settings, some offer several translations in the subtitles (up to 17 sometimes) and when you choose your country directly, it works. It's a huge job. It seems to me that you already have it once or twice. I like to comment following . Bon appétit. Kisses Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
@@musu6650 We're sorry to hear that. Hopefully TH-cam will fix this bug soon so that our international subscribers will be able to enjoy our videos without interruptions again 😊
I am so sorry that Slovakia is cruel and did that to you, breaks my heart. Well at least you are better off where you are now. I totally understand how you guys feel. I was born in the U.S. but being Jewish we learn Hebrew first. In my family, we spoke Hebrew, Swedish (because we are also Swedish) and English. But I use to be able to speak German, French, Arabic, and Finnish. It is in there some where rattling around lol! Even today it is hard for me to translate into English what I want to say. It comes out in Swedish or Hebrew depending on who I am talking to sometimes. I remember when I first moved to Louisiana people here would speak Cajun French to me but I didn't really understand it. So, when a large group of them would be near speaking it and someone would ask a question. I unknowingly would start to speak to them in Swedish haha! Which they certainly didn't understand so it made for interesting conversation. My husband likes that I know other languages but hates it when I get upset I start to speak in anyone of them that pops into my mind at the time. Drives him nuts. Also, I have an iphone and it is set for Swedish. Recently we went to Florida for a weekender and he used my phone for directions. So suddenly my phone started speaking Swedish to him. It was so funny you would think after 14 years he would be use to it lol! I understood every word. So, he would ask what it is saying because I was driving in heavy traffic and couldn't switch spots. The situation made me laugh so hard. Funny thing though when we are on vacation he likes to use me as a translator when other people nearby are speaking another language. He doesn't seem to mind then. By the way, I love the way you both speak English it is very good. I like Peter how thoughtful you sound when you speak it is very refreshing. Also, I love how Tommy teases you it is very cute.
Well, as I said - stupid Slovakia can keep it 😀 So funny that other languages pop up in your head and you start speaking them. We can imagine how that can drive your husband nuts 😁 And we are glad to hear you like how we speak English, thanks 😊
It's Slovakia that wanted to split off from the Czech Republic. It was the usual "we don't want Prague to decide for us". However it was a rather political decision, they never asked public what they want, there was no referendum.
Yes, we have those kind of politicians also, who ignore public opinion, and basically do what their corporate and wealthy donors want them to do. Any way, you two have sort of “reunited” your two countries by being together and ignoring artificial boundary lines, so all is well that ends well for Peter and Tommy.
I definitely know what you mean when you 'lose' a language from lack of practice. As a native English speaker, I took Latin and French, as a kid. As a young adult traveling, learning Mandarin (just enough to get by) and Portuguese (still reasonably fluent), but I totally lost French.
Brilliant. That was one of your funniest videos yet! You’re right...we couldn’t tell the difference between Peter’s Slovak and Tommy’s Czech. But for sure it was impressive the way you can so easily switch between one and the other and then back to English. However, guys, I must take issue with any comparison of British/Irish English to that used by our North American friends. These days all the young folk in NA speak ‘vocal fry’. OMG!!! Thank you for demonstrating your own native languages. I’ve asked a couple of times for this so I’m thrilled you did. I have two passports. I hold one Irish and one British. All thanks to the Irish constitution. Tommy, it was worth Peter losing his Slovak nationality because he’s such a catch. You should be sooo proud of him. Now...tell us more about these “threes” you’ve been having!!! 🤣😀😀🇮🇪🏳️🌈🇬🇧
Thanks, glad you enjoyed the video! But Stefan, how come you don't like vocal fry? Oh my goddddd, it sounds so sophisticatedddd 😇 I didn't know you could have a British passport "just because", that's really cool! You have one foot in the EU and the other one outside, something many Brits must envy 😊 I do appreciate Peter's gesture of changing his citizenship even though I didn't ask him to do that. And it was trees, not threes 😜
@@tommyandpeter OMG!!! You’re involving trees in your late night manoeuvres? That’s scandalous. You should both be ashamed. Those saplings must be traumatised! 🤣 It gives a whole new meaning to the term “getting wood”!! 🤣
This was so much fun. Thank you for making this video. And your languages does sound alike. Personal question and you dont have to answer it if you dont want to. But i remember that in a other video that you said your country doesn't allow same sex partners to adopt. What if you do get the german siticianship and move there? Would you be able to adopt then (if you would ever want kids though)? I myself am a black latina. I know spanish, english, dutch and my native language papiamentu (which literally means talking lol. Its basicly one of the last black slave language (not dialect) left in the world).
That's a good question! I suppose if I got German citizenship, we could get married in Germany and adopt there. I assume Czech Republic would recognize the marriage/adoption then. But since we're not planning to have kids, we didn't really try to find more information about the topic. You know a lot of languages! Papiamentu sounds interesting and very rare, you need to help preserve it 😊
@@tommyandpeter i understand :D. Yes i kind of do lol. I am better at languages then math for example lol. We try, we talk it at home. I grew up talking dutch mostly and still living here (Holland) Just makes it easier
I am macedonian/serbian. I understand all south slavic languages. I can understand some czech (I was Erasmus student in Praha and my parents lived there for 7 years). The czech people are the best when understanding languages! THE BEST! Slovak is much more tangible with serbian, so many people in Serbia understand slovak more. Maybe because of the only recognized minority language outside of SK is in Serbia! So I traveled to work in Belgrade with slovak ladies (famous for pastries in belgrade) :) In addition, Slovene is more similar to czech, as belarussian and ukrainian. Russian is like south slavic with nominativ, genitiv dativ :) Polish is the most difficult to understand, the most difficult among slavic languages :) Thanks for videos again and sharing! I have full respect for you guys and I love Czechia very very much. Everyone was kidding with me while I was living in Praha for trying to speak czech... I adore the accent, it is the most special. You can sense it when you speak english!!! But I guess Peter is speaking czech at home (he has more czech accent when speaking english)????
The main difference with Yugoslavia is that we have subtitles, so all understand some English. AND we consider our languages very different, even though serbian and croatian are more close that sk and cz. I was impressed when I heard that you can speak slovak while working in Prague government :) I hope that your prime minister speaks czech :) Sorry :)
It's very interesting with Slavic languages. Depending on which country you're from, you understand some Slavic languages more than others. Since you're Macedonian/Serbian, you understand other South Slavic languages more but we don't understand them almost at all. We hear it's Slavic, but the words sound "strange", sometimes you think you recognize a word, but then you find out it means something else 😁 For you Polish is the hardest one but since they are our neighbors, we share more similarities with them than with South Slavic languages, so we can understand them at least partially. It's not as similar as Czech and Slovak, but there are some similarities. Knowing both Czech and Slovak helps understand Polish better because they share some similarities with Czech and different similarities with Slovak (but there's still a big part which is completely different). When we speak to each other at home, Peter speaks mainly in Slovak and I speak in Czech but we mix the languages together and sometimes we can't remember which words are in Czech and which ones are in Slovak 😃 Our prime minister speaks mainly Czech but he makes mistakes influenced by his Slovak. People make fun of his Czech, but it's mainly because he's an idiot 😜 By the way, we only see statistics about our subscribers but we don't see information about each person separately so we don't know who lives where, we only know how many views we got from Italy in total 😊
@@tommyandpeter Yes. yes. I know, I assumed that you speak Moravian :) For south slavs, national pride is big deal, so they do not understand each other. I am sure that you can understand macedonian Ty=Kj, D”=Gj, and slovak Dz=S in cirylic are from us :) I did not want to speak about myself, I just wanted to get idea about the views, that is why I said Italy :) And your positive energy brought me luck ;) Since I”ve watched your channel, I was in interview procedure for a job, and 3 days ago I started to work!!! :) So you have influenced one life. That is the most important :) Stay safe and enjoy! 🤗
Each language has it's hard parts 😊 "Ahoj" is how we say hello in both Czech and Slovak. "Děkuji" is thank you in Czech while "Ďakujem" is the Slovak version. "Nashledanou" in Czech and "Dovidenia" in Slovak is how we say see ya or until next time. As you can see, sometimes the words are the same, sometimes they're similar and other times they're completely different.
i think slovak and czech are like croatian and serbian and bosnian, different languages but somehow same and very simmilar, it is like that with slavic languages, when you were using czech/slovak i actualy was able to understand few words and the one i did not they sound familiar so by pure logic i could figured it out. serbian and croatian have different grammary and structure of sentences, some words are completly different but we understand each others with no issues.. when i was in prague i could figure out signs, menus, even the working time of stores wich was on a shop door, days of the week, sobota, in some parts of croatia and slovenia it is sobota instead subota for saturday.. it is kinda shame no one, except my late grandmother spoke slovakian, considering our grea grandfather was slovakian, my grandad was polish ( cant figure out any polish, even if my life depends on it if i have to read it), one of my great grandmothers was half hungarian half czech. czech i an fogure out, but hungarian, omg it is like someone tossing stones in their mouth,nothing makes any sense...
There is a common ground where all the Slavic languages come from. We also can understand a few words when we are in Croatia. Hungarian is from a totally different group of languages so it's a complete mess for us 😁 You have a very interesting family history.
I do notice that 'the', 'a' and 'and' are absent when its used as second language. They are probably the most common words. It might be different now but we mainly do French or Spanish and then some might do German. I did about a year of Spanish at high school but didn't really continue it. I think they do start languages early these days. That's so ridiculous that Peter lost his Slovakia citizenship, he has a birth right to that. Hope things will change one day.
It's funny that you only had one year of Spanish, while we were "forced" to have 9 years of one language and 7 years of another language 😃 There are really big differences between English speaking countries and the rest. Peter could still ask for his Slovak citizenship back, it would be just extra administration work compared to having a wife, but he doesn't want it on principle.
@@tommyandpeter Haha must have been fun. I think they do start earlier in schools now. I suppose we have a lazy expectation that everyone will speak English eherever we go. For sure they don't deserve to have him and you if they don't accept your love.
Hey Guys! I like this Video so much! Congratulations Peter for the Czechian Citizenship! It’s almost better than the Slovakian because it’s a Homophobe State. Like Poland, like Hungary, its interesting, why all of the East~ States are Homophob? I am from Vienna, my Mother was born in Brno, I was so often in Brno, because I had relative in this beautiful old City. It was a pity, my also Czechian Grandmother and my Mother speak always in Czechian Language, but They don’t learned me to speak in her Language. So I can also only a little Bit Tschechisch. Oh, Pardon that was in Deutsch. I have also a nice German Family Name, it’s Vašek. Funny, no? Okay, Boys, I love Your Videos and like it always, your so sympathisch, Both! Many Greetings and I will look forward to your next Videos! Best Wishes and stay Safe for Corona, Karl. ❤️❤️
Hallo Karl, grüße aus Brünn 😊 Nice to see someone here with family ties to our city. Your family name is very German, yes 😄 It's a pity that Eastern Europe is rather homophobic (at least compared to the west), it's mostly because of our communist past - while Western Europe was democratic and was making progress in human rights, our countries were stuck in time and now they are catching up. Hopefully it will continue to improve. It's good to hear you enjoy our videos. Bis zum nächsten Mal 😊
We were given the option of French and Spanish at 10 with Latin and German added at 14. Most ppl chose Spanish because it's pretty useful in the US and the Americas. Pretty sure French is a little less popular now while Chinese has become more of a 2nd choice after Spanish. Just curious, why isn't Czechoslovakia a single country (given you share so much culture+language)?
I didn't know Chinese was becoming popular, it must be extremely hard just for the alphabet alone. Czechoslovakia used to be one country until 1993. Some Slovak politicians wanted to separate so that they could decide the faith of Slovakia on their own without being told by the government in Prague what to do. There was never any referendum, it was purely a political decision. A lot of people were (and still are) unhappy about it.
Hi guys! Well, try to learn portuguese and you´ll give up at the second day! French is a difficult one too, but i believe portuguese is worse. Your english is very good in deed! I´ve learned my english basically in the films, that were subtitled, and nowadays i speek in english every day as well, and it helps to improve and not forget. I´m a bit like Tommy, with interest in languages, but i prefer different ones, and now i´m trying the japanese. 😀 Maybe i´ll try czech, some day 😉. Let´s see... Take care! 💕
Portuguese is an interesting language - when I see it in written, it looks quite similar to Spanish, but when I hear it, it sounds completely different 😃 Japanese must be really hard, I'm sticking to languages with Latin alphabet for now 😁
@@tommyandpeteryes, portuguese is a latin one, as the Spanish, as italian, and very beautiful too, but very difficult as well!!! And japanese, is a challenge for me. It seems easy so far. The sounds and pronunciation is a bit difficult, but challenging! I like it 😄
Ahoj! de tus fans de Mexiko.🇲🇽. Gosh damn you guys speak flawless English. English has to be a very difficult language to learn. I lived and was educated in the US so I did not have to learn it. Thank goodness. 😬 You guys tell such interesting stories. We were sort of surprised EU rules permit Slovakia to not recognize marriage or unions from other EU countries. We get the popularity of German. You are surrounded by it! Nobody studies Polish? 🤣 Same sex marriage/unions make such a difference in acceptance and self esteem. We were married here in Mexico. 👬 Is there any legal difference in the rights of your union as opposed to marriage, other than the name?🌈 We love you guys muchísimo.💖💖
Hola chicos! I guess we're "lucky" because Czech and Slovak are such difficult languages that compared to them, English is quite easy (other than the damned tenses!) 😃 There are some cases when all EU countries have to recognize same sex unions and marriages from other countries but this is not one of them. The main difference between registered partnership and regular marriage is that we can't adopt kids. There are other differences as well, for example we can't have community property.
@@tommyandpeter Hahaha Jejeje from your fans in Mexico. NOW, after reading the comments, we finally understand why you guys brought up memories of Boris and Natasha! It is because they pronounced the G as a K. Like spyink instead of spying. It appears Peter who does tend to pronounce the G like a K (and we love it so much!!💕) was channelling Boris (or maybe Natasha😘) 😂🤣😂. We know you guys are obsessive perfectionists, but don't mess with the K for G, it is so charming! It gives us palpitations 💓. We are lovink you guys with todos nuestros corazones♥️♥️♥️
@@jimcomiskey567 Haha, I suppose it's a Slavic thing to pronounce G as K, or generally pronouncing the last letter of a word that way (K for G, T for D etc). We'd love to sound like native speakers but that's never gonna happen 😁
@@tommyandpeter Thank goodness you won't sound like natives, whatever that may be🤓. There are so many different English pronunciations in the world, all native. Your English is beautiful to listen to. 😻😍 Please keep "the Slavic thing".
Hi guys , i love your videos,but this one is very long, why not make 2 parts, after 10 minutes seeing have 20 minutes long to go , it's not sure I will wait to see the end
But all our videos are long 😃 Usually they're about 27-28 minutes in length, this one is maybe 2 minutes longer. Some time ago we made a poll, asking our viewers what kind of video length they prefer and most of them voted for 20-30 minutes. We do try to keep them under 30 minutes, sometimes even less, when it's too long, we split it into 2 videos, but this one didn't seem right to be split.
Peter that Polish sentence is correct -"Nie wiem co mam powiedzieć"... Besides Czech, Slovak and Polish languages are a little similar. And maybe you don't know, but some Czech words sounds /are funny for Polish people.
Polish is interesting, because some things are similar with Czech, some things are similar with Slovak and some things are completely different. Polish "Nie wiem co mam powiedzieć", Slovak "Neviem, čo mám povedať" 😊 Poles think Czech is funny, Czechs think Polish is funny - for example "Szpital na peryferiach" sounds hilarious 😄
Sorry Peter, no Slovak anymore, you are no longer Slovak! Just Kidding! Keep that Czech lingo. A different accent of language is always sexy. I was born in Frankfurt to a military parent, so until 18 I had dual citizenship with Germany and United States. So, in 1974, right at the end of the Vietnam War, I could have opted to become German and avoided the draft, but the war ended! I went back to Germany from second to fifth grade and took German in high school but barely used it after that and can only use a bit of it as a party trick now. Much like other people who take years of a language and then lose all of it years later. You almost made it sound like you script your videos, but there is no way you could be acting and giving us what you two give us. Your English is quite good. Very interesting and joyful (and poignant!) video today. Your part of the world has been through so much politically and not so very long ago as it turns out. Not all of it was from World War II. The fall of the U.S.S.R. caused a lot of change that affected your lives even now. We tend to not realize that here in the U.S..
Haha, Peter vowed never to switch from Slovak to Czech so it looks like we'll be keeping both languages at our place 😁 Your story is really interesting. It's too bad you forgot your German but when you don't have any use for the language anymore, it's hard to keep the knowledge, especially when there's no motivation. You're right, we don't script our videos. What we meant was that sometimes we get stuck in the middle of a sentence as we film and we need to stop to find the right word. We're not good actors so you'd know if it was scripted 😄 Our little country went through the hands of Austria-Hungary, Germany and the USSR within a short period of time so we've been through a lot indeed. It's only been 31 years since we the Velvet Revolution and the beginning of the current democratic regime.
I'd like to make a couple of suggestions, if I may: First, I would certainly acquire German nationality if it is available to you. I do not think it could do any harm and it might, one day, be useful. Second, I think it would be nice if, occasionally, you spoke your own language and put English subtitles as you did here. It is wonderful that you speak English for us, but, as a teacher of languages (mostly French!), I am keen that we should not assume that English will always be available.
You're right, it could be useful to have an extra citizenship just in case, even if we never use it. We left a sentence in Czech in our latest video as well so we might use it more in the future, who knows. Thanks for your suggestions 😊
Hello friends, It was very interesting to know how you learned these different languages and to see that learning the second language is different in different countries. It's a shame that Tommy couldn't continue the Frenchman. Homophobic Slovakia will one day have to change because the EU will no longer tolerate it, just like Hungary and Poland. Question religion ... maybe? I read, however, that she recognized homosexual couples since 2018. We were not entitled to a little word in the garden. Kisses to you both.
Hi Musu, It's indeed fun to compare differences between countries and hearing back from others how it is elsewhere. I wonder if I learned French instead of German, if I would use it more and it I'd still remember it now. But we'll never know that. I think there are some cases when all EU countries have to recognize same-sex relationships from other countries, for example if we wanted to go live in Slovakia. Also we heard that Slovakia is planning to change their laws so in the future people wouldn't lose their citizenships anymore.
maybe german comes naturally to you, isn't the Sudetenland part of the Czech and didn't Germany always tried to annexed it so you are doing the same to them (if my geography not messed up)
Indeed, Sudetenland is part of the Czech Republic and a lot of Germans used to live there, in some areas there were more Germans than Czechs so a lot of us (including me, Tommy) have German genes. We're not doing the same to them though, if you're thinking we're planning to annex Germany 😃
In my part of the United States, the mid Ohio Valley region, very few people speak anything but English. Other languages are not mandatory in school. We never hear any other language but English spoken in public. I did take Spanish in high school, but have never had anyone to speak it to or with, so I completely lost it. My ancestors came from England to America in the early 1700s, so even my ancestors only spoke English. But I do admire people who speak several languages. But here it’s almost no point to learn another language, because you’ll never have an opportunity to use it.
It sounds like you need to travel more, Thomas 😁 It's understandable, it's kinda pointless to learn languages when you don't have an opportunity to use them in real life. You'd have to travel to other countries and even then you could rely on your mother tongue unlike us.
I always love your video's beginnings. Thank goodness you do them in English as it's the only language I know. lol Oh Peter.........you are quite remembnsherable. HA HA HA Thanks for an great video. Always look forward to see my "only European" friends every week. :-)I agree with both of you...........why keep a citizenship in a country that is homophobic in this day and age. UGH
Glad you like the beginnings because we don't know how to make them better 😃 Don't worry, we're planning to continue in English, otherwise nobody would be watching 😁 See you next week!
You speak american english better than a lot of the morons here. Living in Texas we were exposed to spanish early on because this was originally Mexican territory, so I learned some of that and am trying to learn German, Dutch and Austrian which are a lot alike. I can speak some French and other Latin based languages due to my Spanish/Mexican lessons. Btw, I love watching you guys interact. That look Tommy gave Peter when he said he knew you'd be together forever was priceless. :D
Thanks for the compliment! Knowing one language opens the door to other languages from the same family - just like Latin based languages, Slavic languages also share a lot of similarities. German and Austrian are definitely alike, we call them both German here 😁
@@tommyandpeter Yeah, I've learned enough to get fed in most languages so I call them "Kitchen Languages". Even in your countries, because we're such a melting pot of people that there are slavic grocers and restaurants here.
I had to take three years of Latin in HS. I HATED IT. Then we had a choice of French, Spanish, or German. I chose Spanish and had three years of that. It was so long ago. If I went to Spain I could probably get by enough as a tourist. Did I mention that I HATED Latin? And I hated my Latin teacher. In college I did not have to take a language. I can’t remember why. Maybe because it was only a two year degree. Again, so long ago, I don’t remember. High school was four years of hell for me. I won’t bore you with that. Anyway, don’t be self conscious about your English because it sounds fine to me. The most noticeable thing is that you tend to pronounce “g” with a “k” sound, as in “ everythink ” rather than “everything”. It’s interesting to hear about your life experiences, gay or straight.
In my (Tommy's) high school we had to choose between Latin and Programming. I chose Programming 😃 Shockingly 2/3 of my class chose Latin because they hated previous Computer course so they wanted to escape Programming and chose Latin instead. I never regretted my choice. We did notice recently that we typically pronounce the last letter of words differently in our languages than in English and we then apply that kind of pronunciation to English as well. Czech/Slovak pronunciation is a bit lazy, for example when a word ends with a D, we tend to pronounce it as T because it's easier. So we would for example pronounce "tend" as "tent".
Now there are some recent judgements of the court of justice of the european union which recognise same-sex couples equal rights even in countries such as Bulgaria and Romania, which do not recognise equal marriage at all, so the court is paving the way to full recognition of same-sex marriage all across the EU. If Peter sued the slovak state for depriving him of his slovak nationality, he should win the case.
Good point. We were thinking about taking a legal action as one of my friends is a lawyer in Slovakia but in the end we decided it's not worth it... Czechia is a better country anyway (in lgbt laws too).
Google Translate is good for single words, but never use it for sentences! It translates word for word without respecting the grammar of the target language. I always find it cute that you pronounce your W as V, Peter. I guess you kept that from your German lessons. Your true colour is showing, Peter. You're not a real blonde! Haha
Google Translate creates some funny translations when you translate whole sentences 😃 We only use it as an inspiration, it's not yet smart enough. It's true, W is pronounced as V in German, as well as in Czech and Slovak. Actually even though we have W in our alphabet, the letter doesn't exist in any Czech/Slovak words. The winter hair is slowly coming to its end 😊
You should not worry about your English, is easy to understand and excellent. 😀❤️
Thanks, we're glad to hear that 😊
Both of you have amazing pronunciation. Very clear. That’s the best. Accents are always a welcome part of a person’s pronunciation.
Thank you! My English pronunciation is probably clearer than my Czech one, because I give it more effort, since it's not my native language 😃
You're English is perfect. You are very impressive!
Thanks, Keith 😊
Yes, even tho they both have slight accents they are easily understood.
OMG. I was smiling the entire time. I was born in Jamaica and then migrated to the US. So I have two citizenships as well. thank you guys for sharing.
We're glad we could make you smile 😁 Having two citizenships must be nice, too bad Peter lost his Slovak one 😃
I studied French in school and when I go there I can find my way around the city and order from the menu. I can read it easier than speak it. I try to speak the native language in a non-English speaking country like Spain or Italy because I think they appreciate that you are trying to be understood. You both speak English very well and understand the grammar better than many Americans. And Tommy has a very keen sense of humor in English. He makes me laugh.
I agree, it's a nice gesture to learn at least a few words when you visit another country to show the locals that you cared enough 😊 Of course sometimes it backfires as it can encourage them to reply back to you fluently in their language and you'll understand nothing 😃
@@tommyandpeter Thankfully I have never had anyone make fun of me.....maybe a smile but then helpful advice.
27:50 - I literally fell out of my chair laughing. I still have tears in my eyes...!!! 😂🤣🙃
Slovakia lost it's biggest gem forever 😄
I am a volunteer ESL tutor and sometime substitute ESL instructor. My students are adults who have recently arrived in the US, some came here because of bad events in their home countries. I am so proud of their achievement learning English. It’s not an easy language (lots of rule exceptions). My grandparents emigrated from Austria-Hungary in the 1900s. I guess this is my “give back” to those who left their native country.
I always enjoy your videos.
Hi Frank, that is so interesting! Our former monarchy 😁 It's never easy to learn a new language, so it's great that you've been helping in this matter 😊
Tommy and Peter, nise to see you.
That was REALLY interesting! I've always wondered how you both became so proficient in English. From this video, it would appear that the study of language has always been a part of your lives - from early on. That explains a lot. A question for you: being as proficient in English as you both are, do you ever find yourselves thinking in English - and then having to translate back to your first language?
True, although it's the same for everyone on our countries nowadays since it's mandatory to start learning your first foreign language very early on. It's then up to everyone how they will continue when they finish their studies. A lot of people never use foreign languages in their lives and they lose all their knowledge.
Good question about thinking in English - since we watch movies and TV shows in English with English subtitles, we don't translate them into our languages but process all the information directly in English. So yes, sometimes I find myself thinking in English and I have a hard time remembering what the Czech translation is 😃
i think it is kinda same for everyone in most slavic countries, especialy for generations born from 1980, in my country (croatia), when i was in school first foregien language we start to learn is in 4th grade ( age 9/10, depending did you start elementary school at age 6 or 7), and we were able to schoose between english and german, (coast and istria had usualy english and italian)second one came in 1st grade of highschool (age 14/15), so in highschool there were 2 obligatory foregien languages for all schools ( both gymnasiums and tehnical schools ( car repairmen, eletricians, hair dressers etc), but if you went to gymnasium like me, then you had more than 2 obligatory languages( general gymnasium had english, german, italian as optional, latin, classic gymnasium had mostly english, german, optional italian or french, greek and latin), tehnical schools had italian as optional. plus 80ties generations were war generations, so we grew up mostly or as refugess in west europe ( thaz why i speak icelandic and my cousines speak swedish) coz i spent 5 years in iceland from ages 13 to 17, would never go there, but life wanted me to be hit by granade, but thaz other story). so a lot of us spent some time outside country, the ones who did not, well it was a time of cartoon network without any subtitles, time of amigas, comodore, ataries, nintendos, first pc, everything was on english, so english for us become something we must use, we must know.. then came forums, internet, chats, MMO games and we start to speak with bunch of people online, not to mention a lot of tourists on coast started to come, people on coast speak to 5 languages, especialy younger ones working in tourism. generations born from 2000 till today are even different than us, they start to use english or german as obligatory first foregien language at age 7 or 8, second grade of elementary school, at grade 6 i think, ages 11 to 12, they start to learn second, then in highschool, they start to learn third, gymnasiums even have 4 to 6 foregien languages. add all MMO games kids play today, social medias etc and everyone from younger generations is fluent in both german and english, coastal areas italian.so for majority of us, watching movies and tv shows in english and or german without subtitles is normal, i even think in english, german or icelandic once i switch to certain language. when i play mmo games i literaly think in english, if someone ask me something in croatian i answer in english, coz i did not switch back lol.. for most slavic nations, especialy younger generations english is more of a need to function in job market ( especialy if you are in eu member state), here in croatia you cant even get simple jobs without a knowledge of at least one foregien language. also a lot of people leave to work in other parts of EU, so most people have at least B or C level of english or german..
That was fascinating. When I was in elementary school we were taught a little Spanish (Florida's second language) but later I tried to take it in college and couldn't do it. The best time to teach a second language is when your are young which is what your system did. I wish I had learned when young. I took Latin in high school but barely made it through. You guys are smart so learning a language comes easier to you (my opinion). English is hard. It has so many weird exceptions on how to use it. Your English is better than many Americans I have known. The US is isolated language territory except for Spanish. You have a greater opportunity for multi-cultural interaction. Congratulations Peter on your citizenship. I would want Tommy if I ever toured Europe. Thanks guys.
Yeah, they also say here that it's easier to learn new languages when you're still a kid. But it's never too late to start, it's just gonna take longer :) I feel like every language has its difficulties, Czech grammar is crazy and much more complicated than English in general, except tenses and articles 😁 In Europe it's almost impossible not to need languages, unless you never leave your village.
I first found your channel while searching for TH-cam channels about travel in Croatia and enjoyed it. Now, I've watched this video and loved it. As so many others have said, your English language skills are great. Don't worry about the small stuff. I've been learning German for years, and cannot speak it as well as either of you speak English.
My husband and I had the pleasure of visiting Prague a number of years ago and loved your beautiful capitol city. This summer we will take a trip to Croatia and I hope to visit the village my grandparents left when they immigrated to the United States. Best wishes and hugs from Palm Springs, California.
Hi Tony, thanks for sharing that. We love hearing from our viewers, learning where they're from and how they found our channel. German is a pretty difficult language so well done for even trying to learn it!
We're glad to hear you liked Prague. We haven't been there for a few years either since it's not near where we live. We hope you'll enjoy your time in Croatia. It's a beautiful country and we can't wait to visit it again.
I learned so much: about you, your countries, your languages, and the preferences within your country. I was one who asked you for a video in your language (turning on CC!) because I think its important to hear and appreciate you in your natural language. Thank you for this small example of your language(s)! Watching this video several times I was (somewhat) able to follow the similarities in language. Again, your English (tenses, and all) are well understood and knowing how much struggle it is for you to learn and care about "proper" words to use is for me, humbling. That is, until I learn Slovak, or Czech! Where can I hear / see Peter's weather forecasting? Yet another example of language understanding. Together forever? Oh yes, no doubt!
Thanks, David, we're happy you enjoyed the video! We felt a bit weird speaking on camera in Czech/Slovak so we kept it short, maybe in the future we'll feel more comfortable 😃 We were actually thinking of including a snippet of Peter's weather forecast in the video but then we forgot! He's on TV only very rarely but maybe we'll get a chance to include it some other time.
04:29 - Tommy, compiling information into columns even before Excel spreadsheets were cool.
I did! Everyone's diaries were full of emotions, in my case it was: Dear diary, here's the list of cassettes I currently own, in alhabetical order.
Oh, I'm beginning to understand your speech!!!
You don't need to act the beginnings of your videos. They are perfect because they are real. Real people getting in touch with real people. And I think your suscribers love the way you are. At least I really do.
"The baby was born". Poor Peter!!!! So cute.
I live in Argentina so my native language is Spanish. I studied English at primary and secondary school. But I am university teacher of Portuguese. Beautiful mix.
Hugs/ abrazos/ abraços from Argentina. Stay safe.
Thanks, Liliana! We never know what to say at the beginning of the videos to start it off, that's usually our biggest struggle 😃
That's a really nice mix of languages! Especially knowing Spanish and English is very useful in a huge part of the world. It's also cool to find out that you're a university teacher. Well done! 😊
Lol. It must be hard......to speak so many different languages. Thanks guys. ❤️
But it's fun at the same time!
Howdy Guyz!! In America, schools are K-6 is elementary, 7-9 is Middle school or Junior High & 10-12 is High School. I have often heard that English is a very difficult subject to learn because of all the incongruities of our language. You have a real handle on the English language! It's a wonderful gift to pick up so many other languages the way that Tommy does!! I love to hear you speak in your native language! You two are so cute together! Love the way that Peter blushes!!! Big Hugs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Ken! We don't have middle schools here (although we call high school middle school in general 😃) but on the other hand kindergarten is a separate school here. I guess English difficulty is dependent on your native language. Czech and Slovak are much more difficult so we find English quite easy in comparison. We're glad you enjoyed the video 😊
Ken Stickles I am from Indiana, and when I went to school we did not have Kindergarten, we went straight to first grade. So elementary was 1-6. Our Junior High was 7-8. And High School was 9-12. When my son and daughter went to school, it was in the order of how you went. High school (for me) was Freshman (9th grade), Sophomore (10th grade), Junior (11th grade), Senior (12th grade). It was strange to me when my son and daughter had only 3 years of high school, and we had 4!!!
In Poland the MOST MOST popular Czechoslovak TV series is: "Nemocnice na kraji mesta" (Szpital na peryferiach)...... To watch also on TH-cam..... Greetings from Poland.
Haha, that's awesome and funny! I remember when I was a kid, we watched Bolek i Lolek 😃 At that time I didn't know it came from Poland.
Your english is very good boys.
Thanks, Marc! There's always space for improvement but we're happy to hear that 😊
Your English is really very good! I'm sure making the videos improves it too. I grew up speaking German at home but mostly lived in the United States, so both are my native languages. I've studied Spanish and speak pretty well, and now I'd like to learn Hebrew. Languages are so much fun!
Thanks, Tom! The two languages both of us studied at school and they're both your native languages. Someone has it too easy 😃 Hebrew is an interesting choice, must be rather difficult!
First of all, I like your intros! Secondly, thank you for sharing your languages backgrounds. Thirdly, English is a difficult language to learn and master. As you may know, learning another language in the United States is for the most part optional. Though I took Spanish in high school, spent 6 months going to an American school in Madrid, and walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain, my Spanish is almost non-existent. I know I missed out a lot by not speaking Spanish. I cringe when I hear stories about Americans who travel abroad and get upset when the locals don't speak English - sheesh!
As for France, many, many years ago when I was visiting Paris, I needed to purchase a subway ticket in French (with help from a traveling companion who spoke French). As I stumbled through the request, the station operator, in almost perfect English said "You must learn to speak French." I was mortified at the time but now would think it was a funny but valuable lesson.
I appreciate the work you both put in to share your lives while speaking a nonnative language and for your videos.
It's a pity you lost your knowledge of Spanish but it's understandable - just like when Peter used to be fluent in German and now he can't put a sentence together because he never needed to use it.
Your story from France is funny but it would be hard to learn a different language every time you travel to another country. It's a nice gesture to learn a few words but I wouldn't expect tourists to speak fluently in the local language 😊
What a wonderful conversation to watch and listen. Your accents have always reminded me of my Grandmother who grew up in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The area her family lived in would have been the Sudetenland. In grade school I was first introduced to German and had a total of 5 years of study. I was never able to speak to my Grossvater or Grossmutter or my poor Grandmother, She was also disappointed since we were taught high German and not colloquial German. So, as they say, if you don`t use it, you lose it,,, sadly I have lost it. You are such a loving and wonderful couple. I look forward to your next video. P.S. You both speak English very well.
Thanks, Terry. Looks like your grandmother was part of the German minority in what is now the Czech Republic, as were my ancestors. My home town is/was part of the Sudetenland with majority of people speaking German prior to WWII. Now it's completely Czech.
rolling the eyes was perfect ...))) 👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks, Peter didn't even notice it until he started cutting the footage 😆
Thank you for doing this video! I am glad that you two learned English! :) It's nice to see you speak Czech and Slovak! Thank you! Danke! Děkuji Ďakujem!!!!!
You're welcome and well done on all the international thank yous 😁
I think you guys are brilliant. I love how practical Tommy is. I love how sweet Peter is. I very much appreciate your speaking English. But...my only disappointment is that Peter does not stick his head outside for a weather report! Haha! Because he said he wanted to be a meteorologist/weatherman.
Thanks! Not only Peter wanted to be a meteorologist but he is one! Believe me, he gives me a detailed weather report every day, whether I want to hear it or not 😁
The reason I mentioned Peter should stick his head out the door is because John Karanski
Sorry, so, the John guy is/was on the American version of The Office. He started doing a TH-cam program about a year ago called “SGN”, which stands for “Some Good News”. He has since sold out to CBS, I think. Anyway, it was a very good vlog. One of the things he did on his program was that he would have celebrities like Brad Pitt or whomever, stick their head outside and let the SGN viewers know what the weather was right then. It was funny. Just thought I’d mention it. I’m going to bed now. Bye.
Oh! Thanks for the explanation, now it makes more sense 😁
Hi Tommy and Peter,
Loving this video and also others you filmed. 💕💕💕
Your English is very good and improving from video to video, take it easy, you have progressed and will progress a lot.
Recently I needed to help a relative on learning a foreign language and I said let me try and install Google Translate App on my phone. Or you can try some other similar App.
It can be handy to quickly get a word or phrase translated Or even, after translating into the foreign language, just to press the "voice" button to "hear" how to pronounce it. (This is not advertising hahahaha).
Good decision on choosing to talk in English in your videos, right, it makes them more available to people all over the world.
Your love for each other shows up in each of your videos!
You are a lovely couple!
See you in the next one.
Take care.
💕💕💕
Thanks! We're trying to continuously work on our English skills, it's a never-ending process. We also use Google Translate on our phones when we need to find a certain word. It can be harder with names of plants, then it's better to check on Wikipedia if it's really what we want to talk about. See you in our next video 😊
Ok Tommy and Peter I am just catching up on some older post. I worked and hosted High School Foreign Exchange students in the 90's and up to 2005 including a young man from the Czech Republic. Trust me your English is absolutely great. I have no problem understanding every word you say. Have a good day.
Thank you, we are glad you think so 😊😉
A very informative video. Thank you. I love when Peter covers his face in embarrassment; it’s so cute ❤️.
Haha, thank you 😀🤭
You both speak amazing English! The video was very interesting. I took Spanish as my second language and I also use a translator to translate other languages. My husband speaks Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic, and English.
Thanks, Jodie! We keep trying to improve our skills. Your husband knows a lot of languages which are not so common in our part of the world!
@@tommyandpeter Your welcome and I'm still learning some of his languages.
I'm so glad to have found you guys. You're great! The content your create takes me back to my roots. My grandma and great grandparents were from Czechoslovakia. It's a beautiful land. Thank you for all that you do and best wishes for happiness and productivity at your country home! Hugs!
So cool that they were from Czechoslovakia 😊 We are happy that we are able to take you back through our videos. Thank you for your kind words ❤😊
Hi guys ! Descovered your chanal at the cyclintour in Danmark , suscribed at once .
You got me smiling on this one because I was born Dutch , grew up speaking spanish and french while living in spain as a kid . Returned to nederland when I was 10 , learned english at school there . Many years later moved for love to danmark ( speaking english together) learning to speak danish , wich is still hard after 7 years . But I menage . I will watch more of you because you do interesting things ❤( ps : german was never my thing 😄)
Hi Ineke, welcome to our channel 😉 You have such an interesting story with all the countries you've lived in and of course all the languages 😁 We are sure you'll learn Danish eventually 😁 We loved our vacation in Denmark, and we have more videos from there 😊 If you haven't seen them yet and you'd like to, here is the link: th-cam.com/play/PLCdvxBTaMtaLQpdD-84h9hVqNpLN6PC8_.html
Thanks , yes I am watching them ! And will watch many more !
I find your videos delightful and informative. You are a lovely couple. As an American I find you english very good. I have a German sister in law who has mastered english as you have. Best wishes to both of you
Thanks, we're glad to hear that! It's always good to hear feedback from a native speaker.
Your English fluency is very good. It is such a tough language to master. I have heard that watching a lot of English speaking movies helps.
Indeed, watching English speaking movies and TV shows helped a lot. We started watching them with Czech subtitles at first and later on we switched to English subtitles which helped even more.
I'm French-Canadian born in Montreal and now living in New Brunswick with a dual citizenship with the States. I learned to speak English when I was about five when we moved to the States. I speak French, English and some Spanish. My husband was Mexican. Wouldn't it be great if we all spoke the same language in the world? Maybe the world would be a friendlier place. Your video today was very interesting... thanks.
Does everyone in the Quebec province learn to speak English or are there people who only speak French? It would definitely be much easier if all spoke the same language. Although sometimes it's nice being abroad and knowing that when we talk to each other, people around us don't understand us 😃
@@tommyandpeter Quebecers in rural areas speak only French (the official language of Quebec), but in cities, people know both languages. Most English speaking Quebecers speak some French. There's a lot of problems based on languages. In New Brunswick both French and English are the official languages.
Congratulations on your citizenship Peter.
Oh and Tommy is right. It is so important to know a little of other languages. You never know when you might need to know where a bathroom is. LOL
You boys are so fun to watch. In a good gun not a bad way. I also think you both speak English very well. But it us still cute when you guys get all red in the face as you talk. You can so see you second guessing your prononceation of some of your words. Don't worry your doing fine.
You boys stay safe and healthy bye.
Good point about bathrooms! Although as introverts we try to avoid talking to people so we'd probably try to find it ourselves 😄
We do second guess ourselves while we're talking on camera but hopefully it's getting better. Thanks for your kind words 😊
A nice couple !
Funny too !
Love from...🇨🇵
Thank you, we appreciate that 😊
I like your story very much (and your channel 😊 ). I'm Austrian, but my great-grand parents were Czech (from Brno and Ostrava), and I feel so very connected to the Czech-Slowak culture. Before Covid I regularly traveled to Brno, Bratislava, Prag. Didn't go to Ostrava yet, but it*s on my list. Unfortunately my dad's family wanted to leave their Czech heritage behind them, thus I don't speak or understand any Czech. Wish I could, though, because - like Tommy said, it really makes a difference if you can express yourself and talk to people in their native language. Using German in Czechia is nice, too 🙃
Hi Chris! Willkommen auf unserem Kanal 😊 Our countries share a lot of history so we can often see Czechs with German last names and Austrians with Czech last names as well. It's nice to hear you visit our country and even our city frequently 😊
@@tommyandpeter Danke, Tommy und Peter, ich freu mich hier zu sein 😊 vielleicht lerne ich noch tschechisch, aber Peter sagt, die Sprache ist so schwer 🙈😅
Genau 👍
You are fantastic ❤️
Thank you 😊
@@tommyandpeter 🥰
Very nice couple, find your life stories about languages very interesting.
Thanks, John. We're happy to hear that.
It’s very interesting to hear more about your backgrounds, plus your English is pretty good, if a little accented (but that’s attractive too). As for me, I’m British (from Scotland, although I’ve also lived in England and in many other countries, in connection with my job). My first foreign language is French and I speak/write it pretty fluently, initially I learned it at school and the first country I lived in outside the UK was French-speaking and it was useful both in the office and socially; later I lived in other French-speaking countries and in France itself as I spent 4 years in Paris, as well as visiting many other parts of the country before and since on business or for holidays. However it was an Arab country (Morocco) so it was useful to learn it too and I both read/speak it, although not so well any more. Apart from Morocco I also lived/worked in many other Arab countries so understand a number of local dialects/accents. Apart from those I also speak some Vietnamese (having lived in Vietnam for a few years) and Spanish (as I had a holiday home there for many years). I do also have a minor smattering of Cantonese, having lived in Hong Kong for several years and my husband (of over five years at this point) is himself mainland Chinese so in recent years have been trying to learn Mandarin, without much success, but luckily his English has been improving steadily since he came to the UK and since we met, to the extent his accent and use of idiomatic English is now extremely good.
Wow, you've lived all over the globe! The list of countries and languages you picked up along the way is really impressive. A lot of the languages must have been quite hard to learn as they're not related to our European languages.
Our accents are probably not going to disappear, you typically need to live in the country and be among locals to pick up the native accent like your husband. But the good thing about filming these videos is that when we watch them back, we notice our own mistakes and we try to work on them.
I am fortunate to be fluent in French and English. My mother spoke only French. She was from Canada which this part of Canada spoke only French. She married my dad who was in the United States and move to the states thus the school being English. I now work and live in Canada for government this required to be bilingual. I also have dual citizenship American and Canadian.
Bilingual kids are lucky, knowing two languages automatically since their childhood 😊 It's great you could benefit from the situation and get such a job.
So interesting. Y'all are never boring. English has a lot more words, generally, than other languages. A lot of foreign language words are incorporated into English and anglicized so that adds a lot more words to our language. The Oxford English dictionary has 615,100 words. There is a reason English is used at airports for traffic control.
Note:Off topic but interesting to me as I am a Southerner living in the USA. I wish our country could have separated peacefully as yours did. It would have changed our/world history and for the better.
It's interesting that English has so many words officially but we feel like there are no words for a lot of things - for example there is no English word for "garden bed" or "watering can" so you have to combine two words together, while in other languages there's one specific word for those things 😁
Czechoslovakia is often mentioned (at least in Europe) as a nice example of a peaceful split - something that doesn't happen very often unfortunately.
@@tommyandpeter That's interesting about having to use two words for a one word thing in other languages. I've never been aware of that until your post.😊
South African here - we use English as a lingua franca because we have 11 official languages - I can definitely relate to feeling like there are no English equivalents to a lot of our words.
Very interesting, plus being fun as usual at the same time, thanks guys!
Thanks, John! Glad you found it both interesting and fun, that's a good combination 😊
Hello Peter and Tommy, very interesting to hear about the languages etc . Myself from The Netherlands 🇳🇱 speak Dutch , but as you know now live in England for over 23 years again. Having family here but also in Australia 🇦🇺 ofcours it was a no brainier to be able to communicate with our English speaking family , one desired to learn the language . Ofcours now well established cannot excuse with , me not understand lol 😂! Two years ago after visiting my Australian family first time , on way back stopped in Thailand and stayed in wonderful apartment of one of my customers. Went twice more in 2019 enjoying the gay area closeby . As my birthday is in April sadly last year and this due to pandemic my trips to Pattaya, Thailand were cancelled . Now hoping as booked to fly on 7th February 2022 to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi AirPort with apartment, which I call “ my apartment “ now 124 is mine lol 😂! So, during lockdown the last months since September last year started to learn Thai language, very difficult but have wonderful Thai teacher , the lady is also one of my customers for my taxi service Maartenstaxi ( have website if you like to check ? My services as a taxidriver .) As written to you last week I went to Czech Republic early 80ties , one was in early twenties . This year will be 59 . If one day I plan to visit Prague and other places I would love to meet you guys . I also recently started chatting to very nice Thai man here in UK . He found me on Facebook dating . Now every night we FaceTime on WhatsApp. His English still not very good, and me trying to talk Thai to him makes it very interesting. He is 54 now , hopefully we meet soon. And we can both travel to Thailand but other places too .in October this year all going to plan hope to visit Dutch friend I know there and owns and runs a hotel . My flight is to Salzburg then a train journey to Schladming , the hotel is in Ramsau am Dachstein, been twice before and it is lovely there in the mountains . In afternoon I use the pool and sauna , perfect there . Then hopefully can plan 10 days to Malta soon too, another of my lovely places to visit , staying in Bugibba , in self catering apartment . Hopefully soon together with Nammon , my Thai man ? Well my friends , better say Cherio , hope to catch up soon . You are both lovely and beautiful, making my week more happy 😃. Sending love 💕 and hugs 🤗 and kisses 😘 your friend Maarten
Hi Maarten, living in a foreign country is the best way to learn the local language. Having lived in Englad for so long, your English must be perfect by now 😊 You sure travel a lot! We've never been to Thailand but it must be pretty hard to learn Thai, since it's not related to European languages. Now you have at least good motivation to learn it to be able to communicate. You have a lot of travel plans, hopefully you'll be able to make them all happen. Here we are still waiting to see how the COVID situation will progress before making any plans as we far behind the UK. Good luck!
Thanks guys .That was such an entertaining and informative video. I think (speaking as an Englishman), that your English is amazing. Maybe if you are filming a video and cannot remember an English word you should just speak in Czech and put a subtitle in later.
Thanks! That's a good idea adding English translation ad hoc. We want our videos to be as good as possible but sometimes we don't realize that you guys probably don't care about such details 😊
I understand you when you speak czeck/slovak quite well, and I am from Croatia :)
Really? We only understand "dobro došli" in Croatian 😄 When I was a teenager, there was a dance group from Croatia called "Karma", they were very popular in the Czech Republic. Sedam dana and Da sam ja tvoja jedina were big hits 😃
@@tommyandpeter Yes, I remember Karma being popular in Croatia, but I wasnt fan.Also I remember, as a kid watching some Czeck cartoons like Lolek y Bolek, Pat y Mat (A je to) and some others.They were very popular. All slavic languages have similarities, it is not like you would understand 100 %, but about 70-80 % for sure, if you listen very carefully.At least thats my experience.
@@dorakranjc8361 Bolek i Lolek is from Poland and Pat a Mat from Slovakia 😄 But I think Krteček is the famous Czech one. It seems each country has its own international cartoon.
Your both great and speak very well. I went to Paris and there was only 3 people that didn't want to speak English. Even in the cafe at Notre dame along the walls the writing was in all different languages I was very surprised. I got French at school but like you said you don't use it so you loose it. My grandfather was Italian but we never learned Italian. Such a shame
In some countries (including the Czech Republic) you'll find quite a lot of people speaking English in the tourist exposed areas (in our case Prague) while in other parts of the country where people aren't use to tourists, you'd spend a lot of time looking for someone able to speak English.
You speak perfect English!
Thanks 😁
Wow what an interesting story. I can totally relate, I speak fluent German, and obviously English, but I also lived in Russia for a year (2014) and learned the language prior, but like you say, if you don't us it, you loose it. I have this passion for French, and learn a odd sentence here and there, and of course in Canada we were taught French in School, well Quebec French, don't get me started. As always, great videos and TschueB bis naechsten mal. :-)
You know a lot of languages! I wish I could speak fluently more languages, but I can't imagine using them all on a daily basis to maintain my skills. Once you know English, other languages become less important unless you need them for work or you talk to people who use that language frequently.
I have no idea what you were talking about in the beginning about tenses LOL 😂 . It’s funny when you’re a native speaker you “just know” how to read, write, and speak your language and much less on how to describe or explain the structure of the language itself (if that made sense).
Here in the U.S. our public school system is broken down into Elementary School (grades K - 5), then Middle School (grades 6 - 8) and finally High School (grades 9 - 12).
🌴☀️🌴
I know what you mean but it's funny to us because here at school we learn all about grammar structure and sometimes we even have to learn Latin terms while Americans are like "what's an article?" 😃
If K stands for Kindergarten then that's a different school here, then we have Elementary/Basic/Primary School for 9 years (grades 1 - 9) and then High/Secondary School (where we call grades again 1 - 4 but it's basically 10 - 13).
Amo su canal y sus vídeos me saludan por favor
Hola Alejandro, muchas gracias 😊
Es excelente tener participando otros hispanohablantes. 😀 Saludos.
Oh, this was a very inormative video. Your english is very understandable.
My first language after my native english was french, and I chose it because they were no longer teaching russian which I was interested in, and my mom had moved to france to 'enjoy herself', so I thought I should be able to talk when visiting her there. A year later she was back in the US but I continued with french until college and took another year of it there, then studied for 3 months at a university in Nantes, France and everything was in french! I started learning russian about a year before the ukraine war, then continued with it using Duolingo. I like the way russian sounds, it's very sexy to me.
In Czech Republic or Slovakia do the children carry their father's first name as their middle name?
That is so cool that you've also learnt different languages. But it's the first time we read someone saying that Russian sounds sexy, haha 😀 Middle names are not really a thing here, almost nobody has them. In 99% it's simply just first and last name. But in the past (not very long ago) kids sometimes have been named after their fathers, so sons and fathers could have the exact same first and second name 🙂
@@tommyandpeter in my family it's common to have a middle name that once belonged to another family member, usually two or so generations before. My middle name belonged to my grandmother's father, and her brother, and my uncle (her son).
When I say russian sounds sexy, I really mean certain russians make it sound so, lol. I really like some modern russian music, hip-pop or rap, but my favorite is an folk rock singer songwriter guy named Sergey Serotkin: th-cam.com/video/9QFKHAIKB_4/w-d-xo.html
It's nice that Tommy wanted to learn french but it's a very difficult language. You are right when you said that french peoples do not want to speak english or even other languages because they speak badly. At school we never have learned languages very well it's not a priority in our education and i regret it because it's usefull.
It's interesting that it's not only English speaking countries but also France where learning other languages is not a priority. But to be fair, when we travelled in France, of course we also met people who spoke English and didn't refuse 😊
Hey, something unrelated. Just watched a Czech movie called Honeymoon (Libanky), a really good movie that deals with homophobia in Czech Republic. Have you guys seen it? In one of your next videos you could talk about the general attitude and how it is to be LGBT in Czechia/Slovakia. I'm really interested how it compares to other Slavic countries. Maybe also talk about movies/music from CZ/SK?
We haven't seen the movie, actually this is the first time I hear about it 😄 But yes, we have been thinking about doing a video about gay life in our countries. We have it on our list so sooner or later we should film it 😊
@@tommyandpeter Another cool idea would be a sightseeing tour of Brno with the main attractions, your favourite places. Maybe in sommer, when the corona measures aren't so strict. I was in Brno last year and didn't see anything but the Astronomic clock and that famous horse statue with a big "you know what". I wanted to see Villa Tugendhat, but it was booked for weeks and galleries and museums all closed. Then I ate the worst spaghetti of my life on main square near Astronmic clock for like 30 euro. I felt robbed :-/ Bratislava on the other hand made a much better impression on me.
@@kleinerfuchsi Haha, that statue as well as the astronomical clock are both famous for all the wrong reasons 😄 Villa Tugendhat is very popular, you need to book your tickets months in advance. We went there a few years ago. Those spaghetti were really overpriced, normally it would cost maybe 5 euros, it must have been a tourist trap or you ordered something super special 😊 We don't visit the city center during the pandemic but when the situation gets better, we'd love to film a video about our city.
Hi guys. As a speaker of the Russian language I completely understand your struggle with articles, tenses and other grammatical stuff. That is the disaster of slavic languages speakers.
But your English is good. At first Peter's pronunciation seemed funny to me. The first video I saw on your channel was video about your coming out story (probably that was Peter's story). So the topic was very serious and the conversation was very meaningful. But I was wondering "I heard somewhere such accent. Where was it". And then I gasped. It reminded me the voice of Denis Reed (well, not completely, but some intonations). And I used to have a roommate from Poland, he spoke with the same pronunciation. But his pronunciation was not funny for me, because I met him long before I saw any of Reed's videos.
Anyway, now I love Peter's shy and timid manere of speaking. Peter, you are getting better and better with your speaking skills.
We had to look up who Denis Reed is 😄 Interesting that you pay attention to accents when watching his videos 🤔 It's a funny association, especially with Peter who is Slovak and not Czech, but I guess the accent of our Czech/Slovak/Polish region is all similar. Since we are from the region, we can hear some differences, for example I can recognize Polish accent and to me it sounds different than our Czech accent 😊
Hey guys, your English is progressing very well, don’t feel a need to explain yourselves and as a gay American I would like to see an entire video of you two speaking your native tongue. It’s how I learn other languages as well, by watching others speak their language with the closed caption on and I read a long. So keep on moving forward, your inspiring my husband and I to start a TH-cam channel as well and we appreciate your videos.
Thanks, Cody! As we said in the video, that's how we improved our English skills as well. First we started watching American TV shows with Czech subtitles and eventually we switched to English subtitles to enable us to "think" in English as well without the need of translating into our language. Good luck with your channel 😊
Thanks guys,
my husband and I are in our mid 30s and we live in the south. We do a lot between our careers, redoing 150 year old houses, our mountain home, we are extremely adventurous, hiking, kayaking, lake life, it would make a good channel it’s just making time to film and edit. We may try it though, recording our life’s, it would be awesome to be able to show our kids once we have some one day. Keep up the videos, we enjoy seeing other gay couples especially in Europe. Once this “pandemic” is over we can’t wait to travel.
That sounds like a lot of fun, and a lot of work! Unfortunately filming TH-cam videos is quite time consuming, at least in our case - it takes a lot of time to edit everything together, But at least it would be easier for you to film in English so that would make it faster 😃
@@cody4109 I live in the South also in USA. Would enjoy your channel especially since you are Gay. I love watching remodeling of old houses anyway.
Thank you. I only had the choice to learn French but I really wanted Spanish. I was quite good with French but now it is gone. Spanish would be great as we now have so many Spanish speaking people in the US. It is funny how life and education opportunities affect us later in life. Please keep up the great Podcasts.
Thanks, Sam! We figured Spanish was the most commonly learned foreign language in the US due to its Spanish speaking minority. Interesting you only had the choice to learn French.
wow so interesting. love it all. i am australian, english speaking of course, but speak fluent indonesian. It is common here through primary school and secondary school to learn two useless languages - italian or french. more recently though asian languages are being taught which are more useful because of our asian neighbours. anyway i hope one day you will visit Oz.
Haha, it's funny that Italian and French are useless for you, it's of course completely different in Europe. It's good that now people can choose languages that make more sense in your part of the world.
It is interesting to hear about the implications and interactions after Czechoslovakia split. As for languages, in the USA we are spoiled. Since the country is large, most never go where they need another language. We had options of Spanish and French in school. I chose French, but Spanish would have been more useful. If you want to practice English, we can set up a video call. :)
I remember a lot of kids who chose German as their first language regretted their choice later on and wished they'd chosen English instead since it's more useful. I guess it's the same with French and Spanish in the US (perhaps unless you live close to the French speaking part of Canada).
@@tommyandpeter There are also a lot more Spanish speakers in the USA than French, so we wouldn't need to travel outside the country.
luv u boys
Wow, very interesting, obviously in your country, they stress learning a second language. In US schools now, I think one has a choice of studying a foreign language in high school, 10 through 12 grades. Now in this area because it was predominately settled by the French and some versions of that language are still spoken in the southern part of Louisiana, the state has tried to reinstate the French language by a French immersion program in the lower grades. That has helped some to preserve the French language in Louisiana. My mother and fathers generation had mandatory school attendance however they were forbidden and punished for speaking French at school. They were forced to learn English. Prior to starting school they spoke only French as was the norm for all of this area. Both my parents spoke French to each other and English to us children. I rode a school bus where most of the children spoke French to each other, therefore between home and the school bus, I learned French. Had to if you wanted to know what was going on and being said. Today, my children know very little French and it is the same with others their age. They had a choice to learn a different language in high school but many don't take that opportunity, and if they do , it's only for one year. Getting back to my statement about speaking different versions of French From the start, Louisiana was a French colony. Then it was ceded to the Spanish, then again to the French, then sold to the US by Napoleon. A lot of public records are in French and Spanish. In the 1700's there was the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia by the British, most of which settled in south Louisiana. The French they spoke was the old French language of France which did not change much and became known as Cajun. Then there was all the unrest in the Caribbean islands of Santa Domingo and Haiti where many blacks came to the New Orleans area in the 1700"s. They spoke a French patois which is still spoken by many black people today. Sorry for the long narrative but I thought it would be interesting to the two of you. You don't have to worry about your English, you both do very well. Take care and I look forward to next week. Tony
Hi Tony, thanks for the history lesson, it's very interesting. It's crazy to think that your parents were discouraged from speaking French in a democratic country, it sounds rather like something from our communism era. Good thing you managed to learn French on your own as a kid. It's hard for me to understand why someone would choose not to learn a language at school when they get the opportunity but as we said in the video, it must be different for native English speakers who know they can use their language all around the world.
Hi friends,
I just watched a part of the video, but once again, I don't have an Eng>>Fr translation. I will look tomorrow morning if it works better at the beginning of the computer. Good night. Kisses
Hi Musu, it's strange that the translation doesn't work sometimes. You see English subtitles but sometimes there is no option to choose French translation? I hope it's not a problem only with our videos.
@@tommyandpeter Hello,
The problem is the same with the other videos. At first everything works fine, but after several translations it doesn't work anymore. The translation English (automatically generated) >>>FR or other languages is not done anymore. I reset in the translation menu without any effect. In the translation settings, some offer several translations in the subtitles (up to 17 sometimes) and when you choose your country directly, it works. It's a huge job. It seems to me that you already have it once or twice. I like to comment following . Bon appétit. Kisses
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
@@musu6650 We're sorry to hear that. Hopefully TH-cam will fix this bug soon so that our international subscribers will be able to enjoy our videos without interruptions again 😊
I am so sorry that Slovakia is cruel and did that to you, breaks my heart. Well at least you are better off where you are now. I totally understand how you guys feel. I was born in the U.S. but being Jewish we learn Hebrew first. In my family, we spoke Hebrew, Swedish (because we are also Swedish) and English. But I use to be able to speak German, French, Arabic, and Finnish. It is in there some where rattling around lol! Even today it is hard for me to translate into English what I want to say. It comes out in Swedish or Hebrew depending on who I am talking to sometimes. I remember when I first moved to Louisiana people here would speak Cajun French to me but I didn't really understand it. So, when a large group of them would be near speaking it and someone would ask a question. I unknowingly would start to speak to them in Swedish haha! Which they certainly didn't understand so it made for interesting conversation. My husband likes that I know other languages but hates it when I get upset I start to speak in anyone of them that pops into my mind at the time. Drives him nuts. Also, I have an iphone and it is set for Swedish. Recently we went to Florida for a weekender and he used my phone for directions. So suddenly my phone started speaking Swedish to him. It was so funny you would think after 14 years he would be use to it lol! I understood every word. So, he would ask what it is saying because I was driving in heavy traffic and couldn't switch spots. The situation made me laugh so hard. Funny thing though when we are on vacation he likes to use me as a translator when other people nearby are speaking another language. He doesn't seem to mind then. By the way, I love the way you both speak English it is very good. I like Peter how thoughtful you sound when you speak it is very refreshing. Also, I love how Tommy teases you it is very cute.
Well, as I said - stupid Slovakia can keep it 😀 So funny that other languages pop up in your head and you start speaking them. We can imagine how that can drive your husband nuts 😁
And we are glad to hear you like how we speak English, thanks 😊
I am curious as to why the Czech Republic split off from Slovakia instead of remaining one country. Is there a simple explanation?
It's Slovakia that wanted to split off from the Czech Republic. It was the usual "we don't want Prague to decide for us". However it was a rather political decision, they never asked public what they want, there was no referendum.
Yes, we have those kind of politicians also, who ignore public opinion, and basically do what their corporate and wealthy donors want them to do. Any way, you two have sort of “reunited” your two countries by being together and ignoring artificial boundary lines, so all is well that ends well for Peter and Tommy.
I heve never studied English and only started studing it at the age of 69, it is not so easy. I understand more when I read than when I hear speech.
It's very admirable that you started learning English so late. Well done!
I definitely know what you mean when you 'lose' a language from lack of practice. As a native English speaker, I took Latin and French, as a kid. As a young adult traveling, learning Mandarin (just enough to get by) and Portuguese (still reasonably fluent), but I totally lost French.
To be fair, that's a lot of languages to keep practicing! Keeping one is hard enough 😊
Brilliant. That was one of your funniest videos yet! You’re right...we couldn’t tell the difference between Peter’s Slovak and Tommy’s Czech. But for sure it was impressive the way you can so easily switch between one and the other and then back to English. However, guys, I must take issue with any comparison of British/Irish English to that used by our North American friends. These days all the young folk in NA speak ‘vocal fry’. OMG!!! Thank you for demonstrating your own native languages. I’ve asked a couple of times for this so I’m thrilled you did. I have two passports. I hold one Irish and one British. All thanks to the Irish constitution. Tommy, it was worth Peter losing his Slovak nationality because he’s such a catch. You should be sooo proud of him. Now...tell us more about these “threes” you’ve been having!!! 🤣😀😀🇮🇪🏳️🌈🇬🇧
Thanks, glad you enjoyed the video! But Stefan, how come you don't like vocal fry? Oh my goddddd, it sounds so sophisticatedddd 😇 I didn't know you could have a British passport "just because", that's really cool! You have one foot in the EU and the other one outside, something many Brits must envy 😊 I do appreciate Peter's gesture of changing his citizenship even though I didn't ask him to do that. And it was trees, not threes 😜
@@tommyandpeter OMG!!! You’re involving trees in your late night manoeuvres? That’s scandalous. You should both be ashamed. Those saplings must be traumatised! 🤣 It gives a whole new meaning to the term “getting wood”!! 🤣
Hey, there's nothing wrong enjoying our constantly growing wood 😇
@@tommyandpeter Tut-tut! 😉
У меня была подруга в далеком детстве Анна из Дольни Бенешов
округ Опава.
That's awesome! We've never been there.
This was so much fun. Thank you for making this video. And your languages does sound alike. Personal question and you dont have to answer it if you dont want to. But i remember that in a other video that you said your country doesn't allow same sex partners to adopt. What if you do get the german siticianship and move there? Would you be able to adopt then (if you would ever want kids though)?
I myself am a black latina. I know spanish, english, dutch and my native language papiamentu (which literally means talking lol. Its basicly one of the last black slave language (not dialect) left in the world).
That's a good question! I suppose if I got German citizenship, we could get married in Germany and adopt there. I assume Czech Republic would recognize the marriage/adoption then. But since we're not planning to have kids, we didn't really try to find more information about the topic.
You know a lot of languages! Papiamentu sounds interesting and very rare, you need to help preserve it 😊
@@tommyandpeter i understand :D.
Yes i kind of do lol. I am better at languages then math for example lol. We try, we talk it at home. I grew up talking dutch mostly and still living here (Holland) Just makes it easier
I am macedonian/serbian. I understand all south slavic languages. I can understand some czech (I was Erasmus student in Praha and my parents lived there for 7 years). The czech people are the best when understanding languages! THE BEST! Slovak is much more tangible with serbian, so many people in Serbia understand slovak more. Maybe because of the only recognized minority language outside of SK is in Serbia! So I traveled to work in Belgrade with slovak ladies (famous for pastries in belgrade) :)
In addition, Slovene is more similar to czech, as belarussian and ukrainian. Russian is like south slavic with nominativ, genitiv dativ :) Polish is the most difficult to understand, the most difficult among slavic languages :)
Thanks for videos again and sharing! I have full respect for you guys and I love Czechia very very much. Everyone was kidding with me while I was living in Praha for trying to speak czech... I adore the accent, it is the most special. You can sense it when you speak english!!! But I guess Peter is speaking czech at home (he has more czech accent when speaking english)????
I live in Italy, but I guess you already know that from the subscribers' list :)
The main difference with Yugoslavia is that we have subtitles, so all understand some English. AND we consider our languages very different, even though serbian and croatian are more close that sk and cz. I was impressed when I heard that you can speak slovak while working in Prague government :) I hope that your prime minister speaks czech :) Sorry :)
It's very interesting with Slavic languages. Depending on which country you're from, you understand some Slavic languages more than others. Since you're Macedonian/Serbian, you understand other South Slavic languages more but we don't understand them almost at all. We hear it's Slavic, but the words sound "strange", sometimes you think you recognize a word, but then you find out it means something else 😁
For you Polish is the hardest one but since they are our neighbors, we share more similarities with them than with South Slavic languages, so we can understand them at least partially. It's not as similar as Czech and Slovak, but there are some similarities. Knowing both Czech and Slovak helps understand Polish better because they share some similarities with Czech and different similarities with Slovak (but there's still a big part which is completely different).
When we speak to each other at home, Peter speaks mainly in Slovak and I speak in Czech but we mix the languages together and sometimes we can't remember which words are in Czech and which ones are in Slovak 😃
Our prime minister speaks mainly Czech but he makes mistakes influenced by his Slovak. People make fun of his Czech, but it's mainly because he's an idiot 😜
By the way, we only see statistics about our subscribers but we don't see information about each person separately so we don't know who lives where, we only know how many views we got from Italy in total 😊
@@tommyandpeter Yes. yes. I know, I assumed that you speak Moravian :) For south slavs, national pride is big deal, so they do not understand each other. I am sure that you can understand macedonian Ty=Kj, D”=Gj, and slovak Dz=S in cirylic are from us :) I did not want to speak about myself, I just wanted to get idea about the views, that is why I said Italy :) And your positive energy brought me luck ;) Since I”ve watched your channel, I was in interview procedure for a job, and 3 days ago I started to work!!! :) So you have influenced one life. That is the most important :) Stay safe and enjoy! 🤗
@@dimitartockov That's great! Congratulations on your new job! We hope you will enjoy it 😊
Tommy and Peter English is so much harder than czech or Slovak. I can help you with English. Can you teach some words in your lamguages?
Each language has it's hard parts 😊 "Ahoj" is how we say hello in both Czech and Slovak. "Děkuji" is thank you in Czech while "Ďakujem" is the Slovak version. "Nashledanou" in Czech and "Dovidenia" in Slovak is how we say see ya or until next time. As you can see, sometimes the words are the same, sometimes they're similar and other times they're completely different.
i think slovak and czech are like croatian and serbian and bosnian, different languages but somehow same and very simmilar, it is like that with slavic languages, when you were using czech/slovak i actualy was able to understand few words and the one i did not they sound familiar so by pure logic i could figured it out. serbian and croatian have different grammary and structure of sentences, some words are completly different but we understand each others with no issues.. when i was in prague i could figure out signs, menus, even the working time of stores wich was on a shop door, days of the week, sobota, in some parts of croatia and slovenia it is sobota instead subota for saturday.. it is kinda shame no one, except my late grandmother spoke slovakian, considering our grea grandfather was slovakian, my grandad was polish ( cant figure out any polish, even if my life depends on it if i have to read it), one of my great grandmothers was half hungarian half czech. czech i an fogure out, but hungarian, omg it is like someone tossing stones in their mouth,nothing makes any sense...
There is a common ground where all the Slavic languages come from. We also can understand a few words when we are in Croatia. Hungarian is from a totally different group of languages so it's a complete mess for us 😁 You have a very interesting family history.
I love your videos go for Irish ☘️ citizenship you’d be very welcome here .🇮🇪🥂🍾
Thanks, Anne! We'll tell the Irish ministry you sent us 😁
😅😅😅😅
I do notice that 'the', 'a' and 'and' are absent when its used as second language. They are probably the most common words. It might be different now but we mainly do French or Spanish and then some might do German. I did about a year of Spanish at high school but didn't really continue it. I think they do start languages early these days. That's so ridiculous that Peter lost his Slovakia citizenship, he has a birth right to that. Hope things will change one day.
It's funny that you only had one year of Spanish, while we were "forced" to have 9 years of one language and 7 years of another language 😃 There are really big differences between English speaking countries and the rest. Peter could still ask for his Slovak citizenship back, it would be just extra administration work compared to having a wife, but he doesn't want it on principle.
@@tommyandpeter Haha must have been fun. I think they do start earlier in schools now. I suppose we have a lazy expectation that everyone will speak English eherever we go. For sure they don't deserve to have him and you if they don't accept your love.
Hey Guys! I like this Video so much! Congratulations Peter for the Czechian Citizenship! It’s almost better than the Slovakian because it’s a Homophobe State. Like Poland, like Hungary, its interesting, why all of the East~ States are Homophob? I am from Vienna, my Mother was born in Brno, I was so often in Brno, because I had relative in this beautiful old City. It was a pity, my also Czechian Grandmother and my Mother speak always in Czechian Language, but They don’t learned me to speak in her Language. So I can also only a little Bit Tschechisch. Oh, Pardon that was in Deutsch. I have also a nice German Family Name, it’s Vašek. Funny, no? Okay, Boys, I love Your Videos and like it always, your so sympathisch, Both! Many Greetings and I will look forward to your next Videos! Best Wishes and stay Safe for Corona, Karl. ❤️❤️
Hallo Karl, grüße aus Brünn 😊 Nice to see someone here with family ties to our city. Your family name is very German, yes 😄 It's a pity that Eastern Europe is rather homophobic (at least compared to the west), it's mostly because of our communist past - while Western Europe was democratic and was making progress in human rights, our countries were stuck in time and now they are catching up. Hopefully it will continue to improve. It's good to hear you enjoy our videos. Bis zum nächsten Mal 😊
That was very interesting. German is a difficult language.
Schöne Grüße aus Deutschland
Genau, Deutsch ist sehr schwer 😁 (but still not as hard as Czech and Slovak)
We were given the option of French and Spanish at 10 with Latin and German added at 14. Most ppl chose Spanish because it's pretty useful in the US and the Americas. Pretty sure French is a little less popular now while Chinese has become more of a 2nd choice after Spanish. Just curious, why isn't Czechoslovakia a single country (given you share so much culture+language)?
I didn't know Chinese was becoming popular, it must be extremely hard just for the alphabet alone. Czechoslovakia used to be one country until 1993. Some Slovak politicians wanted to separate so that they could decide the faith of Slovakia on their own without being told by the government in Prague what to do. There was never any referendum, it was purely a political decision. A lot of people were (and still are) unhappy about it.
Hi guys! Well, try to learn portuguese and you´ll give up at the second day! French is a difficult one too, but i believe portuguese is worse. Your english is very good in deed!
I´ve learned my english basically in the films, that were subtitled, and nowadays i speek in english every day as well, and it helps to improve and not forget.
I´m a bit like Tommy, with interest in languages, but i prefer different ones, and now i´m trying the japanese. 😀 Maybe i´ll try czech, some day 😉. Let´s see...
Take care! 💕
Portuguese is an interesting language - when I see it in written, it looks quite similar to Spanish, but when I hear it, it sounds completely different 😃
Japanese must be really hard, I'm sticking to languages with Latin alphabet for now 😁
@@tommyandpeteryes, portuguese is a latin one, as the Spanish, as italian, and very beautiful too, but very difficult as well!!! And japanese, is a challenge for me. It seems easy so far. The sounds and pronunciation is a bit difficult, but challenging! I like it 😄
@@gracietepereira9134 It seems all languages are difficult at the end 😁
Ahoj! de tus fans de Mexiko.🇲🇽. Gosh damn you guys speak flawless English. English has to be a very difficult language to learn. I lived and was educated in the US so I did not have to learn it. Thank goodness. 😬 You guys tell such interesting stories. We were sort of surprised EU rules permit Slovakia to not recognize marriage or unions from other EU countries. We get the popularity of German. You are surrounded by it! Nobody studies Polish? 🤣 Same sex marriage/unions make such a difference in acceptance and self esteem. We were married here in Mexico. 👬 Is there any legal difference in the rights of your union as opposed to marriage, other than the name?🌈 We love you guys muchísimo.💖💖
Hola chicos! I guess we're "lucky" because Czech and Slovak are such difficult languages that compared to them, English is quite easy (other than the damned tenses!) 😃 There are some cases when all EU countries have to recognize same sex unions and marriages from other countries but this is not one of them. The main difference between registered partnership and regular marriage is that we can't adopt kids. There are other differences as well, for example we can't have community property.
@@tommyandpeter Hahaha Jejeje from your fans in Mexico. NOW, after reading the comments, we finally understand why you guys brought up memories of Boris and Natasha! It is because they pronounced the G as a K. Like spyink instead of spying. It appears Peter who does tend to pronounce the G like a K (and we love it so much!!💕) was channelling Boris (or maybe Natasha😘) 😂🤣😂. We know you guys are obsessive perfectionists, but don't mess with the K for G, it is so charming! It gives us palpitations 💓. We are lovink you guys with todos nuestros corazones♥️♥️♥️
@@jimcomiskey567 Haha, I suppose it's a Slavic thing to pronounce G as K, or generally pronouncing the last letter of a word that way (K for G, T for D etc). We'd love to sound like native speakers but that's never gonna happen 😁
@@tommyandpeter Thank goodness you won't sound like natives, whatever that may be🤓. There are so many different English pronunciations in the world, all native. Your English is beautiful to listen to. 😻😍 Please keep "the Slavic thing".
Hi guys , i love your videos,but this one is very long, why not make 2 parts, after 10 minutes seeing have 20 minutes long to go , it's not sure I will wait to see the end
But all our videos are long 😃 Usually they're about 27-28 minutes in length, this one is maybe 2 minutes longer. Some time ago we made a poll, asking our viewers what kind of video length they prefer and most of them voted for 20-30 minutes. We do try to keep them under 30 minutes, sometimes even less, when it's too long, we split it into 2 videos, but this one didn't seem right to be split.
Peter that Polish sentence is correct -"Nie wiem co mam powiedzieć"... Besides Czech, Slovak and Polish languages are a little similar. And maybe you don't know, but some Czech words sounds /are funny for Polish people.
Polish is interesting, because some things are similar with Czech, some things are similar with Slovak and some things are completely different. Polish "Nie wiem co mam powiedzieć", Slovak "Neviem, čo mám povedať" 😊 Poles think Czech is funny, Czechs think Polish is funny - for example "Szpital na peryferiach" sounds hilarious 😄
Sorry Peter, no Slovak anymore, you are no longer Slovak! Just Kidding! Keep that Czech lingo. A different accent of language is always sexy.
I was born in Frankfurt to a military parent, so until 18 I had dual citizenship with Germany and United States. So, in 1974, right at the end of the Vietnam War, I could have opted to become German and avoided the draft, but the war ended! I went back to Germany from second to fifth grade and took German in high school but barely used it after that and can only use a bit of it as a party trick now. Much like other people who take years of a language and then lose all of it years later.
You almost made it sound like you script your videos, but there is no way you could be acting and giving us what you two give us. Your English is quite good.
Very interesting and joyful (and poignant!) video today. Your part of the world has been through so much politically and not so very long ago as it turns out. Not all of it was from World War II. The fall of the U.S.S.R. caused a lot of change that affected your lives even now. We tend to not realize that here in the U.S..
Haha, Peter vowed never to switch from Slovak to Czech so it looks like we'll be keeping both languages at our place 😁
Your story is really interesting. It's too bad you forgot your German but when you don't have any use for the language anymore, it's hard to keep the knowledge, especially when there's no motivation.
You're right, we don't script our videos. What we meant was that sometimes we get stuck in the middle of a sentence as we film and we need to stop to find the right word. We're not good actors so you'd know if it was scripted 😄
Our little country went through the hands of Austria-Hungary, Germany and the USSR within a short period of time so we've been through a lot indeed. It's only been 31 years since we the Velvet Revolution and the beginning of the current democratic regime.
phew. i hope everything turns out okay on this one.
Which language do you speak with each other when you aren’t making videos?
A combination of Czech and Slovak.
I'd like to make a couple of suggestions, if I may: First, I would certainly acquire German nationality if it is available to you. I do not think it could do any harm and it might, one day, be useful. Second, I think it would be nice if, occasionally, you spoke your own language and put English subtitles as you did here. It is wonderful that you speak English for us, but, as a teacher of languages (mostly French!), I am keen that we should not assume that English will always be available.
You're right, it could be useful to have an extra citizenship just in case, even if we never use it. We left a sentence in Czech in our latest video as well so we might use it more in the future, who knows. Thanks for your suggestions 😊
Hello friends,
It was very interesting to know how you learned these different languages and to see that learning the second language is different in different countries. It's a shame that Tommy couldn't continue the Frenchman. Homophobic Slovakia will one day have to change because the EU will no longer tolerate it, just like Hungary and Poland. Question religion ... maybe? I read, however, that she recognized homosexual couples since 2018. We were not entitled to a little word in the garden. Kisses to you both.
Hi Musu,
It's indeed fun to compare differences between countries and hearing back from others how it is elsewhere. I wonder if I learned French instead of German, if I would use it more and it I'd still remember it now. But we'll never know that. I think there are some cases when all EU countries have to recognize same-sex relationships from other countries, for example if we wanted to go live in Slovakia. Also we heard that Slovakia is planning to change their laws so in the future people wouldn't lose their citizenships anymore.
Watch Tommy roll his eyes when Peter says they will be together forever! ,
I just caught that. Tommy is the micheuvious one!
😇
maybe german comes naturally to you, isn't the Sudetenland part of the Czech and didn't Germany always tried to annexed it so you are doing the same to them (if my geography not messed up)
Indeed, Sudetenland is part of the Czech Republic and a lot of Germans used to live there, in some areas there were more Germans than Czechs so a lot of us (including me, Tommy) have German genes. We're not doing the same to them though, if you're thinking we're planning to annex Germany 😃
In my part of the United States, the mid Ohio Valley region, very few people speak anything but English. Other languages are not mandatory in school. We never hear any other language but English spoken in public. I did take Spanish in high school, but have never had anyone to speak it to or with, so I completely lost it. My ancestors came from England to America in the early 1700s, so even my ancestors only spoke English. But I do admire people who speak several languages. But here it’s almost no point to learn another language, because you’ll never have an opportunity to use it.
It sounds like you need to travel more, Thomas 😁 It's understandable, it's kinda pointless to learn languages when you don't have an opportunity to use them in real life. You'd have to travel to other countries and even then you could rely on your mother tongue unlike us.
Oh guys your english is fine so don't worry
Thanks, we are glad 😁
I always love your video's beginnings. Thank goodness you do them in English as it's the only language I know. lol Oh Peter.........you are quite remembnsherable. HA HA HA Thanks for an great video. Always look forward to see my "only European" friends every week. :-)I agree with both of you...........why keep a citizenship in a country that is homophobic in this day and age. UGH
Glad you like the beginnings because we don't know how to make them better 😃 Don't worry, we're planning to continue in English, otherwise nobody would be watching 😁 See you next week!
You speak american english better than a lot of the morons here. Living in Texas we were exposed to spanish early on because this was originally Mexican territory, so I learned some of that and am trying to learn German, Dutch and Austrian which are a lot alike. I can speak some French and other Latin based languages due to my Spanish/Mexican lessons. Btw, I love watching you guys interact. That look Tommy gave Peter when he said he knew you'd be together forever was priceless. :D
Cute that you think that german, dutch and austrain are alike :D
Thanks for the compliment! Knowing one language opens the door to other languages from the same family - just like Latin based languages, Slavic languages also share a lot of similarities. German and Austrian are definitely alike, we call them both German here 😁
@@tommyandpeter Yeah, I've learned enough to get fed in most languages so I call them "Kitchen Languages". Even in your countries, because we're such a melting pot of people that there are slavic grocers and restaurants here.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️😘😘💋💋💋💋💋💋
I had to take three years of Latin in HS. I HATED IT. Then we had a choice of French, Spanish, or German. I chose Spanish and had three years of that. It was so long ago. If I went to Spain I could probably get by enough as a tourist. Did I mention that I HATED Latin? And I hated my Latin teacher. In college I did not have to take a language. I can’t remember why. Maybe because it was only a two year degree. Again, so long ago, I don’t remember. High school was four years of hell for me. I won’t bore you with that. Anyway, don’t be self conscious about your English because it sounds fine to me. The most noticeable thing is that you tend to pronounce “g” with a “k” sound, as in “ everythink ” rather than “everything”. It’s interesting to hear about your life experiences, gay or straight.
In my (Tommy's) high school we had to choose between Latin and Programming. I chose Programming 😃 Shockingly 2/3 of my class chose Latin because they hated previous Computer course so they wanted to escape Programming and chose Latin instead. I never regretted my choice. We did notice recently that we typically pronounce the last letter of words differently in our languages than in English and we then apply that kind of pronunciation to English as well. Czech/Slovak pronunciation is a bit lazy, for example when a word ends with a D, we tend to pronounce it as T because it's easier. So we would for example pronounce "tend" as "tent".
Tommy, are you English?
No, I'm Czech 😃
Now there are some recent judgements of the court of justice of the european union which recognise same-sex couples equal rights even in countries such as Bulgaria and Romania, which do not recognise equal marriage at all, so the court is paving the way to full recognition of same-sex marriage all across the EU. If Peter sued the slovak state for depriving him of his slovak nationality, he should win the case.
Good point. We were thinking about taking a legal action as one of my friends is a lawyer in Slovakia but in the end we decided it's not worth it... Czechia is a better country anyway (in lgbt laws too).
Google Translate is good for single words, but never use it for sentences! It translates word for word without respecting the grammar of the target language.
I always find it cute that you pronounce your W as V, Peter. I guess you kept that from your German lessons.
Your true colour is showing, Peter. You're not a real blonde! Haha
Google Translate creates some funny translations when you translate whole sentences 😃 We only use it as an inspiration, it's not yet smart enough.
It's true, W is pronounced as V in German, as well as in Czech and Slovak. Actually even though we have W in our alphabet, the letter doesn't exist in any Czech/Slovak words.
The winter hair is slowly coming to its end 😊
And, your German 8s night schlect. Uch habe eune I brueder und eine Schwister.
Danke schön 😃
Your nephew does not speak English. He speaks some foreign language even we can't understand
He needs to watch our videos more frequently to learn English properly 😄