It is generally understood that you can only be a true Czech if you speak the language. It is plain that they are very proud of their tongue and this is clearly illustrated in the Czech word for a German speaker. The word is nemci, which derives from the word for "mutes." According to a Czech, if you don't speak the language you don't have anything worth saying. The Czech language is also famous for its consonants and you can find as many as five in a row, such as in the word for "icecream," zmrzlina. Try saying this well-known tongue twister that does entirely without vowels - strc prst skrz krk — which means "stick your finger through your neck."
The Hungarian language, on the other hand, doesn't have many relatives in Europe at all and is most similar to Finnish and Turkish. A language with a lot of words that mean the same thing, Hungarian has two hundred different words describing the breed and the coloring of a horse.
litost (Czech) [lee-tost] (noun)
This is an untranslatable emotion that only a Czech person would suffer from, defined by Milan Kundera as "a state of torment created by the sudden sight of one's own misery." Devices for coping with extreme stress, suffering, and change are often special and unique to cultures and born out of the meeting of despair with a keen sense of survival.
vodnik (Czech) [vod-neek] (noun)
These sinister creatures are malevolent water spirits from Slavonic folklore that come into being whenever a child is drowned. Resembling a man with webbed feet and green hair, vodníks drown unwary swimmers and then imprison the souls of their victims in jars, trapping them forever in the underwater kingdom.
pohoda (Czech) [po-ho-da] (noun)
As if to compensate for the dreadful emotion of litost, only Czechs can enjoy the blissful state known as pohoda. The saying goes Jsem v pohodé and translates as "I'm in pohoda." So what exactly is pohoda? It's hard to say, except that it's a pain-free, trouble-free state that we should all like to share in.
egyem meg a szivedet (Hungarian) [edge-em meg o si-veh-det] (idiom)
This literally translates as "I'd like to eat your heart" and rather than being a grisly, bloodthirsty kind of expression it is one said with great affection. It is usually to a small child who has done something so nice or good that it has emotionally touched an adult's heart.
egyszer volt budán kutyavásár (Hungarian) [edge-zehr volt bu-darn ku-tcho-vah-shahr] (idiom)
An enigmatic Hungarian idiom that literally translates as "there was a dog-market in Buda only once." The meaning in English is close to "a favorable opportunity that only happens once." It is something to be grasped with two hands, otherwise you will find yourself regretting it at a later date.
