The Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Repbulic. Er, Chechia. Image: Traveltipy, creative commons The Czech Republic: best known for its weird clocks, beers, and mountainous landscape. Okay, the same could also be said about Switzerland, but you get the idea. But there is one thing that, at least according to Czech officials, sets their country apart from other mid-sized European countries: its name is too awkward.
Really? Forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical of this claim; it's not like there aren't other countries with awkward names in Europe, or the rest of the world for that matter. Just take the aforementioned Switzerland. Or Lichtenstein, a country that I just had to look up on Wikipedia to make sure I spelled right. And if we're willing to also consider capital cities, there's Ljubljana, Slovenia. Good luck saying that one three times quickly. So why are Czech officials so intent on changing the name of their country? It turns out the proposed name change has nothing to do with the name of the country in the Czech language, and everything to do with how its name is translated in English. Average Czechs are cool as cucumbers with their name as it is said in their native language: Česko. But, ever since the country broke away from Slovakia in the "velvet divorce" after the Cold War, the new country's name has been difficult to translate into English and many other languages. What are the country's renaming options? In a write-up on the issue, the New York Times has an overview of the alternatives for the Czech Republic's new name in English: "'Czechlands,' 'Bohemia' and, simply, 'Czech.' (Pilsner Urquell, the storied beer maker, uses 'Brewed in Czech' on its cans.)" But ultimately, the global-marketing-minded Czechs settled on a different name: "Czechia". Sounds so much better, right? Presumably, as an English-speaking reader of this article, you had up until now been avoiding the "Czech Republic" like the plague, appalled by its ghastly two word name. But now that it's called Czechia, you've booked the next flight to Prague, eagerly anticipating sipping a nice cold beer next to the 600 year old Prague astronomical clock. Because, you know, that's how these things work. Or not. Sure, always saying "Czech Republic" was a bit awkward, but the name "Czechia" is not exactly a step forward. For instance, one of the reasons for changing the name was that, in the wake of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, there was an outpouring of rage by irate Americans, who had confused the Czech Republic with Chechnya (way to win at geography, guys). But changing the name to Czechia would possibly only make that worse. Bottom line is, Czechs overly concerned with how their name is said in another language should just be happy that in their own language, the name of their country has a nice ring to it. As a prime tourist destination, the fact that the never-ending stream of English speaking tourists to their country have a bit of difficulty with their name is bound to get on Czech's nerves. But in the end, fussing over how their country's name is rendered in a language that isn't native to their country only serves to muddy the waters flowing underneath the trippily-decorated Charles Bridge. in other words, before changing its name, the country could have used a reality Czech. |
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